What are you doing to stay sane (and healthy)
Hello Friends,
Just wondering what everyone is doing to keep themselves sane during these trying times.
I'm not a huge drinker but I have indulged quite a bit over the last few days. Irish coffees have become my go to.
Also been playing a lot of video games, playing board games with the kids, and thinking about maybe writing something for the first time in 10 years.
What are you cats doing?
Continuing to carve out time for 1) a near-daily walk with the wife and one or more of the three kids and 2) baby steps on the mgoraisedbedsgarden and mgoterracedflowerbeds. Today was Rebar Day: bought 300ft of #3 rebar, then cut to 2 1/2 ft lengths ... yup, 120 of em. That was a lot of sparks.
Doing this while watching the Leveraged Loan market in which I work crater. This week’s flashback to 2008: money center banks unwinding warehouse lines for established CLO managers, forcing fire sales of non-distressed (as of yet) assets into a market marked by chaos and no liquidity. There isn’t even any real price discovery going on, just panic and retreat. Single B spreads have widened by ~800bps in the last month. Bazonkers. Glad I got one deal done last week — will be the last for a while.
Time to grow some veggies!
what is the rebar for and what are you cutting them with? i've only ever used rebar to core/pour foundations. is there a gardening application?
Holding together the concrete blocks I’m using for retaining walls and raised bed walls. Even though they aren’t very high (generally two block stacks, though some parts of the retaining walls for the flower terracing may be three blocks), I like to build in a little protection from the ugly combo of water + gravity.
Oh, and I cut the rebar by just bending it back and forth a lot.
;-)
Seriously, just fortunate to have access to a steel chop saw. Made much quicker (and safer) work of it than an angle grinder.
Just got back from giving blood in Dexter ...the drive out and back was surreal, middle of the night at rush hour. The longest drive I’ve done in 10 days (10 minutes). I guess I feel better doing something, anything.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:18 PM ^
Good idea to give blood, an idea I should look into doing again soon, since it's been 15 years since I last gave. The blood banks are definitely in need right now.
Taking the kids for a 60-90 minute hike through the woods each day - they’re 6 and 7 (and move slow) so I load up my pack with weight (35-50 lbs) to keep it interesting. Also doing daily WOD type workouts. Cooking more than i have in years, playing legos, etc. if it wasn’t for the fact that people are losing jobs, businesses are going under and our hospitals are soon to be overwhelmed and people are going to start dying for all sorts of normally treatable issues, I’d be having a pretty good time and enjoying this break from the day to day grind
Quietly enduring my quarantine.
I'm still required to be at work, since I'm an essential employee. Though I miss the gym. My gym first was only going to close for 4 weeks, now the earliest they will reopen is May 1st. I sure hope this virus peaks and declines during the summer. I would hate to lose a year of Michigan football.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:01 PM ^
Many, many things. Personally, I have been out riding my bicycle on the trails, usually an 11 mile loop. It helps to be outside and to think and to pray and to see animals and the sun and the dusk and the slowly awakening landscape. Taking long walks with my wife. Talking more to my teenage son. Calling my 93 year old dad every day to see how he's doing. He lives in his own apartment, and knows he needs to avoid people, but being alone most of the time gets old for an old man. My wife and I were going to be taking dad to Phoenix to visit his little 91 year old brother this week. Needless to say, that trip was cancelled. Spending more time praying and reading the Bible and other reading.
Professionally, I am catching up on things I don't always have time for. There also are funerals, adjusting weddings to having very few guests, figuring out how to minister to the dying, how to run a food pantry for the pantry while maintaining social distancing, etc., and running a daycare for the children of essential workers, while keeping your own volunteers and staff happy, healthy, and safe. Worrying about how to keep the church's bills paid when you can't worship together, causing a drop in offerings.
March 24th, 2020 at 10:11 PM ^
I'm still going to work so I have some social contact. Very limited but a bit. Strangely, I would have no problem with a two week stay by myself. It would be a nice break. I'm a bit of an introvert though. I've also been pretty fed up with corporate slave life for a long time. I actually feel like the world has met me half way. It's not bothering me much. Then again I'm a weirdo. Surprising to me how difficult this is for people. The time off of work and isolation part. Two weeks of isolation is a just a post break up episode for me.
March 24th, 2020 at 11:11 PM ^
Always plenty to do around the house, I am anything but bored. Finished building the garden last week. Stocked up on lumber Monday before everything closed so I wouldn't run out.
March 24th, 2020 at 11:13 PM ^
Still working some and using some PTO. Should be fine through the end of April. Luckily the weather isn’t too cold to run. Little chilly but fine once you get going. Very easy to cross what are normally busy streets. Watched a documentary today called “Three Identical Strangers.” Check it out if you can. It is very good.
March 25th, 2020 at 12:37 AM ^
applying to be a MOM on this site. Seems to be a need.
Wife cooks more, and tries more recipes. I eat out less. We use the home gym instead of the one I belong to. We try not to kill the 4 and 6 year old who can't play together and won't play apart. I watch more netflix. Friends are trying to figure out a way to resurrect board game night remotely. All I miss so far are my favorite places to eat out, really.
Playing a lot of guitar getting my chops back. There are so many amazing guitarists, and other music channels on You Tube these days which are inspiring me.
Also went for a walk tonight and hit the heavy bag.
Well at least 15 minutes per day used up laughing at the Bluenin vs. Utah children's comedy blog.
You two should just start a Youtube stream, call it I'm smarterer than you.
For heavens sake, what upbringing created this behavior.
Sexting...for real.
March 25th, 2020 at 12:48 PM ^
Mostly trying to keep my kids on track. They have some online classes, but I know it's hard for them to stay motivated. As for myself, I'm cooking a lot more and spending a lot of time on Facebook. I used to be an advertising copywriter so I have a lot of really funny friends and they have kept me sane through Facebook. I haven't laughed so hard on a daily basis in a long time. I'm also writing a memoir about taking care of my father during his last years of life, so this has opened up some time for that. I think having some kind of routine and purpose, whatever it may be, is key to getting through this.