Thank you for sharing that! 
Really glad my post was of some help to you.
Stay safe and well!
Seven years ago, I moved into a house here in NC. My rent, and the average utility bills, and all fixed expenses, such as health insurance, laundry, auto insurance, prescriptions, and the long term average of my food costs, and a couple of bottles of my favorite liquor a year, are a bit less than my fixed income. Usually that would include one or two events a week that I did for recreation, and social contact. Other non recurring expenses, such as books, or movies in theaters, and trips to visit those I love in other states were within my average annual income.
Each month, I would check my bank accounts, and use a portion of everything over six months of the total money spent on average during the last six months to an exercise in charity. Any significant excess of six months funding for my life I invest in some long term investment or savings.
In addition to those resources, I have a Roth IRA which I have never touched. (I always considered it a hedge against eventual inflation, and unforeseen expenses, which have not become a factor.) As of December of last year, my gross income was rather close to the median for Americans. Given my lifestyle, and habits, I have to admit, I am fabulously wealthy. The pandemic has strongly curtailed my indescretionary spending, My income has kept pace with the median before December. The rich get richer, and the poor have to work and expose themselves to pandemic disease, if they’re lucky.
I don’t have an answer for you. :o
I live in a small rural town (population around 11,000) and I see a few people walking their dogs outside - but none in the garden. (I suppose a dog much prefers a proper walk rather than doing circuits…)
Some folk might have a gardener (we have quite a few pensioners living in the town) and they probably don’t want any visitors.
Social isolation is working here - so far we only have 20 confirmed cases and no deaths. Of course it’s much easier to achieve that in a small rural community.
There are a lot of ticks already and it’s been 10-20 degrees colder than average for 2/3rds of the month. I might brave the ticks if it wasn’t windy every single day it gets above 40F…
Today is exactly like yesterday and tomorrow will be exactly like today. Next week will be exactly like this week which is exactly like last week. I’m so stupefied into boredom and apathy that I don’t know if I’ll be able to function again even in the unlikely event that somewhere, some day, it’s allowed. This is an absolutely miserable, worthless existence and I hate every minute of it.
I’m in the UK (Midlands) and it’s been quite agreeable weather recently. (I don’t think we have many ticks here 
)
Oh. Here in New England there are many ticks and rampant tick-borne diseases. It used to just be Lyme disease but there are others that are becoming a lot more common too.
Thank you so much for posting this. There are plenty of times I feel this way-- right now is one of them, and frankly, I don’t see much of a future, except more of the same. I think others feel like this, too, but there is a taboo on expressing one’s [del]negative[/del] starkly realistic thinking. I hope I don’t sound presumptuous when I say I absolutely get what you’re saying.
My management has requested that I and another coworker come into the office at least twice a week and push some paper that cannot be pushed at home.
At first I was pissed off about this, having grown accostumed to the comforts of my work office (my dining room table). While I’m still a little salty that I’m having to elevate my risk of catching a serious virus just so some upper manager up the food chain can get a pat on the head, I’ve realized that alternating work locations has been good for my spirit. It breaks up the monotony, for one thing. For another, it has made me appreciate the good things about being in the office. My chair is more comfortable there, as is the room temperature. Yesterday I was able to eat my favorite pizza from my favorite pizza place since it’s just across the street from my office. And I love having my dual monitors, which I can’t swing from home given the small size of my home workspace.
I also like seeing the occasional familiar face. My work office is largely a ghost town, but there are a few people who come in daily because they simply refuse to work from home. One is a new manager who is worried that it will look bad if she doesn’t come in. A couple of others have children at home who drive them nuts. So as introverted as I am, I will say hi to everyone on this skeleton crew (maintaining social distancing, of course). Makes me feel more normal.
I wanted to give this a bump and see if any of the other live-aloners would like to check in.
Tomorrow morning I’m going to my hairdresser-- all safety measures will be in place. We’re close friends but there will be no hugging. She’ll be masked and have me hold my mask over my mouth. But we’ll be able to talk without a phone, human to human.
This will be the closest I have been physically to another human being in eight weeks. No touches. No hugs. No handshakes. No one has been in a room with me-- just passing people on the street (on the OTHER SIDE OF THE STREET) and in the grocery store.
