Shut Down: Best and Worst
Mates,
Well the stay-home order may not be totally lifted but today's lifting is a nice step. And while it may get put back sometime in the future, hopefully that won't be necessary.
But despite the craziness of the last few months not everything was doom and gloom. Lots of folks have made comments about family ties, less travel and other benefits. Unfortunately there were costs to all of this for almost everyone - financial and social, isolation,and assorted anxieties.
Simple question: what are/were the best and worst parts of the shut-down for you?
p.s. No politics. We've had enough for a while.
Take care and Go Blue
XM
Best -
Lots of family time, including some really cool opportunities to help others (and in doing so live out in front of our kids what we talk about as central principles — walking in faith rather than fear; seeking to serve others sacrificially; etc).
Read with/to my younger two a lot, which was a hoot.
Started a couple of cool home projects.
Busted my kids upside the head (figuratively) semi-regularly for slacking on remote learning.
Was thankful for a school that was ahead of the game and kicked butt (relatively) in keeping them on target with legit standards.
Worst -
In addition to missing my annual domination of the March Madness brackets (ha!) I now have several projects that are meaningful and nowhere near complete (one of which may draw the ire of the HOA).
Blasted the tar out of the squirrels terrorizing the birds on our feeders with my air rifle ... only to upset the neighbor kids for noticeably thinning the herd (I’ve literally lost count of how many I pegged).
As much as my kids enjoyed attempting to bake every chocolate chip in Charlotte, NC into a cookie or brownie, my pants are telling me I did little to resist the finished product.
Best: I'm an introvert, working from home is less taxing on me than working in the office.
Worst: My wife has an auto-immune disease, so on the rare occasions that we need to have contact with the outside world, it's stressful.
UChicago? Introvert? Checks out.
(What's up, fellow Maroon?)
Best. Having my kids home to spend some quality time together.
Worst. I enjoy getting out and hanging with people. I miss spending time with Mom and Dad. Having to live with stubborn kids.
My 10 year old grandson wonders what your stubborn kids think about you??? :) :) :)
"I assume the choice on the national level is obvious."
lol
?
EDIT: just got around to reading the front page. got it.
Apologies, nothing to do with your post. It's just the thought that the choice between a farm animal and an animatron with a horrific (and decades long) record of enacting disastrous law enforcement laws and policies which draw a direct line to the horrible problems we continue to have today somehow = obvious... It's just shocking to me that rational people come to this conclusion.
?
double post. Not my fault. Youngest put me in a kind of headlock-hug combo when I went to 'save'
Agreed. That was like a bold flashing neon sentence when I read the post. Regardless of what party you are or if you are independent, I don't know what's obvious about November. The presumptive nominee has been in D.C. 40+ years and all sudden he's the "change" agent. He was VP for 8 years, how many of these same incidents happened over that time frame? Why didn't it get fixed under his watch. If there has ever been a less obvious choice on either side, I can't remember it. I may fill in his box, but dang, it'll not be easy.
Best: Spent way more time with my infant son than I would have been able to otherwise
Worst: Spent way more time with my mother-in-law than I otherwise would have had to
Best: $8 growlers of any beer from the sports bar down the street. I’d go for the Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale with my buffalo chicken pizza every Friday.
Worst: lack of gatherings with friends.
Best: Have loved having my son home. Husband and I changed our post-high school empty nest plans, and that probably wouldn't have happened if we weren't stuck inside for two months.
Worst: Son missed his season. Daughter had a really hard time adjusting to no in-person classes, no softball season, and saw her summer plans cancelled (silver lining: she has now bounced back and got a job at a grocery store for the summer, and is taking some online classes. Happy she'll be busy)
Best: Went through the house room by room and did a complete "spring cleaning". Filled dozens of contractor Hefty bags and 2 Waste Management Bagsters (these are awesome!) with stuff we no longer need/use. Several bags for Salvation Army as well. And cleaned/repaired/painted everywhere that was necessary. Our home looks/feels great.
Worst 1 - Wife/I were out of state for 4 months and hadn't seen family since Christmas. Came home and went straight into COVID lockdown.
Worst 2 - Had to cancel a trip to Europe we were really looking forward to taking.
Best: Time with my family and especially my wife. Almost daily walks and lots of check ins. We had not trouble sharing our house.
Best: Daycare. We are both essential workers and were fortunate to have daycare almost the entire time. The state even picked up the tab for a few weeks.
Best: Trampoline. We needed more activities for the kids so we got a trampoline. The kids love it and so do I.
Best: Board Game Arena. I play board games every week and it has been great to be able to continue that, albeit in an online forum.
Beat: Zoom. I know many are sick of online meetings, but can you imagine how halting this crisis would have been even 15 years ago? Productivity would be nil.
Worst: My heart absolutely breaks for all the folks who have had to deal with the disease and its side effects. The collateral damage is also brutal: a good friend who got married with eight people attending instead of a couple hundred, anyone in high school or college missing out on irreplaceable social experiences, and anyone stuck at home in destructive relationships, especially with addicts.
Worst: Online substitutes. Yes, I just gave gratitude for Zoom and Board Game Arena, and while they are great placeholders they really are vastly inferior to in person interactions. I miss hugs, handshakes, smiles, and laughter.
Worst: Truther-behavior. Look, I get it if you believe this whole thing is a conspiracy theory and you are sure it’s just a social experiment by the illluminati. But whether you feel that way or not, WEAR YOUR FUCKING MASK. There are people out there who are legitimately scared for their lives and their loved ones. It’s not about you. If you’re in indoor spaces with any challenge of social distancing, not donning a mask is not “individual expression,” it’s just being a douche.
