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How are you coping with the Coronavirus Pandemic?

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by KennyGS, May 9, 2020.

  1. KennyGS

    KennyGS Senior Member

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    This thread is where we can post about how we are getting through the Covid-19 crisis. What is your life like now, and how are you managing the inevitable changes? What recommendations would you like to share? C'mon, let's help each other get through this together.

    I'd like to start with this:
    Zoom: Add a farm animal to your corporate video call for under $100 - Business Insider
    upload_2020-5-9_5-21-26.png
     
  2. JimboPalmer

    JimboPalmer Tsar of all the Rushers

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    For myself, very little changes. most noticeable to me, I can't volunteer. (No Lions Club meetings or community events, no community theater, no BBQ judging, I do not drive HS students to work study, I don't run sound at church, etc.)

    My wife travels less and when she does, it is less 'commercial'. She chartered a plane to take her and her posse* to Arecibo, PR this week. She rented a AirBnB for them all to stay at, including the pilot. The owner of the place fed them, rather than go to restaurants. I noticed lots of small hops to airports she does not frequent to get fuel. The rental car was still 'commercial'

    *She is an architect, but travels with a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, a civil engineer, a HVAC guy, a landscape architect, and a interior designer. Folks ask me if I travel with my wife, but she does not need another man to keep track of / bail out of jail / take to ER.
     
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  3. John321

    John321 Senior Member

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    Our state has a healthy at home initiative. I have been concentrating on my garden as I am an avid gardener. I really enjoyed the gym but that is off the table and no forecast yet when they will open again. So I do some exercises at home in the basement and have become quite a walker. I have a pedometer and this week I didn't reset it for the whole week which allowed me to track my walking. This week I am currently at 61miles with Saturday and Sunday to go yet.

    I try to find the silver lining in situations -
    many people in our area are out walking and will stop and talk while maintaining the required 6 foot social distance and when I am in the garden people stop and talk to me from the street asking me how my garden is doing. I really enjoy those interactions We went through each room in the house organizing and getting rid of items we no longer needed including the garage and basement. We were able to get rid of a lot of 'stuff'. Our kitchen organization/cleanup made things much easier to find and made the room more usable. I am painting the house one room at a time

    We are saving money as our only trips in the healthy at home initiative for our state are to the grocery and the hardware store, and those would be once a week at the most. Our Governor asked each family to eat at carryout twice a week to help our restaurant industry get through this so we do that and it is a welcome extravagance.

    Things I miss -
    socializing at the gym/ especially playing pickleball
    Sunday mass attendance
    family type activities outside the home
    fishing ( I wade fish creeks and small rivers and this activity does not fit the stay healthy at home order for our state- to be out wading in a creek fishing while others can't even go to work yet)

    Things I am grateful for-
    our families health
    enough food to eat
    our parish church video masses each Sunday
    nice people who ask how you are and stop and talk some
     
    #3 John321, May 9, 2020
    Last edited: May 9, 2020
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  4. KennyGS

    KennyGS Senior Member

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  5. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    pretty much busines as usual around here, but the isolation is driving mrs b closer to the ledge.

    only thing i can do is donate to charities helping the poor and unemployed.
     
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  6. Mark57

    Mark57 2021 Tesla Model 3 LR AWD

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    That contributor needs to spend some time caulking and painting under that eve.;)

    We've been very lucky compared to most. We're supporting as many businesses as we can safely and take short 2-3 hour drives that don't require getting out of the vehicle to keep from going too stir crazy.

    The farther we get into this the more I notice mild melancholy creeping in just from all the people struggling to survive with few places to turn and businesses that have been around for decades permanently closing. I know the fallout is not fully here yet and every stupid thing on TV starts with some version of "In these trying times" yada, yada. It just makes it worse. You can't escape it even by turning everything off.

    We've got birds on the feeders, hummers battling each other every 2 minutes in the back yard, wild baby bunny rabbits running around the yard, gorgeous 60,000 ft thunderheads roaming around dropping hail, and yet with all that beauty, we have all of this uncertainty hanging around. It's hard to shake. That's all I have to say about that.
     
