Most of mine are positive as I do love my own company and my own activities and am not one for small talk and fluffy social gatherings that involve bingo and cards and darts, etc.
The down thoughts are as follows:
Not seeing my daughter as much as I normally do. Especially on Saturday which was her birthday.
Not seeing my niece and her little ones.
I miss going out for coffee with friends.
I miss meals out.
I miss theatre and other live cultural events.
I dislike the hit or miss quality of my grocery deliveries.
I fret about the cavalier and careless visitors without masks or gloves entering my building, cleverly evading our superintendent who is trying to police the building from such violations.
On the other hand, on the weekend, I watched a large family of young adults and children performing a dance in the front lawn of my building all wearing masks and gloves to entertain a grandparent watching from her window.
I also think (but not depressively I hasten to add) - is this all there is? Are these my final days on planet earth? What happens if people start dying in my building?
And large thoughts: what happens if there is an entire economic collapse. How will elders survive without pensions or savings and in possible ill health?
Have at it.
My thoughts often veer in the direction of one of yours, WWW :"Is this all there is?" It's looking as if I'll not get back to what passed as normal (i.e me with cancer) before corona-virus entered the scene. I arrived on planet Earth within months of the beginning of World War 2. Perhaps I shall leave the planet during this -a World War with a different kind of enemy.
ReplyDeleteI've thought this recently: isn't it decidedly significant that most of the things we are now prevented from doing due to the virus are things we should have been stopping doing, or limiting, to help slow climate change - but we didn't: less driving, less meat eating, less electricity and oil use, and so on. I could imagine a sci-fi short story emerging from those thoughts. What if a very keen ecologist, with contacts in a biological research lab, with the ecologist feeling utterly dismayed and at a loss as to how to help, considering the world's lack of urgency re climate change found a way to.....well ya know....
Other than those odd thoughts, I try not to think too much - trying to preserve sanity for as long as possible.
Like Twilight I have been noticing that there are things which are doing a heap better with most of us shut away.
ReplyDeleteThere are things I miss, but the simpler life has not been the torment to me that it is to many.
I do wonder what the new normal will look like though. As I wonder what it looked like after the Spanish flu (or the Black Plague).
Stay well, stay safe.
Are you doing your radio interview by phone?
We are entering the 6th week of shutdown here in the San Joaquin Valley. I really don't mind except having fewer places to go to, but even that has not been a hardship. We have been able to find everything we need, plus more, in the nearby stores. I refuse to drive very far, into areas of unknown germs (!) to get what I need. I refuse to go to the big box stores, even before the pandemic I was against Costco and Amazon.
ReplyDeleteI feel very badly for children who cannot go to school to see their teachers and their friends. I am glad I can FaceTime my grandchildren, but I miss taking them shopping when they come for a visit.
I like spending time alone. I love to read, to write, to work in my yard. This has not been a hardship by any means. Oh, also, I am very cavalier--no gloves no masks.
I love being at home with my small vamily, and I miss seeing my larger family. Apart from that I thrive on days where we're all at home. The downside is not the social distancing, but the fear of me and my family getting the Covid19. All the dark thougths from this is enough for me to long for hetiing this over with. Yesterday's too late!
ReplyDeleteI don't think there will be an entire economic collapse, but certainly the economy will shrink as businesses go bust or just decide to close down, or demand for certain things like air flights tails off.
ReplyDeleteLike you, I miss cultural events like films, talks, art exhibitions and my monthly book club. On the other hand, I'm reading books at quite a rate.
I was sick with a virus for a month during this time, being sick and alone is not fun. But I am better now and enjoying being able to get into my garden with the improving weather. I appreciated how much neighbours and friends jumped in to help me with shopping while I was sick. I don't think that would have happened in normal times. When I walk my dog everybody waves and says "Hi", that only happened before with friends but now everyone does it. And when people walk by my house I wave to them and they wave back. When I see people at their windows I wave and they wave back. There are some irritants, like not getting the things I want with shopping and having to carefully plan shopping trips or orders. But overall I am not unhappy. I fear for friends and others in hospital and nursing homes, I feel lucky to be well now. As for the economy I don't fret. Things will be different I think, some good and some bad. I am more concerned about the return to environmental damage and human-instigated climate change.
ReplyDeleteI sure do miss my usual activities and the social life that goes with them. Not too worried about economic collapse. I think SS and pensions will be the last that they cut. But I feel for our kids who suffered first the 2008-09 recession, and now this. Hope things get better soon.
