Tag: covid-19

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DO YOU PLAN STAY-AT-HOME DAYS?

Do you plan your Stay-At-Home Days?  For the first three decades of my life, everything was planned for me. From the age of five through 21, I was a student. I didn’t have to make any decisions as to how I spent my time.  Go to class, study, recreation, sleep.  The pattern repeated itself every day, for years. 

After college, the routine changed, but my days followed a pattern.  Work, recreation, sleep.  Next came  marriage and children:  Filling my daytime hours wasn’t a problem:  Cook, clean, take care of children, recreation, sleep.  That all changed when my lst husband had a meltdown, and I went to work. Managing  a hospital department while raising three children under ten required a whole lot of planning.  For the next twenty some years,  I made to do lists every single day.  After retiring, I was involved in activities and responsibilities that still required plans and lists.

And then,  the coronavirus hit,  No activities to participate in, or people to see.  The doldrums set in.  I felt tired and aimless.  After a few days, it dawned on me.  This wasn’t going to end soon.  I had to make some plans.

The pandemic requires everyone to self isolate. Do you plan your Stay At home Days
The coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we live our lives.

My days needed structure.  I couldn’t just lie around and wait for the pandemic to end.  Although   I couldn’t attend my tai chi classes or go swimming now, I still needed exercise.  How would I keep  my mind sharp.?  Visiting with family or friends was out.   Nor could I take any trips—not even to Indy.  What in the world would I do?

First, I would not stay in bed until noon.  We had always gotten out of bed around 8:30 to have coffee and read the paper.  That would continue.  But no lolling around in pajamas all day.   Getting dressed, fixing my hair, and a little lipstick made me feel normal, and more energetic.

Do You Plan Your Stay At Home Day? Try doing jigsaw puzzles.
Plan Your Stay At Home Days with jigsaw puzzles to help your brain.

Things to incorporate into my new life:  Reading more books, via kindle.  Spring Cleaning with a vengeance.  Not just washing some windows, but curtains, walls, cabinets.  Cleaning out closets and drawers.  Exercise.   On  rainy days, when I can’t walk outside, I  get my exercise with the dreaded spring cleaning.  You can burn a bunch of calories that way. Since restaurants are closed, it was time for me to experiment with new recipes.   I could play bridge and online. It’s not as much fun as playing with real live people, but it gives you a little entertainment.  My husband ordered some jigsaw puzzles ( Did you know they challenge your brain?.}   Weeding my garden like it’s never been weeded before.  Planting flowers.    Cleaning out my files and drawers.  Writing checks and paying bills.  Sending birthday cards.

Sample daily schedule:

8:30: Make coffee, read the newspaper (home delivery)

9:00  Do morning stretch exercises

9:15   Light breakfast.  Make bed, turn on computer, check e mail and other online favorite websites.

10:00  Start project for the day:  cleaning, gardening, writing, etc..  One day a week, go to grocery store (wearing mask, gloves, glasses).

12:00  Lunch

12:30  15 minutes of unfiltered sunshine (weather permitting)

12:35  Paperwork:  paying bills, filing, writing cards,

1:30   Put in a load of laundry or write blog.

2:00  Walk in park, weather permitting

3:00  Fold laundry or finish blog.

3: 15 Bridge online,or help husband with jig saw puzzles

4:00  Tai chi (3 short exercises)

4:15  Personal care:  Hair,  nails, etc.

5:00  Start planning dinner

6:00 Dinner

6:30 Watch news

7:00 Clean kitchen

The rest of the evening is pure relaxation:   Meditating, Netflix streaming,  favorite TV shows, or more reading.  A warm bath, then bed around 11:00.

The schedule is subject to change at any time,  to allow  for telephone calls. These are usually spontaneous, and can’t be planned.

And so, after 8 weeks of self-isolation, I’m busier than ever.   Do you plan your stay-at-home days during the Covid 19 crisis?

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TAKE A MOTHER’S DAY BREAK FROM COVID-19

It’s been almost two months since we’ve been in this pandemic.  We’re worn out, and depressed.  But just for today, why not take a Mother’s Day Break from Covid-19.  Give yourself a time out from from your worries , and focus on the good things that are happening. 

