How long do you personally think you could stay locked down?

The Quarantine Zone
41

As things currently stand: indefinitely. We can both WFH, at present we’re managing to get food deliveries often enough not to have to do grocery store runs, and I’m enough of an introvert that I don’t really miss going out. The only thing driving me nuts is having to effectively teach my child all her subjects - the school is providing material and online support but I still have to help whenever she gets stuff (and, more often, poke her to do the work in the first place).

Also, I already have some mad crazy hair and it’s only getting worse. The real question is at what point I give up and get the clippers out.

42

This. Wife and I haven’t had restaurant food (not even takeout) since March. We get all our groceries delivered, so we haven’t even set foot in a grocery store since then either.

I miss the visual and mental stimulation of these sorts of activities.

I miss walking through a grocery store.

I miss buying gas for my car.

I miss sitting in a restaurant dining room, smelling all the different foods and hearing all the snippets of conversation around me.

I miss riding my motorcycle, which I haven’t done yet this year.

I miss IndyCar, which has lopped off the first half of the current racing season.

I’m an introvert, but I do miss seeing my coworkers face to face, with all of the casual interaction that comes with that.

Four vacations were planned for this year, two of which involved visits with family. All cancelled until this stupid virus gets brought to heel.

We cook our food, we exercise on an elliptical trainer, we watch TV, we poke at the internet. We’re still getting paid, we’re physically healthy, but there’s a lot that’s missing compared to a few months ago. We can continue for a long time, but I can’t pretend this is awesome.

“My heart is beating, I’m alive, but I don’t call this living.” - Adam Ant

43

L’enfer, c’est lest autres,
Le paradis, c’est soi-même?

44

I could do this pretty much forever. This weekend I alternated between being a bit drunk and pretty high. I mowed our lawn and things look lovely. My gf pointed out tree limbs she wanted removed, and I used the chainsaw. We went on a 2.5 hour horseback ride, sat in the yard watching our tortoise lurch around, hiked with the dogs, grilled walleye fillets, ate like a king.

45

Kinda the same here. We did however go out to look at new propane stoves in a town about 60 miles away. Ours quit and can’t find parts to fix it. It’s a heat stove not a cooking stove. It is at least not the middle of winter, but still gets a bit chilly. We absolutely must get this figured out.

Noodled on the guitar, trying to learn Pink Floyds Wish You Were Here (I’m absolutely terrible, but it’s fun). Wife and I played two games of chess on the deck, then a game of Rummy inside since it got too chilly.

Days start very early and we are usually in bed by 7-8pm.

Oh the news went off, music came on. My Wife must be working. I should get to it as well, I mostly have some documents to read and a database conversion to try to puzzle out.

46

If I am offered paying work I have no choice but to take it. And if I am forced to sign a liability waiver in order to accept that work, I also have no choice.

Aside from an offer for work, we plan to remain as locked down as we have been. Until there is a vaccination there is no reason to believe that the waves of viral infection and death will abate.

Angry frightened people want to unshoulder their AR-15s and cut people in half at the sternum for daring to say the words " Second Wave".

Fuck them.

It’s coming. History shows it. Tracking of increased infections due to relaxed protocols shows it.

What the hell would suddenly make me think I can ride the subways ( which in NYC are quite jammed these weeks, months, days ), hang out in restaurants, sit in the park, etc? Nothing has changed. Nothing will change. A virus is a non-living entity of opportunity.

It actually doesn’t give a fuck if Donald Trump is in the White House or not. It keeps reproducing merrily until it can’t any more.

I assume I’ll be living a severe lockdown at least until the New Year.

47

Pretty much. The wife and I have each other and the cats. We’re good.

I will admit being a bit pissed off that 2 weeks after reconnecting with my former brewing partner and her husband, and after making plans for regular dinners together we got locked down and every restaurant/bar in the world closed. C’est la guerre.

48

As an ER doctor I hope the drunk/high portion of the weekend was separate from the chainsaw/lawnmower portion. Otherwise that sounds lovely.

49

Like others, I already work from home. I am still getting paid. I don’t go out much as it is…pretty much just to grocery shop, and I’m doing that now. In fact I’m doing that now more than ever because I’m shopping for my folks too and cooking more at home.

I walk the dogs at parks less now, because people are flocking to parks. I still walk them, but just around the neighborhood and occasionally at a park if it’s sparse.

Only things I’m “missing” are trivia at the bar, and city council related meetings. We have our meetings online. Trivia at the bar is opening June 1 and I don’t think I’ll be going yet.

I offered to host Trivial Pursuit games over Zoom with my trivia team and nobody wanted to do it. So they must not miss trivia too much. Fuck 'em.

Anyway, I’m good staying home. And actually getting increasingly paranoid about catching it as I read more accounts of people who have lived through it. I’m not ready.

50

Heh, I hear ya. I use a chainsaw maybe twice a month, year round. We now hire out the big jobs just because 62 year old outa shape dudes shouldn’t fell the big ones.