ReplyDeleteI shouldn't worry too much about economic collapse. While there is much individual financial suffering, there is a lot of money in the world and a lot of consumers wants.
ReplyDeleteIf it all goes bust, I would still rely on government to do its job. If that fails, we are done.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I miss is the option of just going wherever I want whenever I want. I didn't go out much anyway, but if I wanted to I could just get on a bus and go. Now I can't, but that's temporary.
ReplyDeleteI also worry about those with no pensions or savings.
Thank you all for your insights and comments.
ReplyDeleteXO
WWW
Since I have been more or less tied down to my home for the past many months due to my COPD, this shut down is not bothering me. That my DIL and son live with me makes it easier than for you living alone. I am actually enjoying the quiet and the return of the birds, butterflies and dragonflies to my garden as well as the sound of silence!
ReplyDeleteYes, the economy is on my mind, too. I still have not received my stimulus check.
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ReplyDeleteI regret to say all roads in this plandemic appear to lead to Gypsy Rose Bill as I call him who has been predicting this since a George magazine interview in 1998 and now coincidentally is offering the solution to sell! I am not alone in suspecting something supremely fishy about this unelected, unmedically trained billionaire who seems to know way too much about this subject. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/we-call-investigations-bill-melinda-gates-foundation-medical-malpractice-crimes-against-humanity?
ReplyDeleteMine was not a long-lived family. I'm 70. I, too, wonder if I'll still be living in isolation-at-home with my husband when my time comes. I'm kind of reconciled to whatever happens. I don't want to go anytime soon, and we're doing all we can to protect ourselves and keep from causing our adult children or grandchildren any anguish, but I've lived a full life. With our efforts to stay safe, I'm losing weight eating at home, without the extra oils, salt, and sugar I get when eating out, and I'm jogging with the dog on the empty streets early in the morning to make up for her missed dog park visits. I'm staying at completely at home, except for the infusions I need to keep me on my feet. I have another goal to accomplish during this time that keeps me busy and mostly keeps me from feeling despondent: to begin submitting my novel-in-progress this summer. Whether this one ever finds a publisher or not, I have proved to myself that I could again write another novel after brain two brain surgeries and a twenty-year hiatus since my last books were published. I worry about our daughters and their families. One's political views are quite different than ours and they do view some aspects of the way we're dealing with Covid-19 as politically biased. They're planning to reopen their storefront as soon as our Texas governor allows them to do so. Her husband--without masks and gloves--has still been interacting with customers through these weeks although their storefront is closed. She's immuno-compromised, as am I, but I cannot voice any concerns to her as that's viewed as not accepting her political choices. My primary worry, therefore, is not for my safety, but for hers, her husband's, and their children. Yesterday, in the midst of all of this, I thought about the happy collateral of our isolation: my grandchildren's busy schedules have come to a stop. They have time to be lazy, grow bored, and discover what brings them out of their boredom. They've planned special celebrations for their mothers, our daughters, who both have had birthdays during this. I think some of their memories of this time will be happy ones, although this has derailed our college-freshman granddaughter's wonderful first year at college and may impact her year-younger cousin's first year next year.
ReplyDeleteThose two brain surgeries have impacted my ability to proof my own work, as you can see, but I work with a wonderful copy editor before submissions. She catches those mistakes you see me make.
ReplyDeleteI heard and have hope that it could be true that once the testing is done to see who all has already had Covid-19 will be less than the flu in an average year.
ReplyDeleteI hate living in fear and want to get out and go as I please.
I am not at all missing people, being an introvert. My head is a safe place to be, most of the time.
The death rate will be lower than the flu. Sorry.
Delete98.2 percent recovery rate
ReplyDeleteI’m looking forward to finding out what life is going to be like when we’re on the other side of this virus threat and wonder how long it will take to get there. I really hope I last longer than the virus to be able to find out. I make no assumptions about the future so don’t borrow troubled thinking — nothing I can do about it so, as my mother would say, we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
ReplyDeleteHow will anyone survive without whatever form of income they no longer get. It won't just be elders hurting, it will be all but the rich. I feel most sorry for young people in terms of the potential change sin the world. I've had a good life and while I don't want to die now, at least I can look back and be thankful for the 57 years I've gotten.
ReplyDeleteThere is a LOT to think about in the Year of the Plague... we're all winging it, Governments included, they have no Idea how they will move thru this, it's so complex.
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