Here are 9  things to celebrate today:

Gas prices are low.   I’ve not filled my gas tank since March 15.  And when I do, it’s going to be a pleasant surprise when I see the final bill.

No school shootings.  Since schools are closed, we don’t have to see or hear about kids killing kids.

No new middle eastern conflicts.  Worldwide virus outbreaks have incapacitated most of our enemies.

Reconnecting with families.  Kids and parents are getting to spend more time together.  Getting to know each other. Playing games. Cooking.  Bicycling. Going to parks.

Spring weather. Yes, we had a cold blast.  But the trees are leafing out, there’s greenery everywhere. If you have a garden, you can start putting out annuals.

Kindness of strangers.  When you walk in the park, everyone you encounter smiles and waves.  That didn’t used to happen.  And look at the food banks all over the country.  People reaching out to help families in need.

Take a Mother's Day Break. Be grateful for the kindness of strangers.
TAKE A MOTHER’S DAY BREAK FROM COVID-19. BE GRATEFUL FOR THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS.

Low credit card bills.  We were shocked to receive our Visa statement this month.  It was less than half what it normally is.  That’s what happens when you don’t go anywhere, eat out, or shop in malls.

Stimulus money and unemployment checks.  Lots of folks actually are enjoying more income than they had when they were working.

Wellness.  99% of Americans do not have Covid-19.  So if you’re healthy and well, celebrate that today.  You’ve done a good job of hand washing, mask wearing, and social distancing.

Things to avoid:

Watching or listening to the news .  Take a break from alarmist news reporters who like to get you worked up and scared about what’s going on in our country.

Negative thoughts.  When something unpleasant enters your mind, don’t dwell on it.  As an example, what if you get the virus?  As long as you’re following CDC guidelines, that’s all you can do.  If you do get sick, it won’t be because you were careless.  Don’t spend today worrying about it.  Take a few deep breaths. Listen to some music. Take a walk.  Call a loved one.

Just for today, take a break from Covid-19.  Happy Mother’s Day!.

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Stop! You don’t need wipes to disinfect

Last night,  the manager of a plant that makes Clorox wipes  was interviewed on nightly news. He said demand has tripled. Consequently, they’re working overtime (and making big bucks). to fill up empty store shelves.   Everyone is beginning to panic.  Stop! You don’t need wipes to disinfect.

If you can't get Clorox wipes, you can make your own solution. Stop! You don't need disinfectant wipes.
Stop! You don’t need disinfectant wipes. You can make your own bleach solution during this pandemic.

You can’t even buy Clorox wipes on Amazon.  They’re out of stock.  It boggles the mind, when you know how easy it is to disinfect with plain old bleach.  I haven’t seen any store out of it.   I always have a big bottle of it in my broom closet.  It’s dirt cheap. All you have to do is pour a little bit of bleach into some water, put on some rubber gloves, take an old rag, and voila!  You have a disinfectant every bit as good as clorox wipes.  You not only saved money, but you helped the environment.

Can you believe there was a time when people didn’t use wipes to clean a baby’s bottom, wash their face, or disinfect?  In the early sixties, I used soap and water on a washcloth.  I had never heard of a baby wipe.  It wasn’t until the seventies that they became popular.  It wasn’t long before there were wipes for just about everything.  And people thought they couldn’t do without them.

What’s bad about wipes?  For starters, they’re bad for the environment. Whether baby wipes or disinfecting wipes, they pose a major problem by clogging up sewer systems.  Once they enter the sewer system, wet wipes bunch together and trap food and other waste to form wads called “fatbergs” made of fat from food waste and wipes.

Most wipes contain plastic fibers that are not biodegradable. When the wipes make their way into the ocean, they get ingested by sea creatures, such as turtles, who mistake them for jellyfish.  The plastic stays in the stomach of the animal, and eventually, they die of starvation.

Plumbers do not like wipes. Even though some wet wipes are marketed as “flushable” and “septic-safe,”  they take a longer amount of time to do so compared to toilet paper.   Consequently, clogged pipes and blockages occur more frequently.