I always show respect to the chainsaw. I wear shoes, for example. And my state of mind is always as it should be. I take one or two puffs from the vape pen, then proceed. Without one or two puffs I’m too cautious to touch a chainsaw. :slight_smile:

And my end of the mowing involves our riding tractor. Drunk for that, but it’s just driving around in an ever shrinking circle.:smiley:

51

Well, if you mean me, personally, with my actual real life, then I’d say I can continue as I’ve been pretty much indefinitely. I haven’t been locked down, and while my department has been working mainly from home, much of the department still has to come into work physically. Myself, I haven’t been working from home more than a handful of days since this thing started. While the stress, especially early on, took a huge toll and continues to do so, I think we have gotten things to a point where we can sustain this for as long as it takes…assuming the government starts getting the revenues again to sustain everything, which seems iffy at this point. That’s the real issue…how long can we go on with this level of deficit? We have already had our budget for the rest of the fiscal year frozen and there have been several other things that might be bad as well. If they don’t get better, that might be the best case. I seriously doubt that, without massive money from the federal government injected into the state we could survive as more than a ghost operation until a vaccine is tested and produced and distributed in quantities sufficient to make a real difference. But, assuming the money could be found, me, personally, I’d be fine…assuming I survive the constant stress. I SHOULD be good wrt the actual disease going forward, at least in theory, but it’s all the rest that might do me in.

52

Technically, we can sustain this indefinitely. Practically, I’m worried I’m going to develop agoraphobia.

53

In addition to working and writing this week, I’ve been trying different produce in the slightly adequate food dehydrator, cleaned the condenser coils and grate on the fridge, transplanted scallion bottoms from windowsill to soil, and finished distributing a unit of bark mulch. Today I did some work, made minor household repairs, and received another 4 cu. yd. of coarser mulch for the wet parts of the yard. In a bit I’ll put on an audiobook (I’m thinking Network Effect, the newest and longest Murderbotvolume) and make sauerkraut and soup. Plenty to do without even getting to the midden heap, a.k.a. the room everything was thrown into when we had two days to grab everything we needed from our offices). Oh, and playing with the cats all day has them both dropping weight.

ETA: And I had a lady chainsaw for awhile, but it scared me enough that I never used it. Wish I had one to cut down the colossal yard debris heap.

54

This sounds like a case of agoraphobiaphobia.

55

Discussing it is metaagoraphobiaphobia.

56

Yeah, kinda. Although after talking to my doctor today, I think I will have to leave the safety of my home to see an opthamologist soon. Can I do that in your lockdown?

I mean, I hate it. There’s lots of stuff I miss. But I’m doing okay. I can do my job just fine, I am socializing most evenings over hangouts/discord/zoom, making lots of phone calls. I have my husband, daughter, and cat for physical company. I’m enjoying doing yard work. Most days, most of the time, I’m fine. And I expect to be able to keep this up for a while.

57

I’m really enjoying being able to settle in with my agoraphobia. I’m an agoraphobiaphiliac.

58

I think that rather than “the government is funding all your essential costs”, the premise should be “assuming housing / food are not an issue, whether it’s working remotely, savings, or public aid”.

I’ve been teleworking for 6 years, so the work isn’t that different except that I don’t have to do pointless “show up at the client, warm a seat, and interact with nobody in real life” visits (none of the people I work with are local, but we have a contractual obligation to have x number of warm-body-at-client days a month).

I miss the variety of items available at the grocery store and the ability to dash out at a moment’s notice for some last-minute item I forgot. Not that I couldn’t do that now, with reasonable precautions, but we are erring on the side of caution (as I’m in a higher risk group). All in all, what I miss is not so much doing things, but being able to do them.

My husband and I get along quite well and always have, so we’re not doing the “how can he drive me CRAZY today” game like some friends are experiencing.

Anyway, current level of lockdown: 3-4 months easily. I don’t need new clothing or other things that are completely unavailable (yes, I know, mail order, but you have to try things on). Food is acceptable. Socialization isn’t much worse than usual.

59

I could probably go another 3-4 months as well.

I’m recently retired and not working isn’t a issue. I had intended to pick up some part time or freelance work and that’ll have to wait longer than I thought, but I don’t need it to live.

I haven’t seen a hairdresser since 2014 so that’s not an issue. When the lockdowns first started my yoga practice was an issue, it’s hard for me to motivate to practice on my own, even with prerecorded classes.

But then everyone started to figure out how to use Zoom. Now I’m taking highly specialized classes that I like, with world class instructors. Classes that I had to give up when I left New York. Even back then, I had to leave my home at 2:45 for a 4PM class and I didn’t get home until close to 7. Now I can just walk to the little “studio” I set up in my dressing room a few minutes before class. And I can play my own music if I like. It’s better than ever.

I could probably do this part forever and I’m hoping it maybe won’t go away.

Clothes shopping, I needed a few things and I wanted to try stuff on. So early this week, I donned my mask and went to an almost empty store.

But the fitting rooms were closed, which I didn’t anticipate. So I grabbed the stuff I was looking for - ( stuff I had my eye on before the lockdown) and checked it out, now I have to go back and exchange a few things for sizing reasons. The good news is that they were too large, so maybe I managed to survive the lockdown without gaining weight.

But I could go on like this for a while. It’s just not that drastic,

60

It appears it’s going to be a very long summer. My work may not crank up until at least August. ( Freelance Television production )

This is hard and getting harder. Finding reasons to get out of the house isn’t very hard to do.

Feeling even moderately SAFE being outside of the apartment to do anything other than drive around in the car is brutally hard.

:mad: