Covid-19 Community Support and Mental Wellness Thread

a reply to: Bluesma

Wow.

Here they consider things like hiking, biking, jogging to be essential outdoor activities I guess because they figure that people can socially distance themselves adequately doing them.

Fishing at state parks is allowed and the state I live in has allowed people to do it for free these first few weeks of the season.

a reply to: Bluesma

Go ahead and talk to that kitty. I talk to mine all the time. She is a good listener too. Just cocks her head and looks at me.
She knows the words cat and kitty and Mia and food and cat-toy and I watch her ears react to them when I talk to her.

You're not alone buddy.
We are here just on the other side of the screen. Sending you a big cyber hug. So big you'll want to push me away and say thanks that's enough.

a reply to: Sillyolme

LOL!

Just came back from the grocery store. I have not been out since Friday.
Here's the problem I am encountering. I am trying to maintain my distance from people.
The store I was in was not busy at all and funny enough was mostly seniors.
I was near the dairy case and a man was by the butter and cheese case. I waited about twelve feet away near another display until he finished and walked away but when I moved in to get some butter. He gave me a weird look like what's your problem. Ok. No biggy.
Then I am at the register and there is a lady waiting for the cashier to finish with the guy in front of her. I get in line and keep back about seven or eight feet with the cart taking up some of that space. Another lady comes and stands right behind me. I moved to the side a few feet because I had the space and she moves with me. I moved a bit more not looking at her and she came right with me.
I smiled at her and said it's so hard to keep that six foot distance in this store isn't it whereby she smiled and took a step back. Yeah it's cramped over here she said.
Just then another lady got on line behind her and said I'm not doing that. I don't care. I don't think it's necessary. She turned to the man behind her, a big strapping young man and said are you worried? He shook his head. I didn't know this was an opinion thing.
So how is everyone dealing with maintaining their space while not coming off like a dick or a paranoid idiot?

a reply to: Hefficide

Make a bunch of tea and replace the tea in the containers then enjoy it and no one gets hurt.

a reply to: FinallyAwake

Yeah I heard that about Prince Charles. He's secluded up in Balmoral castle.

originally posted by: 0zzymand0s
I'm still alive and kicking and getting used to doing all my appointments/meetings and jam sessions online or by phone (Hi mom!).

The SO is also home for the duration. She is stressed about her friends who are being asked to work frontline ER/Pacu/ED shifts reusing their disposable PE for their entire shifts.

Ozzymandis,you gotta check in more often, i could have used some laughs you give me.

a reply to: Sillyolme

I went to the market and took my tenant.

Walking in the front doors of the supermarket,and she is hugging some dope she hasn't seen in a while.

I told her she was a dope and she didn't care.

a reply to: toolgal462

I didn't know my ex was your tenant? Small world!

My daughter reports she is trying to stay sane over at moms but mom keeps "going out with friends so she won't go stir crazy." My 21-year-old asked me why she has to be a parent to her 54-year-old mom.

I was hoping COVID19 would end the "I'm just living my best life!" movement. By the looks of things, it's untreatable.

originally posted by: 0zzymand0s
a reply to: toolgal462

I didn't know my ex was your tenant? Small world!

My daughter reports she is trying to stay sane over at moms but mom keeps "going out with friends so she won't go stir crazy." My 21-year-old asked me why she has to be a parent to her 54-year-old mom.

I was hoping COVID19 would end the "I'm just living my best life!" movement. By the looks of things, it's untreatable.

Yah, my mom just called me screeching that she needs to go out but what she really needs is to go out and scratch tix.

I went out and shopped for my parents just yesterday but suddenly she needs a bunch of stuff she tells me.

Some people you just can't reach...

As for me, I was born to self isolate. LMAO

Eh, all the kids in the neighborhood are on jailbreak.

originally posted by: ketsuko
Eh, all the kids in the neighborhood are on jailbreak.

Can't blame them. None of this grown up stuff will ever happen to them. I remember what it was like being a kid.