Save money, save the environment.  First,  clean and remove dirt and grime from surfaces.  Next,  follow the directions on a bottle of bleach to make your own disinfectant solution. But be careful not to use too much.  Fumes from too strong a solution can sting your eyes and nose.

Yes, you can get through this pandemic, even if you can’t buy disinfectant wipes.

 

 

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STAY AT HOME DIARY: WEEK 7

When every day is the same, you lose your sense of time.   Consequently, I almost forgot my youngest grandson’s birthday, May 4. It’s worse at the first of the month, when you don’t even know what month it is.  Luckily, my husband keeps a birthday calendar, and reminded me when he flipped it from April to May.

Planted flowers for the big container on our deck.  I just couldn’t wait, and Meijers had a great selection of annuals. But here’s the bad news.  Spent so much time outside that I inhaled too much tree pollen.  Woke up in the middle of the night with a stuffed up nose.  Trouble with spring allergies is that they scare you into thinking you’ve caught the coronavirus.   Now, the weatherman is predicting frost for the weekend.  I’ll have to cover the flowers with a sheet overnight.  The rule of thumb used to be: don’t plant annuals until after Mother’s Day.  I think that’s good advice.

Stay At Home Diary: Malls are reopening this week in Indiana
Stay at Home Diary: Week 7. Malls are opening this week in Indiana.

Malls are opening this week, but why?  What’s there to buy when you aren’t going anywhere or seeing anyone.?  Here’s what they’re going to do in places like Macy’s and Stein Mart:  Everyone wears a mask. The bathroom and dressing rooms are closed.  You have to take your clothes home to try them on, and return them if they don’t fit.  Sounds like a lot of bother.  If there’s anything we’ve learned  during the lock down, it’s how few clothes a person really needs.  My closet is full of clothes that haven’t been worn in months.

This is four season weather.  In the side hallway:  wool hat, wool scarf, mittens.. Gardening gloves and winter gloves.  winter coat, winter jacket, spring coat, sweat jacket, raincoat.  And—I’ve worn all of them in one week’s time.  Weather has gone from 82 to 34  degrees in the past 7 days.

We’ve managed to keep our weight even.   In fact, my husband has lost five pounds.  Wish I could say the same.  We’re both at the far end of normal on body mass Index charts.   I can remember when I was borderline underweight.  That’s what retirement will do for you.  But it’s good at our age to have a little “extra,” in case we get sick.  That’s what they say, and I’m going to believe it because I want to.

More Netflix binging. This week started watching “Hollywood,” which is supposed to be the story of Rock Hudson.  The actor they’ve chosen to portray Rock is no way as handsome as he was. I think they could have done a better job of casting that part.

Today, our local paper ,has gone from 7 days a week to 5 days.   We still get the Indy Star every day, but on the Tuesdays and Sundays when we don’t get a local paper,  it isn’t delivered to our door.  I have to get up out of bed , put on a coat , and walk to the end of our driveway. to get the Indianapolis paper.   Well, that’s one way of keeping track of time.

We’ve changed to bar soap for washing our hands.  Ivory for me, Dove for my husband.  Now our hands are not red and itchy from scented, colored liquid soap. .But with all the extra scrubbing,  fingers are swelling, and my wedding ring is too tight.

Grocery shopping one day a week is a big job.  Our side by side refrigerator and freezer are packed to the brim. Wonder what people with big families are doing?  They would have to shop more often for milk, juice, eggs, meat, etc.  So far, haven’t had any problems with shortages except for canned cheese soup, cream of onion.  Plenty of cream of mushroom and plain tomato. available.  Didn’t realize how many people dislike mushrooms.

Never dreamed I would still be writing a Stay At Home Diary after seven weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Stay safe.  Hang in there.

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Recycling: We called it Making Do

As children coming of age in the forties, we had never heard the word “recycling”.   For most families emerging from the great depression,  and  going into into World War II,  we called it  “making do.”

