Anyone else not feeling terribly stressed/inconvenienced by COVID?

The Quarantine Zone
1

Over the past few days, I’ve repeatedly thought how little I felt the quality of my life has been adversely impacted by COVID concerns. Sure, there are a few inconveniences, but they are relatively minor, and they are balanced against some benefits. Wondered if anyone else feels the same.

At the outset, I’m fortunate to not be in a high risk category, or responsible for anyone who is. I’ve also never been a terribly social person. I generally try to avoid crowds, and rarely go to restaurants/bars.

There are only a couple of things I’d normally do that I have not done due to COVID.
-I have a kid in California (I’m in IL). We went out there in March just when this thing started. We don’t see each other ALL the time, but I assume they woulda flown her this past summer. On the plus side, we’ve been phoning/zooming w/ her more frequently than before.
-I used to play music every Sat morning in big jams at a farmer’s market and in a coffee shop. I miss that, but a smaller group of us has been meeting in one person’s yard. And I’ve been playing more and different types of music with my wife and 3 other people, as well as my band. So I’m possibly playing more music than ever before.
-We used to go out at least 1-2x a month to see live music. That is gone.

But on the plus side:
-I’m very fortunate that my paychecks have kept coming uninterrupted.
-Even tho I had a short commute, working at home has saved some money and time. We’ve been able to spend whatever we wanted on whatevre we thought might improve the quality of our lives.
-I welcome the slower pace resulting from fewer obligations.
-I’ve had no interruptions of things I like to do - riding bikes w/ my sister, walking and training a new pup, seeing my daughter’s family, vacationing at a remote family property…
-Sure, I’ve been watching too much TV, but I’ve also taken the opportunity to read more than before, and play more/different music.
-We have a very limited group of couples whom we feel comfortable socializing with.

I imagine things will become more challenging as cold weather and cabin fever set in, but to be honest, the quality of our lives is not significantly worse than pre-COVID, and in many respects, might even be better. We often felt out of touch with what we perceived as an overly overscheduled/consupmtion oriented society. It almost makes me feel guilty to say so when so many are experiencing significant challenges. To some extent, our predispositions and choices over time have contributed to our current contentment.

Anyone else feeling similarly?

2

Pre-COVID I would work each weekday until 3 or 4, then go to a bar to have a few beers with my friends. I really miss that.

My son and his wife, who live in Florida, had a baby in January. I’m not all into babies, but she is getting bigger and more humanoid and I’d love to see her in person, but that aint gonna happen.

On the plus side, COVID19 has given me an excuse that I can use to avoid things I don’t want to deal with, so there’s that.

3

Not me, for one gigantic reason: I have a child in elementary school, now doing distance learning. That one change has enormously affected my life.

4

I hate not being able to travel and not knowing when I’m going to see my parents or brother again, but otherwise it’s been OK. I’ve been lucky in that I don’t have children (or anyone else living with me), all of my older relatives are still in good enough shape to look after themselves and self-isolate for as long as it takes, and my job is not at risk in the immediate short term (or, hopefully, the long term – as long as this doesn’t go on for years, and I would be shocked if it does, I think my university will survive).

But also: I feel like I just can’t relate to the way most of the people I know are feeling (who are mostly not particularly high risk). Like, they say they find going to the grocery store absolutely terrifying, and they have all these rituals involving gloves and face shields and wiping down groceries, and I’m like … chill? First of all, if the store is the only place you ever go, you would have to be pretty damn unlucky to catch it in the first place; secondly, at our age you would have to be even more unlucky to get seriously ill from it; but thirdly, if it does happen it probably isn’t something you can control, at least not with gloves and disinfectant wipes! (I’m good with masks, which seem to have some actual evidence they are useful.) And I feel like everybody would be so much happier and less stressed if they just accepted that this is something they can’t control and didn’t spend all this time and energy doing a bunch of stuff that probably makes very little difference except to give them the illusion of having control.

So, uh … apparently I’m OK with COVID, but all my friends annoy me, and I probably annoy them because lately I’m terrible at biting my tongue about this stuff?

5

I am a homebody by nature, so staying home with a good reason has been great!

Being essentially unemployed for nearly six months now is… not great. Job hunting is not going great. But, in the end, it may be forcing me out of a rut I’ve been in for twenty years, so… great!

It probably helps that I’m a generally cheerful person, though, and try not to stress about anything. The political climate being ratcheted up under COVID is probably the single biggest stressor in my life, so I make sure to take lots of “sanity time” away from social media/news.

6

Well, given the dearth of replies, I truly ought to consider myself fortunate.

7

Honestly, it’s worked out ok for me. There’s only been a few things that have really changed for me.

It’s really hard to go swimming. We are only allowed one person per lane, and we have to sign up a week in advance to get a lane. I rarely swim now.

I do miss the amusement parks. I’ve been once, but not everything is open, and I haven’t tried a water park.

While I do have kids, they are not around a lot so I don’t have to deal much with the online learning. I do help out sometimes, but that’s not too bad for me.

I did learn to scuba dive earlier this summer. I would never have had the chance to do that this year had the pandemic come around. I made all my vacation plans, but had to change those. Ended up taking my kids scuba diving and we got certified.

The biggest drawback for me has been working from home. I don’t mind so much, but I went from zero telework to 100%. I liked going in to the office because it gets me out of the house. I don’t leave the house as much as I should. I don’t walk as much as I do when I’m at work.

8

My life hasn’t changed much at all. I’m retired and my SO is on disability, so covid didn’t change the money situation except for giving us the stimulus bonus. The changes that have happened are minor, and sometimes positive.

We never eat out, but once a month or so we would have a dinner party here or go to a friend’s house, so not often enough that it makes a difference. Now an occasional barbecue in the backyard happens, but it’s summer and too hot for that to happen often. I expect we’ll do more of that as fall and winter approach. I still go fishing three or four days a week - that’s about as ‘distanced’ as any activity can be.

I have met a few more people in my neighborhood because many of those that work are at home and more are taking walks. Quite a few times I have been doing yard work and said good morning to someone walking down the road that I had never seen before. Sometimes introductions and brief conversations follow from that.

9

I think you should consider yourself lucky dinsdale. I guess for some it’s been a positive experience, for most just a pain in the ass but for others it has meant unemployment, homelessness, the death of loved ones or even shuffling off ones own mortal coil.
Two of the above have happened to me (obviously not the last :slight_smile: soI’m a little stressed it’s gotta be said.

10

I’m another fortunate one. I hesitated to chime in, as it feels a bit tone deaf for me to recount how great my life is right now when so many are suffering. I’m missing restaurants and travel, as well as baseball and football games, but in the scheme of things, those are very small sacrifices.

Since my office is “closed,” I can go in when I want or need to (usually no one else there) or I can work from home. I have time to putter around the yard and garden with my wife, and take walks on the beach with our dog.

We have two reasonably decent grocery stores within 5 miles, so it’s no trouble or stress to put on a mask and pick up whatever we need. We have a new rowing machine and Peloton bike, so we’re slowly getting back in shape. Our son, daughter-in-law and grandson live nearby and are in our circle (or whatever it’s called) so we see them when we want. Other children are semi-near by and we have started to see them lately too.

Other than my friends at the SDMB, no one I know is sick, suffering financially, or unusually depressed or anxious.

The practice of law has embraced remote depositions, mediations, and even trials. I’m hopeful that when this COVID thing passes, some of the changes will remain and I’ll have less wear and tear from travel.

I understand that for people locked down with three school aged kids who need homeschooling, this is a difficult challenge. I know that many are experiencing severe financial anxiety and hardship. And obviously, many people are sick and far too many have died. This is certainly a major public health emergency and economic disaster. I feel a little guilty for escaping the misery so many are facing.

11

I’m bloody fortunate as well, at the day-to-day level. My main form of recreation is cycling, which hasn’t changed at all; noodling on my guitar, which has changed somewhat as my lessons ceased in March but I’m trying to coord online lessons with my last instructor, who is recovering from an injury; and swinging by my favourite coffee place, which is still functioning but as take-out only, so some changes there but I can still shoot the breeze, at a distance, with the staff.
Work-wise my hours were significantly reduced for four months but I’m old enough that I also have a good pension, so that was sort of like a hybrid vacation/work experience, and I like my job anyway and I’ve been back full time for a few weeks now. Since March we were mandated to work from home but, for the previous year or two, that had become an option anyway (I only took advantage of it maybe once every two or three weeks though).
So I am extremely fortunate and I sometimes do feel quite guilty, or something of that nature, and I am sometimes floored by how surreal all of this is.
I also am extremely aware of how bad this actually is, though it is not directly impacting me but who knows if that will change as commercial real estate craps out because of all the WFH participants.

12

I’m exactly the same as Kron. But I’ve been lucky enough to keep a job I quite like so I’m also very lucky. And my Mum and I have been going on outdoor walks (we walk a meter apart) which has actually meant we’ve become closer. My one slight worry is that I’m becoming unfit. I used to go the gym three times a week and I’m not motivated enough to create a new at-home programme to replace it.

Hope you get out that rut Kron! I was made redundant a few years ago and it lifted me out of a rut I was barely aware of - so hopefully it’ll work out. With your positive attitude there’s a very good chance.

13

I didn’t know I had to reply if I fit the bill. Honestly, I figured that since I already brought up my situation twice before that it’d be redundant now…

But for what it’s worth, me.

14

The biggest daily annoyance is cooking lunch every work day, since we normally ate in the company canteen or at a restaurant.

I’m worried about my parents, who are in their late 70s, and currently have really unhealthy air (PNW), especially as the northern hemisphere goes into fall.

I think a cold and rainy winter is going to make it quite difficult for the social distanced socializing they do now.

We’re okay. Still feel like we put a lot of things on hold (vacations, home improvement plans), but we are getting some things done.

Never realized how much time and money we spent on things which we really didn’t need.

Still working on my own mental health, though. I don’t like this feeling of being unable to control things. So I’m doing better in controlling things I am able to control, and hope this helps to compensate.

15

Not stressed, but inconvenienced in that a lot of planned travel (Europe, California X2) has been cancelled, a scuba trip postponed from April to December and a trip to Vermont required a week of quarantine and a COVID test.

16

The lack of travel is a problem. I haven’t seen my dad since February, and I’m guessing I won’t be able to visit him again until late next spring at the soonest. He’s in his mid-80’s, and they’ve already had one COVID outbreak that killed eleven people at his assisted-living facility, so I’m…concerned. My wife is in a similar situation with her family in Japan: we make an annual voyage there that’s part tourism and part family visit, but we probably won’t be going there until next fall. Really hoping none of our elders die before we get to see them again.

For my wife and me, the rest is just a scaling back of various luxuries. We haven’t been to our favorite restaurants since February, and of course no weekend road trips anywhere. These are annoying changes, but I wouldn’t call them anxiety-inducing.

We count our blessings:

-We both are able to work from home, and are still doing so. Neither of us has gone to our normal place of work since March. It’s been nice not commuting, and - perhaps most importantly - we’ve been getting paid, so there’s zero financial stress in our household.

-We have no kids, so we don’t have to worry about whether or not to send them back to school or how to deal with them when we start going back to the office.

-Our employers are very conscientious about workplace safety. When we do finally go back (probably some time this fall), policies and practices have been put in place to avoid spreading contagion: masks, santizer, new room occupancy limits/rules, one-way hallways, scheduling to limit total building occupancy and so on.

-We’re getting virtually all of our groceries delivered, along with everything else; we haven’t set foot in a business establishment since March.

-We live in a single-family home, so it’s easy for us to maintain social distance.

So yeah, our personal situation is mostly just a matter of inconvenience, not a lot of stress compared to what some folks are up against.

17

Same here Dinsdale. While I’m not a hermit, we already live pretty remote. We have a nice spot and are well set up to work from home. Something I’ve wanted to do for years. I don’t mis much. Although there are a couple of friends I haven’t seen since January. I’m trying to rectify that. No kids which helps immensely I’m sure. I have two dogs that keep me company (my Wife is actually back at work, a lot of it is outside on her own though). I very much like my time to myself.

We watch less TV. But that’s been ramping up for about a year. My Wife and I play cards or chess nearly every night. I’m over all less stressed since I can work from home. I’m oddly getting to know some of my co-workers better through Slack. My bosses boss puts on silly contests weekly, and I’ve found that some of my co-workers really have a devious sense of humor.

I’ve gotten a new roof put on my house, I didn’t do it, but needed to be around. Also a new stove (heat). A few other things as well. All immensely easier since I’m at home anyway. I don’t have to take but a few hours off from work. We are ready for winter.

This may sound antithetical to what I wrote above, but it is a little surreal. March and April where for sure. Town was a ghost town. Understand that town is 25 miles away, but a real tourist area. Usually always very busy. To see Main St devoid of cars and parking available was kinda weird. Now they have closed Main St down to cars so restaurants can set out tables in the street for social distancing. They are gonna have problems with that soon as winter is just around the corner (we’ve already had snow)