Worst: No sports.
Best: saved a ton of money by being forced to stay home.
Worst: Was very active this winter and felt great. Skiing every weekend, my gym, and my spikeball league all got eliminated in one fell swoop. Oh well, it's only temporary, and extremely minor compared to what a ton of of people dealt with.
Best: My wife and children were able to spend lots of time together. My daughters have also become good friends.
Worst: i had to spend most of it isolated from them in an apartment.
Best: Learnng C++ basics
Worst: My kid hasn't been in daycare for about three months now. He misses his friends and he needs that social interaction with his peers.
Best: Buckled down and really focused on my health, lost fifteen pounds of fat and added a ton of muscle through liftin some heavy ass weights
Worst: Being stuck in my parents home to help them get through the pandemic(both high risk, need some basic assistance daily) made me realize that they are really not good people anymore. They used to be loving and kind, but are no longer. I'll be very happy to distance myself some after I'm no longer needed to help out.
Still, overall the quarantine has actually been extremely beneficial to me mentally, I've grown a lot the past couple of months. No distractions will do that lol
Positives... getting paid to get stuff done around the house 7 days a week instead of just the usual 2 or so.
Negatives... gyms being closed forced me to spend quite an investment in mostly time and a little money getting a home gym together. Though with time to spare, this is probably a net positive, though an annoying one as it's never going to be as good as a real gym. Other than that, on a personal level, nothing. But I expect the resulting economic issues will take it's toll on everyone which will certainly trickle down to my ability to make money when I get back to work.
Best -- Remodeled our bathroom, getting in much better shape (lost 10 lb. & 2.5% BF), and got to spend a lot more time with kids and dog (unexpectedly had to put our dog down last week - the daily morning walks are now a great memory for all of us.
Worst -- Cancelling our road trip/camping trip out to Yellowstone. The family was really looking forward to it.
I look at this whole situation as a benefit/eye opener on how to better use my time.
Best: I did even more reading than usual including a wide variety of both fiction and non fiction.
Worst: Witnessing the increasing divide in this country and on this blog and the absolute unwillingness of people to consider contrary viewpoints.
I blame the echo chamber of social media and 'Merican entitlement.
Best: My daughter, who graduated college last spring and works in Milwaukee, was laid off and came home for 6 weeks. My second oldest (daughter) is getting married in July and my third (son) heads to college a few weeks after that. That'll leave just the youngest (daughter) home with my wife and I. So the whole family got to spend 6 weeks together. It was one of the best family times we've ever had. These kids truly do love each other. There was zero fighting. They were all so supportive of each other and the family. It was amazing.
We decided in that time to put our house on the market. My oldest does interior design and is a fantastic organizer. She spent the last 4 weeks painting bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and basement; packing up the entire house and helping move many of those items into a storage locker. She also helped her youngest sister finish the semester, jumping in to help her through the last few weeks of math that were giving her trouble. Also, they all started doing a sibling 1-hour workout every day.
I, for one, wish this could have continued indefinitely. She left Monday for Milwaukee to get ready to start work again on Wednesday. I don't know how well that'll go since the furniture store where she works got notice that they have to close today by 2 pm to avoid any potential riots.
Worst: Everything that got cancelled. My son didn't have his senior trip, prom or graduation, although the did have the longest Senior Skip day in history (2.5 months?). My heart breaks for these seniors. My daughter's wedding shower with family in the town where attends school was postponed a month, then cancelled and moved to an online shower at our house with no family and only a few friends in attendance. We still don't know if she'll be allowed to have a wedding reception, and the owners of the hall we rented are not being kind or flexible. Not being able to attend church in person for weeks was also quite a bummer.
Best: working from home and getting to spend so much of this first year of marriage with my wife
Worst: seeing how the stress has affected her as an RN, while I continue to work from home
Worst - Cable tv stations playing the same movies over and over and over...
The Departed
Silence of the Lambs
Final Countdown
Paint Your Wagon, truly one of the worst movies ever made.
Among many others.
Best - finishing up Killing Eve and discovering A Confession with Martin Freeman.
There are these pages of paper bound together... we call them books at Hopkins, UM uses pop-ups, I get it. I can always loan you a few of mine.
Uhm, our city is surrounded by Federal troops and has a 7pm curfew. We're still shut down.
Watching people with masks on in the grocery stores fondle packages then put them back on the shelves... DERP!
Watching both the right and the left go insane...hold my beer... I'm going to get popcorn.
Gyms being shut...fuck me...the Covid 15 means I'll be hammering reps and cardio to get rid of the fat.
Driving on empty roads in the morning to work....OMG I never knew I could take such pleasure in things like people being courteous drivers, knowing how to pull over into the right hand lane to allow others to pass etc. NIRVANA for a car guy like me.
Watching people actually WASH THEIR HANDS... that was really nice, especially after someone holds their penis and takes a piss... I mean... it's like we were adults for a few minutes.
Watching people 'finally' cough into their elbows instead of their hands then play 'grabby' with everything in sight.
Watching mouth breathers suffocate behind their masks in the grocery store roflmao
Running outside, and when someone wouldn't be courteous and move over slightly, I'd cough as I ran by and they'd freak out and run into bushes or trip on sod.
Seeing pet adoptions go up... now for the downslide as people abuse pets or don't pay attention anymore they'll let them go into the wild... *sigh*
Spousal abuse should go down after this passes...
Best: played a year’s worth of golf in the last 2.5 months. Note: haven’t improved. But I am enjoying myself.
Worst: questioning literally everything.