Open Thread Update: How Are We Holding Up?
The good news is that anyone who is so over this pandemic has plenty of company, and the better news is that we’re resilient and smart enough to know when and how to recharge our batteries. Personally, reopening the gyms in NYC has been a lifesaver for me, a truly centering experience (and helping build back my muscle tone and bone density is a real plus).
Other readers who commented mentioned training therapy dogs (cute animals and walks for the win, Sharon!), Russ is rolling with it just fine, Terri regrets cancelled trips and her underused camera, and Linda took a much needed break to rest, cleanse and recharge. Carolyn noted for her it wasn’t the pandemic, it was the constant ‘fear factor” in political discourse; B/D had a different view.
We’re going to leave the comments thread open, so please continue to keep us posted!
Photo by Matt Seymour on Unsplash
Virge Randall is Senior Planet’s Managing Editor. She is also a freelance culture reporter who seeks out hidden gems and unsung (or undersung) treasures for Straus Newspapers; her blog “Don’t Get Me Started” puts a quirky new spin on Old School New York City. Send your suggestions for Open Threads to her at editor@seniorplanet.org.
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Comments
I had been working part-time for the last 10 years. That all stopped in mid-March. Before that, I had worked full-time for 50 years! The shut-down has been challenging because I live alone and work was definitely a source of social contact for me. Also, a lot of my family live out-state.
So I have a couple of video-chats per week with family or friends and talk on the phone also. I go out walking when weather permits. I read. I exercise and do yoga, but in that department have not had the motivation I used to have. I have to say that the lack of in-person social interaction has definitely been challenging.
I’ve signed up for online exercise classes with Senior Planet and am very grateful that those are available!
I’m blessed to live in a small town on the Oregon coast, in a county with only 55 confirmed cases in a population of almost 27,000 people, but I found myself losing patience with people who don’t wear masks around June. The warm weather did not slow the virus, and only the most selfish among us are pushing back on this most simple precaution. I volunteer, took up meditation (doesn’t work so well after too much coffee), and got my garden pretty much weed free. The outcome of the election is dragging me down, but we’ve only got a few more weeks….and the scary week after to get through.
Like everything else, I try to roll with it. Idiot in the white house. Just ignore negative stuff. Go about my day, use public transportation. Try not to take any risks, comply with everything as much as I can.
To my knowledge, although older people with other illness most at risk, anybody can get it, carry it, give it to others, this virus 19. Worse than flu for most, and the approach to tell the more healthy of society to just let 85% go back to normal, does not sound safe, for them, not especially the ones with complications, who may be out sometimes. Seems masks, distancing important until vaccines are ready, and applied.
One of the best things I did was sign the Great Barrington Declaration. Don’t laugh…watch the video of 3 doctors from Harvard, Oxford and Stanford and tell me they haven’t got a great strategy for stopping all the nonsense. NO POLITICS HERE.
https://gbdeclaration.org