For instance, Tupperware was invented in 1946, but it wasn’t until the fifties and sixties that it became popular. Before that, we reused grocery store food containers to store leftovers:  Cottage cheese buckets,  margarine bowls—anything that could be washed and dried.    Tupperware parties were all the rage, but it was expensive.  It didn’t cost a penny to re purpose sturdy containers.    And most of us did.

 Cloth diapers were still used,  With two babies in diapers,  I spent a lot of time washing and folding them.  But I didn’t have to spend money on plastic diapers.

Cloth dishtowels are environmentally friendly, and save money.    They’re more absorbent, and feel softer.  I use paper towels only for draining fried foods–maybe one roll per year.

Yes, I’ve succumbed to paper napkins. But I have fond memories of using cloth napkins as a child.  My mother painted clothes pins with each siblings names to keep them straight.  And the napkins  were washed every week.

Computers, wireless phones,  or others electronic devices weren’t available, so there was nothing to recycle.  As a result,  our main source of  free home entertainment was television.    No one paid for Netflix, HBO, or streaming services.   If we wanted more entertainment, we went to the movies , a concert or live theater performance.

Hand me down clothes were welcomed.  If they didn’t fit, they could be altered.  As the youngest of three girls, I seldom had a “new” outfit except maybe at Easter time, when we all dressed alike.  However,  even my older sisters wore hand me downs. We had 2nd cousins all over the Midwest.  Every year, they sent boxes of their outgrown sweaters and dresses, and we were thrilled to receive them.

Flower seeds were cheap, and  started plants from nurseries were considered a luxury. Cuttings  and starts from other gardeners cost nothing.  My husband lived on a farm, and  his mother  generously shared  her wide variety of plants and flowers,   Consequently, even a poor person could have a beautiful garden, if they had the time and energy.

Darning socks.  Yes, people still did that , even in the fifties.  There was something called a “darning needle.”  My husband’s grandmother was shocked when I said I would never darn a sock.  And I never did.  I guess I was ahead of my time.

Brown paper sacks from grocery stores  could be repurposed  to wrap packages for mailing.  Or storing things in the basement or attic.  Because brown paper bags are recyclable, they don’t fill up landfills with plastic.

In the early 20th century, women repurposed feed sacks for dresses. We called it making do.
Recycling: we called it making do.when women made dresses from feed sacks.

Farm wives repurposed feed sacks to sew men’s shirts , women’s dresses, towels, and other household necessities.   If you lived in the city, you got the sacks from your country cousins or friends.  Those  pretty cotton materials were  soft to the touch,,and immensely comfortable.

It looks like the Coronavirus pandemic is going to throw us into a recession. Hopefully not a depression.  Perhaps we should take some lessons from the past,  and recycle the old fashioned way by Making Do.

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COVID-19 HAS CHANGED SOME LUCK

Have you ever been on a cruise?  If not, why?  For most people, the reasons are financial.  Even though cruises are a “good deal,” they’re still beyond reach for the average middle class person struggling to support a family.  Other reasons are because of motion sickness, poor health, whatever.  But you still have to hear someone you know raving about the cruise they just took or are going to take.  That’s all changed now.  No one envies the “lucky people” who got stuck on cruise ships this year.  Covid-19 has changed some luck. 

If you’re retired, you probably know of people who can afford to live in luxury, senior living facilities.  Those posh places with gourmet food,  swimming pools, fitness centers and the like.  Sometimes you’ve envied their life style– the congregate meals and activities they enjoy, while you’re stuck in your own home.  Still worrying about trash removal, lawn care, shopping, cooking, and cleaning. That’s all changed now.  Those folks are stuck in their apartments with meals being delivered to them on trays.  In your own place, taking care of the yard and cleaning your house provides much needed exercise.  You’re able to go outside and take a walk.–to come and go as you please.

Some luck has changed. Be thankful for what you got.
Some luck has changed.

If you’ve ever worked in a middle income job you may have wished you were a doctor or nurse.  Those people not only enjoy high salaries,  they seldom lose their jobs.  That’s still the case, but the trouble is, many of them are getting sick and dying during the coronavirus outbreak.  Health care workers are risking their lives every single day that they go to work.  They really aren’t very lucky, right now.

