This is just a place to post any interesting observations you might have about people, society, media, etc during the pandemic. Positive or negative, mundane or life-changing, whatever you happen to have noticed.
One thing I’ve seen is that lots of people can’t let go of hurry. Drivers on the road, people at my store, so many people are still in a hurry… but where have you got to go? Even if you’re still working you’ve got more free time than you’ve had since you were a teenager, take your time and relax. When it’s all over we can all hurry again, we’ve got other things to stress over now.
Lots more people walking or riding bikes in my suburbs. Apart from school times, when there are a lot fewer people walking or on bikes…
And interesting to compare the different corporate approaches of two major retail chains here. The one that might possible be considered non-essential (a hardware chain) is making a real and obvious attempt to facilitate and comply with social distancing. The food chain, in contrast, is showing the importance it attaches to social distancing with an A4 (letter size) paper sign at it’s entrance.
My sister and her husband pointed out something the other week: since he is a trucker and they are both on the road a lot, they have both been seeing a lot more people stopped by the side of the road for pee breaks… because most of the potential rest stops such as parks, picnic areas, donut shops, restaurants, etc, are closed to walk-in traffic.
This may be confirmation bias at work here, but it seems like the number of TV adverts for all sorts of prescription drugs have shot up drastically in the past month or so. Why pharma manufacturers may feel the need to push harder on treatments for psoriasis or arthritis in the middle of a pandemic I don’t know, but there it is. Especially so when most of the adverts clearly were made before all hell broke loose and show the happily medicated hanging out in groups of people standing much closer than six feet or so to each other.
Every company that I have done business with since 1997 has sent me a sweet email telling me that they are there for me, here in my time of need. Including Spirit Airlines. I assume that Spirit will charge me $7.95 for reading that email.
I was gonna post the same thing. I was driving late one night and needed to pee. The shutdown had started only a couple days prior. I was in the middle of a large-ish city and, I dunno, you just assume … gas station, McDonald’s (hey, an excuse to get fries!) but nope. Nothing. Hold it till you get home, squat behind a dumpster, or drive till you get to the woods. No pooping at Taco Bell anymore.
My husband started WFH a few weeks before the shutdown. Now I’m furloughed until May, so I’m home too.
My observation: he sure spends a lot of his workday on the phone to his co-worker, gossiping and griping about whatever’s going forward at their company. I mean, hour-long phone calls. The door to the den is thin, so I hear it all. This shutdown is very revealing regarding our SO’s work habits.
I live alone in a raised ranch home with a basement. I have everything I need here upstairs so I rarely go in to the basement except for laundry.
The basement isn’t finished but I have spent time and effort fixing it up. The walls are painted, the ceiling is painted black, there are can lights, couches, a tv with Roku, Wii with Rock Band, throw rugs and one of those locking foam floors. I have it set up just in case anyone comes over but really no one ever comes over. Twice a year I do a group thing with my friends down there and that’s about it.
All of a sudden I have this whole extra place to go to, where I can do tai chi and kickboxing, live and with videos, and listen to music, and chill for a bit w/o my dogs (they don’t like to go down there). The lighting’s different/better than upstairs. There’s no dust or dog hair. Normally I go to the gym after work (I work from home anyway) but since I can’t go there it’s pretty awesome to have this whole other venue! It’s really just like leaving the house!
OK, generally I have a problem with people in a hurry. Like during “normal” times. Especially when it’s obvious being in a hurry might save a few seconds or minutes at most in exchange for risky behavior such as reckless driving.
However, I don’t know where this assumption that if you still work you have “more free time.” I didn’t have free time before and I’m still working. In fact I work 60 hours and go to school and have kids and try to do all the normal life and basic hygiene things while stores are never open when i’m awake. I just don’t get this logic that still working and whatever means more free time than since a teenager. I’m not a hurried person but I still have deadlines, work hours, usually have to wait or beat the rush for stores to open, etc.
Being retired, I notice that a lot of people are shifting into retirement mode. Lots more people walking. Not more dog walkers, but they do it earlier.
One of the things you notice when retired is that you lose track of the days. About the only way I know is what the special section of the Times is for the day. It appears that a lot of people have fallen into this also.
Now, I wonder how many people, having been forced to cook, will continue to do so after things go back to normal.