2 months with no school would be a dream!

I was a kid when the blizzard of 78 hit Mass and everything was locked down for a few weeks. No school for two weeks and lotta snow to play in.

This might be a good memory for kids one day. lol

originally posted by: Bluesma
I'm really having a hard time now. Day 8. I am so damned lonely! I tried skyping with my father last night.
He never really answers much or keeps in touch, but I finally got him and my stepmom on for about five minutes.
But they were busy doing their yoga so said they didn't have time to chat.

I am starting to suddenly break out in tears once in a while, for no reason.

I don't know how I am going to make it through this.

DMs are open if you need to talk.

If I were stuck in an apartment I would lose my mind, which is one reason I could never live in an apt long term. I need space, fresh air, privacy. I need to walk outside.

I've been in people's apartments. You either walk out to a balcony if you have one, or open your door to a hallway.

I like walking outside and having no people, plenty of trees, nature, space. No confinement. Sitting outside. A porch.

a reply to: toolgal462

Some people you just can't reach...

So we get what we had here today, which was: Four straight hours of Fallout: New Vegas.

Social distancing is where it's at. I could get used to it.

a reply to: toolgal462

Well, there are four other boys within a year of my own kiddo's age in our neighborhood, and they regularly all play together.

This has been murder on them. Some parents will let them play outside, but so far, we've been trying to enforce social isolation, so they can play ... but not with each other. Yesterday, my son and the little kid who lives next door were trying to find ways play without playing.

Finally, all the parents just threw up our collective hands and more or less said, "Eff it!" It's just too hard on them, and they don't get why.

My husband was talking with a coworker remotely, and apparently about the same thing happened yesterday in they town where husband actually works too -- the parents more or less said, "Eff it!"

a reply to: ketsuko


Yah, I can't imagine making kids self isolate is worth it. It would be too hard on them.

I'd imagine for kids this is actually less stressful, at least in ways, than it is for many of us who are a bit past that stage of life. They have social tools at their disposal that are incredibly interactive and immersive. They're tools that older folks can access as well, just ones that we don't tend to use or want to use.

Bluntly put - they have Fortnite and they love it. Online game, live mics, banter, grouping up in teams. It's all very social.

I, on the other hand, actually have Fortnite installed on my PC ( or did, might have deleted it by now ). I played it for about 30 seconds and hated the experience... Ironically because of the social aspects of the game. I'm a bit too old and irritable to try and focus on a twitch shooter while listening to 13 year old kids telling me about all the ways in which they have violated my mom.

If I were a 13 year old kid in 2020, I'd probably enjoy the game a whole lot more.

Or maybe it's one of those ironic things where when I was 13, in 1980, all I wanted to do was go to the arcade to play Pac Man, Defender, Centipede, Missile Command and Asteroids... Because that was the more unusual option... Maybe kids today, by virtue of video games being the default, now more crave their own unusual option... Going outside and doing the things that were default back in my day?

This is probably more scattered of a thought than I'd care to admit and don't be surprised if in a few days I post something like "My curtains are trying to pick a fight with me. I suspect they're conspiring against me with the microwave. The curtains have hated me ever since the Febreeze incident. I'm sure of it."

a reply to: toolgal462

We're gonna have to hit some people over the head to get them to wake up.

Not finding hand sanitizer in the store I now have a baggie with vodka soaked paper towels I keep in my purse.

This is how we live now.

a reply to: ketsuko

I haven't been seeing any kids. With the schools closed they are not out.
I'm on a main road where people are always walking by my door but not lately.
I usually have to pick up litter every couple of days along my front fence line but I raked up last week and it's still tidy. No WaWa drink cups or Doritos bags stuck under the fence.

Its 5:30 AM and I can usually hear traffic out there by now but only an occasional car has gone by.
I hear the birdies singing instead.

I live between two international airports and even the sky traffic is sparce.
I hear the fly boys from Langley training but not much else.

Good morning ATS.