Do you live in flyover country?  Big city dwellers on both coasts have looked down on you forever.  Who would want to live in a dull place like Nebraska or South Dakota?   You may have envied people who have glamorous jobs and enjoy the excitement of big cities.  Trouble is, they’re all crammed together in a very small space.  It’s called population density, and if you live in a western state or a dull little town, you’re chances of getting sick with Covid-19 are much, much less.  Because you aren’t living on top of each other and breathing in infected air every time you step out your door.

Covid-19 has changed some luck.  This isn’t a time for schadenfreude.  No one  should enjoy the misery of others. But if you’re one of the lucky ones who hasn’t  come down with the virus, count  your blessings.   Stop comparing yourself to lucky people. Be thankful for  what you’ve got. 

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7 lessons learned from COVID-19 crisis

Looks like we’re flattening the curve on coronavirus cases.  The end isn’t here, but it’s coming. In a couple of months, we’ll be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  But things will never be the same. Here are seven  lessons learned from the COVID-19 crisis.

1. Saving for a rainy day is good advice.  I know it’s not possible for everyone. Stuff happens, and you find yourself in a hole, living paycheck to paycheck.  I’ve been there, done that, and  know how it feels. And yet, many folks who could have established an emergency fund didn’t.  They maxed out their credit cards on boats,  trips to Disneyland,  eating out, and other stuff they didn’t really need.  I hope their unemployment and stimulus checks tide them over now.  But when they finally get back on their feet,  they really need to cut out some of the unnecessary spending.  And make it a point to save a certain percent of their income for a rainy day.

2. You can keep ripe bananas in the frig.  Shopping habits changed the past few months. Instead of going to the grocery several times a week, we had to cut it down to once or twice.  Planning ahead was a necessity.  And if you bought enough bananas ahead of time, they were apt to spoil before your next trip.  My husband and I split part of a banana  every day—him for his cereal, mine for smoothies.  Although you’re always told you can’t refrigerate ripe bananas, the fact is, you can—for a couple of days.  The skin may turn dark, but the inside is still fresh and sweet.

3.  Everyone should wash their hands more often. Many of us were lax about that.  How many times have you seen someone leave a public restroom without washing?  But I think everyone has it in their heads now:  Washing your hands will keep you from getting the flu, colds, and other types of infections. If you didn’t know it before the covid-19 outbreak, you know it now.

     4.   Higher education is more important than ever.  During the past decade, I’ve met many bright young people who dropped out of college because they could make so much money in tips at upscale restaurants.  Those people are now drawing unemployment.  Those with college degrees  are more likely to have jobs that pay them to work from home.  Others who learned a skilled trade find their services in high demand. A two year degree may pay off  just as well as a four year degree.    If you have the academic ability, get some training and education beyond high school. Don’t rely on tips to fulfill your dreams.

7 lessons learned from COVID-19 CRISIS. Immunity, education, saving, good health habits, sunshine all have an effect
Open office space can be hazardous to your health.: 7 lessons learned from COVID-19 crisis.

5.  Open spaces offices are bad for your health.  70% of modern offices have no walls.  You’re forced to  work close beside other people , breathing in whatever they’re breathing out in the way of viruses .  It’s been shown that open office spaces make people less productive and healthy. Without walls or barriers in front of you, a virus can spread very easily. Companies should  go back to providing offices or at least cubicles, where  employees can enjoy a little peace, quiet, and cleaner air.

6. Find some  old fashioned pastimes that don’t require wireless.  Jigsaw puzzles, cards, board games, crossword puzzles, just to name a few.  Or creative activities like painting, sewing or woodworking.  There could be a national crisis that involves an internet blackout.  What will you do to pass the time, then?

7. Unfiltered sunlight is good for you, in small doses.  Sunscreens prevent cancer, but they also block the production of vitamin D.   Vitamin D is important for a good immune system. Doctors now recommend that you wait 15 minutes before applying sunscreen if you’re out in the sunlight.

Americans are resilient and smart.  They will make it through this crisis and  also learn their lessons.