I find myself doing things that I could have Care Takers do just to pass time and avoid boredom. I go to our laundry room and do some washing. I straighten up my closet. I clean up my files. Some of these things are difficult for me to do because of certain health issues, but I get great satisfaction of doing it anyway. I rationalize that it's good exercise.
Lon. I will send you a spreadsheet with a couple thousand aircraft parts on it. Let me know when you find them all . That will keep you out of trouble
I'm keeping fairly busy but I'm ready to go out and about again. I got my first COVID-19 shot today so maybe it won't be as long as it has been. I miss going out to eat mostly, I think.
I know five people who have died from COVID-19. One of them was my nephew. That kinda makes you a believer.
Winter really isn't our time to keep busy. Heck, we were the same way when we lived in Florida during their so-called "winters". But, we do miss going out to breakfast on weekends, going to Cowboy Church, to the theater, to a country-western nightclub on a Friday or Saturday night for summer and listen to the live music. So, there are definitely certain things we are missing, but, most of the time, we do keep busy doing something.
Other than having to put up with people wearing masks, and a fewer number of businesses open, particularly restaurants, things haven't changed much for me. I go wherever I want to go and as long as I don't go south, the Tractor Supply Store is pretty much the only place that would make me wear a mask and, for all I know, they might have given that nonsense up by now because I haven't been back since the first time. I don't go a whole lot of places but this was true before the virus charade.
I used to eat out a lot. I've been out maybe 6 times in the past several months since restrictions have relaxed a bit, and discovered that once I got out of the habit, I don't really like restaurant food as much as I used to. It's not all that good, and it's expensive. And as long as masks rule the day, the experience stinks. I had been forcing myself to go out to eat at least once a week, just to get out of my lounging pants. But I don't think I'll return to that, even if things revert to as they used to be.
We have no restaurants in Millinocket that are open for normal business anymore. Most have closed entirely, while a few others are doing takeout only. One of them we've ordered from a few times because we feel sorry for them since they bought the business only a couple of months before the Dr. Fauci virus, but that's more of a Michelle thing, really. Takeout doesn't do it for me. If I have to take it home and eat it, I may as well cook it at home.
Yeh, there is a Chinese restaurant that went to takeout only. I've ordered from them a few times. But I live so far out that it's not real convenient for me...a 20 mile round trip. As I said, I've nearly eliminated my dining out. If I do eat out, it's Chinese and Mexican. I can cook them at home, but it's a pain in the butt to do right. Our local IHOP has always struggled, and even before COVID they shut down the graveyard shift. Now with COVID they shut down completely for a while, then slowly expanded their hours again, but they still close at 9PM. The food's not all that good anyway... There was a Red Robin in Charlottesville I liked, but it was located in a dying mall. Sears and Penneys used to be there. Now it has this post-apocalyptic feel about it. Red Robin was doing take-out only for a while, then completely shut down. I had only been there a few times but got to know some of the wait staff. I know the evening manager and her husband recently had a baby. I hate to see folks have their lives uprooted like this. There is a Lowes/Walmart complex by the interstate where several restaurants have sprung up in the past 10 years or so. They have been delivering in their immediate area in order to survive.
Since my business is deemed "essential," by my city, I have not been effected, at all, work-wise. In fact, since so many people are at home staring at their trees, I've had more work than previous years. Off work, yeah, things are not like they used to be. Janet likes going out to eat, for the social aspects, so we do go out, but I'm not nuts about doing so, since I like my own cooking, far better. Other activities, movies, dancing, clubs, art exhibitions, etc., are not happening, for us, just because we want to err on the side of caution, but we never did those activities much, in the past. At home, I stay busy with chores and projects. As I look at about twenty tax forms in front of me, I know I can look forward to hours of "enjoyment" completing them. Oh boy.........
Well, there is one thing Lon's thread is showing..........just how active, or inactive, some of us were before the virus restrictions hit. For us, as already stated, much more active in summer than in winter. Same way we were when we lived in Florida. But, when wildfire smoke hits in the summer, our activity level went way down. Just like in Florida, we couldn't even go outside here, with heavy wildfire smoke in the air.
There are lots of moving parts to all of our lives I was very active in a non-profit that did free home repairs for folks. I worked every project, I was their treasurer and general business guy...then it disbanded after 14 years of service. People relocated, people aged out. I tried to find a replacement charity but have not been able to find a good fit, and know that I'm not going to. That situation was unique. I was also very active with a sorta-local MEETUP.COM group. It was nice, it was casual, we had fun. Then the guy who was leading the thing stepped down and a control freak took over. Suddenly it went from "If you're free this night, come on by" to "If you want to be a member of this group, you have to meet my requirements...you have to sponsor a certain number of ideas every year, you have to attend a minimum number of events every year; otherwise, your account will be deleted." So that went away. It's not easy finding social things to occupy the gap left by the job. I live in a rural area where I gotta drive some distance to events, if I can even find any that interest me. So things started falling away even before COVID.