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  7. Mendel Leisk

    Mendel Leisk Senior Member

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    For a while, someone around here was knitting/crocheting/installing shorts, for trees, where the main trunk would fork into two branches (like an upside down torso transitioning to legs). Keep 'em decent...
     
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  8. KennyGS

    KennyGS Senior Member

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    Yeah, my plan is to keep plodding along in life as long as that's possible.

    I left an engineering position of over 35 years to start a new one on March 16th. My new employer produces electrical systems that go into hospitals and healthcare facilities. So I've been extremely busy working from home 4 days/week. then rotating with other engineers to support production at the plant one day/week. My old employer is closed with everyone furloughed. So I jumped from that burning ship just in a nick of time.

    Meanwhile, I'm working around my house taking care of the inevitable work that pops up. In fact I'll be leaving in a little while to go to a fencing yard to pick up some new split rail posts/rails that need replacing after 27 years in the ground.
     
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  9. Raytheeagle

    Raytheeagle Senior Member

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    We did some fencing replacement along the east side of our property a couple of years back:).

    The old fencing was there for 20ish years, so decent life;):

    2081D014-A22D-4FAB-864A-38007E1C6492.jpeg 392F85EB-5B72-42DD-9911-B322B2095646.jpeg

    Hopefully you don't need a 60 pound jackhammer to sink the posts:eek:.

    My back was feeling it after that:cool:.

    But a good activity of the weather is decent(y).
     
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  10. Merv Himself

    Merv Himself Junior Member

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    I have learned that laughter truly is the best medicine. If interested, these crazy corona-related gizmos might put a smile on your face. https://youtu.be/Eerl7NwPImc
     
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  11. The Electric Me

    The Electric Me Go Speed Go!

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    I've been spending WAY too much time at Prius Chat.
    Not making friends, and badly influencing people.

    I heat up a lot of Frozen Dinners. Do we even call them TV. Dinners anymore? And then I complain about the gap between what actually comes out of the oven and what is pictured on the box. I know there are bigger struggles/challenges being faced by many. But really? Why put a picture of the BEST Thanksgiving meal anyone has ever ate on the box, but then offer a product that looks like it came from the trenches of WWI? I know there has to be a gap between picture and product, and at $2.50, I probably shouldn't expect the Norman Rockwell presentation to be reality, BUT what you actually GET is like a cruel, factory created joke.

    I have watched everything on streaming I wanted to watch. I then started in on things I thought I might want to watch, finished those. Next, I started in on things that might surprise me and be better than I thought or hoped. Then when I realized there actually was a danger of my running out of toilet paper, I snapped and watched every single talking dog movie I could find on HBO, Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Did you know " Beverly Hills Chihuahua " actually has Jamie Lee Curtis in it, AND has very little to do with Beverly Hills, as most of it takes place in Mexico?- Plus...there are sequels.
    FYI there is an "Underdog" movie that features Peter Dinklage as Simon Bar Sinister. It's not great but IMO it's better lit than the final few episodes of Game of Thrones.

    I'm emotionally regressing as I binge watched 3 available seasons of the Partridge Family on IMDb. But damn if that family didn't have a whole lot of lovin and just want everyone to be happy. What's not to like? IMO the only thing that could of made that series better was a talking or singing dog.
    They start the season riding around in a Multi-Colored Bus. They end the series riding around in a Station Wagon as big as that Bus. Gotta love the cars of the 70's. Seriously the station wagon is huge, AND it has a roof rack, even though I can't imagine ever needing it. Since the Station Wagon is large enough to qualify for it's own Post Office. I muse as to the MPG. Gas must of been nearly free.

    Anyway, as you can tell, I'm doing great. Nothing 6 cups of Tasters Choice can't take the edge off.
     
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  12. KennyGS

    KennyGS Senior Member

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    I have a John Deere with a 3 point hitch and PTO for a post-hole digger. I'm way past the point in life where I'm hand digging 40" deep holes.

    I've been watching more Youtube videos, and a streamed movie every so often. Fortunately, cooking has always been something I enjoy, and have been planning meals from scratch for the most part, with a visit to a local take-out from time to time.
     
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  13. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    Kevin Williamson wrote a piece back on March 15th that included this:

    "Some of us already have entered into a period of voluntary social isolation. (Some of us are writers and barely notice the difference.)"
     
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