Share Your Current Situation

Played outside. We made some snow angels in the yard and ditch to surprise the bus driver and lunch ladies when they stopped by with today's delivery.



RICHARD

 

We were talking over the weekend and we're kinda cool with the slowdown -- not the economic devastation or the loss of life parts, just getting so much of the was-it-that-important frenzy out of daily life. We don't commute; she drives a few minutes to the next town. We live in a rather rural part of the state. So go-go for us, outside of my work travel, isn't like it is for many, but we still managed to spend a lot of idle time making busy. It sucks that the National Parks are closed; we spent a lot of time up there on weekends last year. But we take walks 'round our little suburban/farming town, ride bikes. We've always been readers and cookers, and it's hard to believe that would go up, but it has. We're now on the puzzle addiction. We're organizing the garage -- still a shambles 16 months after the move. I'm plotting out landscaping changes in the front yard. I guess what we miss most aside from weekend getaways and my group rides is going to our local roadhouse or the sushi place, hitting the brewery for a pint and a to-go ... now it's just to-go. Complaining? Not at all. We're happy together and thankful for together.

This shit is real and if anyone is still denying that, you need to pause and seriously reflect. That's the flip side of all of this, how utterly fragile are the webs of connectivity that make modern life buzz along and function. Also how vulnerable humans remain. We're like the other animals, ultimately.

 

I'm doing great today, but let me tell you about this morning around 2:20 am. Extreme weather conditions in Ms. and Al. were heading east into central Ga. and at 2:20 am the weather radio alarmed us to an approaching tornado 16 miles to the west of us and heading directly toward my home address.
We had Fox 5 Atlanta on the tv and the meteorologist got wide eyed about the destruction that was now less than 5 miles from my home, and the radar showed it was still heading directly at my residence.
My wife and I positioned ourselves in our hallway, put our helmets on and prayed. We then began watching a Macon weatherman on an app on her smartphone, because our home power had gone down.
The app had a weather radar that showed the tornado was about a tenth of a mile from us and would hit us in seconds when the meteorologist said the tornado warning was over and that it just suddenly disappeared from the radar.
My neighbor next door to the west of me had a little damage, and the house north had trees down, but go west for about 20 miles and every mile shows moderate to severe property damage.
Yep I'm feeling pretty lucky today.

 

Lucky for us, my job and my girlfriends job, we are currently working from home full time. We haveNT smeared each others blood on the walls either so I guess thats good.

Going to the grocery store once a week. Im cooking a lot but I always cook a lot but even moreso now. Started drinking at home (maybe a few drinks a week only) even which is a rarity for me.

Today is Dyngus Day in Cleveland and its my first time missing it in like 7 years and Im pretty fucking sad about that. For people whom are not familiar website describes it as "IT IS THE BEST PLACE IN OHIO to dance a polka and drink a piwo (Polish for beer)! Located in the heart of the city on Easter Monday each year, tens of thousands gather for the traditional Polish holiday to celebrate the end of the Lenten season and the joy of Easter. 2020 will mark the 10th anniversary of Dyngus Day Cleveland™ and is sure to be the biggest polka party to date!"

Its super fun and was a reason for my friends and I to have the day after Easter off, dancing to polka, eating piroghy, and drinking Tyskie and vodka.

Staying at healthy as two fat people could...

 

Well today truly sucks.

I found out earlier today that one of the older guys that I have walked with for close to a decade has died. He was diagnosed with terminal cancer and has been in hospice care for the last month with no visitors allowed other than family.

Because of the situation now. There will be no funeral. Luckily his one son is head of the service department where we have our truck serviced so I'll at least be able to tell him how special I thought his Dad was.

 

So sorry to hear this news.
I bet those walks were some good times.

RICHARD

 

Online teaching kiddos. Homeschooling my 9 year old, entertaining my 2,3 year olds. Hubby is a fulltime college student. I need the world to open up so I can get out!!!

 

I'm still working at work and wife is working from home, both of us just as busy as we were a year ago. She's itching to go back to the office some and I'm thankful that I'm not working from home with her. I don't know in our nearly 25 years of marriage if I've ever gone 2 consecutive days without getting in the car and going somewhere, even if it's just to the other side of town. Can't stay cooped up all day. Both of us together, all day long every day, and there would be blood spilled!

My dad is 84 and we've given up on telling him what to do - he still comes up every week and push-mows the lawn, making me look like the biggest asshole of a son ever . Mom had cracked her pelvis and this was just the break she needed as she and her old maid friends are always on the go.

I've been running in fits and starts for about a year. Finally able to do it consistently and with goals, a routine, and so forth. Only problem is that I HATE running any kind of laps and can only halfway tolerate running up one direction and then turning around and coming back the same way. I prefer one big giant lap. Just a quirk. Also, after I've run that big giant lap on two or three occasions, I don't like it anymore. Just a quirk, I have issues. Anyhow, I've been driving to Glasgow on Sunday morning to run and experience a nice change of scenery. One day I forgot my earbuds. It was almost eerie. The population is 14,000 and it was dead quiet. An occasional car and fellow runner and not much else. I've been there at night, in the winter, when nothing was going on and it was NEVER that quiet. I guess it's easy to notice lots of things when there's nothing happening.

 

Thanks.