When every day seems exactly like the day before, little things can be exciting. I was putting in a Kroger order for pickup when I remembered that I had bought a box of pizza flavored cheezits some time back. I know what’s in the pantry and it wasn’t in there. I have a few bags of food in the spare room but I know what’s in there, too. I took a look anyway. The bags are sitting on a plastic tub. What the hell, I might as well look in there. And I found a stash of food I’d forgotten about. It felt like christmas! I was so excited. The cheezits were there AND some peanut butter.
I’ve noticed everyone seems to be sleeping in. (Colour me jealous, I would if I could!)
Most days I’m up early enough to watch the neighbourhood wake up, lights, then cars, pedestrians. The early risers, then another wave, parents drop kids to the school, then swiftly away. All the people are still in all these houses and multiplexes, but they get to sleep in! It’s no longer a cohort in motion, now it’s just a trickle. I usually wait to walk my dog when most everyone has gone off to work, now I don’t even think about it. The streets are So lovely quiet with very few cars and fewer trucks.
And it’s kinda true the longer people are trapped at home, the more homeless they look. Most casual of clothes, footwear. No makeup or bra. Don’t shower every day, and are sometimes outside in clothes they appear to have slept in. I’m loving it! It’s a whole new side to persons you don’t really know, but have already sorta kinda, have some impression of, no matter how superficial.
Plus, people are getting pretty creative at figuring ways to work encounters/exchanges but still maintain social distancing. Very clever.
Weirdly, I think the opposite is happening to me. I’m starting to feel like presenting myself outside my room for the day is a special occasion, and I need to dress with care. Match the socks to the T-shirt, complementary colour for the trousers. Match the mask to the colour scheme, if going Outside. I just need to get a haircut and renew the blue colour in my hair.
Going Outside seems like a huge step now. Going to the grocery store is a major operation. Just walking around the neighbourhood is an adventure. So much space! And I see people in the distance!
It’s only been a …month? and already my memories of going to work, and, months before, going all the way to Toronto on the train feel a little like stories from a fabulous mythical past.
But I realized today that I need to exercise. I felt like my body was stiffening up, and I was starting to walk with a restricted range of motion. After I walked around the neighbourhood, my calves hurt. Definitely time to do something.
Since there’s no scheduled gatherings, when we’re out for walks or shopping (we walk to the store), the only people we see are the neighbors. Who also don’t see anybody else except the neighbors. So when we talk to the neighbors, it’s not just a hi and bye. It’s 15-20 minute exchange, which is not so common for us, outside of planned gatherings with the neighbors, which happen every few months.
And we drove to the drugstore the other day to pick up prescriptions. We were almost giddy. It was the first time we had been out of our town (< 10,000 people) since mid-March, with the exception of a short drive 3 weeks ago. And that time we hadn’t even gotten out of the car.
Life goes on outside of our worklives (we are both working from home).
I know what day of the week it is, but I have no idea of the actual date. Easter weekend messed that up a bit, but now we’re back on track.
And supposedly I should have more time, since we’re not commuting. But I have to arrange all the meals, and our town is too small for much delivery services. So I don’t have that much more time than normal.
And the biggest problem? It’s really difficult to switch off from work. Having the commute home helps switch gears. When the commute is the home office to the kitchen, it’s not much of a commute.
Most history and economics textbooks will need new editions, or they will seem hopelessly outdated to the reader now.
I just started Andrew Yang’s “War on Normal People” and noticed the '08 recession was treated as the default* “worst economic disaster in modern times” at several points. It seems almost quaint to refer to it that way.
*not an exact quote, but gathered from references and various wording choices.
There a lot more people out in the state forest behind my farm, doing stupid-people things. I was out riding my horse yesterday (today it is snowing) and met three ORVs churning the wet trails into slop. Two were packed with what appeared to be junior high school boys. Another was a teen in full camo gear. Wonder what he thought he was going to sneak up on when you can hear the damn thing coming a mile away, destroying all peace.
My horse is nervous about loud motors so it was a fraught interaction each time.
There was the remains of a campfire in the middle of one trail. A hiking friend passed it a couple days previous, when it was burning – the people had driven into the forest in a jeep – and told them they’d damn well better put it out with water before they left.
I don’t mind the influx of hikers, bicyclists, riders, but I hate these yahoo kids ruining the trails. Just get the fuck out of your damn car in the wilderness, you jackasses.