I usually get a couple of texts every day and one phone call-- not from the same people. That’s it, contact-wise, except for here. I will confess there’s no one in particular that I’m anxious to see or be around. When a friend suggested she might come over and sit 10 feet away, my reflexive response was, “NO!” I don’t know what conclusions to draw from that.
[Rhetorical question] Can I go on like this for months? [/RQ]
I guess I’ll have to.
How are y’all doing?
Doing OK here, still working from home until at least June 1. Company wants to bring people back to the office gradually since Indiana’s stay at home order expired. There’s too many of us to bring us all back at once.
Kittens are growing like weeds, they’re currently snoozing on the back of the chair behind me. That can't be comfortable - Album on Imgur
I went to the eye doctor last week, I was the first patient they’d seen other than emergencies for six weeks. Was interesting trying on frames while wearing a mask. They had me put all the “reject” frames in a box to be cleaned. That was the first place I’d gone other than the grocery store and vet’s office since mid-March.
squeeee!
I’m looking forward to going places as buses are free right now. It’s a ray of hope
I have been tangled up in a farmers’ market mess (abrupt decision on the part of the village on whose property we set up to move us to a different location) and have spent enough time on zoom, on the phone, and on email to leave me, personally, feeling stressed from excess interaction with other people. But then I’m far enough on the introvert end of the spectrum to generally be pretty happy alone, as long as I can hug the cats. (Who give me little choice in the matter.)
I’ve had several conversations with neighbors outside, standing some distance apart. That’s also of some help.
And oh, cute kitten pic!
I’m doing okay sheltering. I came down ill (a couple weeks of horrid digestive issues which I’m wondering was C-19) so I didn’t leave the house for three weeks, which was kind of hard. But social distancing is kind of my superpower, so it’s fine.
I was speaking with a friend though and she sounds despondent: she’s normally very social and works in a school with younger kids as a psychologist. Now she’s trying to do meetings and kid therapy via zoom seven hours a day and finds that draining as hell, and she lives alone and has nothing social to recharge her and and when we spoke she was practically in tears 
Oh God, this sounds really awful. I can’t imagine doing Zoom for 7 hours per day. Poor lady. I feel bad for her and I don’t even know her. 
As much as it sucks, of course it will be allowed someday. This year.
It SEEMS like this has been going on for ten years. It hasn’t been ten weeks. Time slows down to molasses, day merging with night. It won’t be forever. Might feel pretty close though.
I’m still hanging in. I talk with my neighbours over the fence from time to time, and on the phone with family and friends. Old friends are sending e-mails and messages on Facebook, and I’m replying.
I do try to get out once a day. It may be nothing more than a trip to the supermarket for groceries, or to the corner store for something as simple as treating myself to a Coke and a bag of chips, or even just a walk around the block, but it’s important that I get outside for a bit. Always avoiding others, of course.
Interestingly, I did get to meet up with some of my buddies not long ago. As I wrote to a distant friend:
It wasn’t a long meetup. Maybe a couple of hours at most. After all, we were drinking beer, and our host understandably did not want anybody using his bathroom (and we didn’t want to use it either). But we stayed safely distanced, nobody coughed or sneezed, and I hope that we can do it again sometime. It was great to speak with the guys in person again.
It’s 2 months today since I started working at home. The first month or so I did go out of the house once a week for groceries and other supplies, at first without mask and then with when the Maryland gov said we should start wearing them.
I haven’t been out in the last three weeks though, since I drove to the doctor’s to get a swab test. The test was negative, but i’m coughing and did have a sort of heaviness in my lower chest, so we (Dr. and I) agreed that it’s better if I isolate to be on the safe side. I have everything delivered in and left at the front door. If it’s nice out, I’ll go sit on the patio, but I haven’t been beyond the front gate to get the mail and leave out/take in the trash can. It’s sort of like being under house arrest, or a posh 6-room solitary confinement with cats and computer. It’s going to feel very weird when I do start to go out again after this is over.
I wish I could share your optimism. But, the viral genie isn’t going back in the bottle, and what will be different in December from today?
One of the advantages of a pessimistic outlook is that all my surprises are pleasant ones. But, I’m not surprised all that often.