He was one of the nicest most unaffected honest people I have ever met. Sometimes we'd go out for lunch with another older guy who walked with us. Good times.

One time they let me go to the harness track with them. I don't know squat about betting horse races, but we laughed a lot.

I know a lot of people are going through stuff like this. So I'm just venting a little.

 

Ok here so far. Temporarily closed our business tho, The worst part (besides losing money every day, and paying rent For a place we can’t use) Is not knowing when we will be able to open back up? Will it be two weeks when the stay at home order is lifted? Will it be another month? all summer? The uncertainty is the worst.

 

Got suddenly cold here, skewering my plans to go to one of the Amish farms to get some pepper and maybe a tomato plant.

Guess I'll do some wash and watch ever more streaming teevee.

Probably take an hour nap at some point.

Walk to the mailbox.

Observe the outer world.

 

Well, the trip to the stores this week has become more and more arduous. I am pretty strong, but it is wearing me down. First, the lines to get in, the fierce social distancing measures inside, the hope that they have at least most of what we need and finally the damn mask and gloves. I was ranting to Dh on the way home about how I always enjoyed grocery shopping, but it is getting to me. I was almost in tears coming home.

Finally, I did tell myself to shut my mouth and be glad that we are shopping....that it is almost a privilege to have the money and ability to go in the store and find what we want and not be in a food bank line hoping to get something to eat or having to try to get a delivery time because we are unable to get out. Yep....rant over and blessings counted.

 

Breeze, I hear the Striper fishing in NJ has been very good, but I didn't realize it doesn't open in the Chesapeake until May 1. Here is a map so you can check back when the season opens up in your area. Fishing is the ultimate social distancing activity, just keep one rod length's distance. Many bait shops are doing phone orders and curbside delivery. Unless you can dig for bloodworms. https://www.onthewater.com/striper-migration-map-march-27-2020

 

Thanks. Yeah, we can't even catch and release until May 1. Largemouth Bass, I'm not sure of, I have to check. The Maryland fish regulations website is very confusing.

 

So, anyone getting antsy about the stay at home rule yet?

I was okay.....until I heard from our gov yesterday that we may have to hunker down another month. I didn't take that too well.

Doesn't help that they closed down the golf courses so the past 2 weeks haven't been able to get out as much. Also doesn't help that we aren't supposed to be exercising or walking/running at the parks so we now have to walk the uneven sidewalks outside of the parks and risk getting hit by cyclists or trip on the uneven sidewalks.

I was walking the stairs 2 to 3 times a day (going down from my 25th floor unit, walking slowly to build up my quads) but yesterday I felt a "pop" to my calf so I guess I strained my calf again. I tore my calf a couple of decades ago, I was into heavy lifting and when I was on the leg press I tore both calf muscles. I was up to 720 lbs on the machine when I felt both calves start tearing. I lifted those weights before but guess my muscles finally wouldn't take it anymore.

So now I can't do any exercising requiring my legs for at least a week or until the calf heals.

My butt and back are getting sore from sitting/lying around all day. I wonder, can you get "bed" sores from sitting/lying around too much? I figure I'm on the couch probably 14 hours a day (then you add in 8 hours of sleep time lying down).

Lately the only time I've been going out is to go the market or to pick up a meal. I try to go to Sam's club or Costco once a week. Miss the $1.50 hot dogs and soda special and the pizzas.

Too lazy so I'm shaving maybe every 3 weeks or when I get too irritated by the scratchiness. I haven't had a beard in 2 decades so not used to having something on my face.

Haven't been able to step on the scale so not sure if I'm gaining weight.

I've been inside too long, I'm starting to think how hot some of the broadcasters are looking.


Sorry for the rant, too much time on my hands and totally bored.

 

Good time to clean your condo! lol

My go-to for 20 years has been a LOT of travel and a LOT of time at home. It's very bimodal. So half of this feels perfectly natural to me. I/we didn't have a lot of travel on the books, but we certainly had some, and it's too bad that we're missing it. By the same token, we're not suffering. If we still lived at the coast I'd probably be walking the beach four days a week. Are your beaches closed? As it is now, we walk around town and I'm finally getting back up to four rides/week. I still have some work flowing through so I'm not totally devoid of that diversion and I'm using this time to reach out to new publications, hopefully sowing seeds for down the road. I miss the social interaction more than anything. The gang at the brew pub, the kids who own/run the roadhouse, sitting at the sushi bar, cultural and social events. It's funny that an extrovert could work at home for two decades.

Hadn't supported our local bakery/creamer in a good 10 days, so just made up for that:

 

Car bling in the Age of COVID:

 

Blessed is good to be. But that still sounds like such a pain in the ass -- I can see being beaten down. In a general sense, where do you live that the grocery store experience is such a cluster?

 

I’m really struggling with the homeschooling. I could never be a teacher. Two school age kids and one with autism has made this incredibly challenging. We started online learning 3/15 I believe. The amount of work is insane. This week is the first of the new grading period. So new classes were added. My daughter has Art finally and was so excited. We looked at her first assignment and she has to do a research paper on the Keep Calm posters. Lol Not exactly what a 12 year old had in mind for art class. We can just do our best and hope it’s good enough. Just like in everything else in life, I guess.

 

Best wishes to y'all, H.