# Over 60 dopers, are you staying home?? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 11, 2020, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247 "2020-03-11T03:55:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![LH75](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lh75/32/4438_2.png) [@LH75](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LH75)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/41 "2020-03-12T08:39:39Z")
I am closing in on 67. I do not have a “work from home” type of job. I am a working electrician specializing in commercial fire alarms. I am out on various job sites all day, but I really do not interact with that many people. I was a compulsive hand washer before this pandemic and have no problem keeping my distance from crowds. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 9:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/42 "2020-03-12T09:34:19Z")
Our annual trip to GameStorm(Portland gaming convention) next month just got cancelled by the Governor’s proclamation that gatherings of 250 or more will not be allowed. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/43 "2020-03-12T12:10:28Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > (I’m in the enviable position that I could self-isolate and still have eighty acres of outdoors to play in.) That’s our situation as well. My gf works in advertising. The yearly advertising awards banquet was supposed to be Friday, but they cancelled. My gf can work from home (saving 2 1/2 hours of commuting) if necessary and this is the time of year the horses love to go on long trail rides. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/44 "2020-03-12T13:46:56Z")
Well, rats. Last night, we were told that the college is converting all classes to on-line as of 3/15. Except you really can’t do ASL on-line. Supposedly, this will last thru Apr 30 - my class was only supposed to go 4 weeks, and we’ve just completed week 2. We don’t know if it’ll resume later or if they’ll refund us or credit us for a re-do. I’m bummed. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/45 "2020-03-12T13:53:22Z")
I’ve started shopping at off hours to avoid crowds. Eating dinner at home to avoid restaurants. There’s a lot of surfaces in restaurants, chairs, table tops, condiments that are routinely handled by people. I avoid shaking hands. A vocal greeting is good enough. I’ve got a bottle of hand sanitizer in the car. Otherwise, hopefully I stay well. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/46 "2020-03-12T14:19:11Z")
Both early seventies, retired in PacNW. Retired since 2009, excellent health. Practicing serious social distancing - to do my part to “flatten the curve”. Home bound, shopping infrequently, no eating out, coffee shops or bars. Visiting 90+ mother and sister a few times a week (they are doing the same). (Did graduate work and research in infectious diseases. Remember and understand enough to be seriously concerned about this. Look at Italy - it is terrifying and we are on the same curve but 10 days behind.) ---
**Author:** ![TRC4941](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trc4941/32/6792_2.png) [@TRC4941](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TRC4941)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/47 "2020-03-12T14:32:40Z")
I’m closing in on 59 and my husband is 61. We haven’t changed our routines. We are both still working. I’m pretty much alone in my office, but I walk the skywalks every day during lunch with all of the other downtown workers. I’ll be grocery shopping tonight. My husband works in a manufacturing facility with a lot of other people. I took my grandson to hockey practice last night. I had lunch out with my sisters last Sunday. (The restaurant was full.) We then did a little shopping. The stores were as crowded as they usually are on a weekend. If for some reason we have to be on “lockdown” (and if I’m not sick!) we have woods behind our house and other close by wooded areas where I walk the dogs so I would at least be able to get outside and not be totally cooped up. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/48 "2020-03-12T15:02:47Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I’m still in the office 5 days a week, seeing patients (many of whom have respiratory complaints). So far my state (WI) has only 3 identified cases of Covid19. We’ll see what happens, won’t we? Now we’ve got 6 cases in WI, and 2 of them are in the county next door to mine, the county where many prison workers (at 8 different prisons) live. :eek: It will eventually enter our prison system, I’m sure. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/49 "2020-03-12T15:10:25Z")
I’m still in the classroom 5 days a week. They’ve cancelled the State Speech/Debate Championships in April, so our season is effectively over 45 days early. Custodial staff are spraying and disinfecting anything that will hold still every couple of hours. The wife and I cancelled our travel plans for Spring Break and are just going to stay home and get caught up on Netflix. Eventually this will either blow over or mutate into Global Zombie Apocalypse. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/50 "2020-03-12T15:11:27Z")
I’m staying home until I’m almost out of food. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/51 "2020-03-12T15:31:10Z")
I’m 63 and my husband is 68. He’s working from home as of a few weeks ago. We’re right in the middle of a debate about if we should cancel a trip we have scheduled for the end of April. On the one hand, we are both healthy and without any diabetes, lung conditions, or compromised immune systems. And the plane and the destination airport will be small - and we tend to keep to ourselves on vacation, mostly doing road trips to less populated areas. On the other hand, our local departure airport just announced that three TSA agents there tested positive for COVID-19, and we’d be flying to the state which so far has the most cases and deaths - Washington. Well, we still have until late March to cancel without losing all of our lodging rental deposit. And whatever happens, we’ll eat the airline fare, unless Alaskan decides to refund cancellations due to this plague. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2020, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/52 "2020-03-12T17:20:19Z")
I had noticed a 30% decline in attendance at my Silver Sneakers classes. Today’s attendance was around half what it normally is. Now, it was a beautiful day, 75 deg F and sunny, so a lot of people may have just blown off the class, but attendance was sparse. I’m still going everywhere, and washing my hands a little more. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/53 "2020-03-13T18:54:44Z")
I don’t go out much except to the library, out to lunch with a friend, or to the grocery store. I go out almost every single day, even if to just buy a bottle of Coke. I can’t imagine just staying inside for…how long? 2 weeks? 2 months? 6 months? I am one of those ‘be prepared’ types who stocks up before the winter (I would make a good prepper. I would have loved to stay in the Overlook Hotel (in the Shining) and kept track of all the food items stored in there for us over the winter. There are no suspected cases of the virus in our county as yet, I am trying to top off a few essentials, though. I worry more about my daughter who is 30’ something, works downtown, goes out frequently with friends. She is a sickly girl, always something wrong with her. She has a terrible cold now and is very tired, taking a few days off from work. I worry so about her…Me? Frankly, I don’t care so much any more, I’ve lived a long time, and in this horrible tRump world with a worse world ahead, I don’t want to see it. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/54 "2020-03-13T20:57:13Z")
We’re just 60 now, and we are staying in as much as possible. I’m in an elevated risk category (type 2 diabetes, hypertension, asthma) so it would be best for me to avoid this. My husband has no risks, but if he catches it, I catch it. Plus the fewer people out and about, the lower the risk of transmission in general. We’ll have to go to the grocery store occasionally (if need be, we can have it delivered but there’s a lead time). Both of us can telework, luckily. With the vast amount of entertainment material out there (get your minds out of the gutter!!) we don’t even need to get bored. TV, ebooks, music… As it is, there are days when the only time I leave the house is to take my husband to/from the Metro, and even that will stop now. My husband quipped that this is what us introverts have been in training for our whole lives. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [March 13, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/55 "2020-03-13T22:39:52Z")
AYE-MEN. Lifelong introvert, I have enough to keep me occupied here for 6 months. Clean the house, at least. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 6:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/56 "2020-03-14T06:05:16Z")
We should be set to basically never leave the house once we get the grocery delivery tomorrow. Though i think I’ll go out and tank up my car just so we don’t have to worry in case fuel deliveries are interrupted. My son’s college is now shut down thru the 27th: they are not sending students home, but doing classes online only. Of course the dining hall is open, which isn’t ideal from a social distancing thing. I suggested he get his food to go and eat it elsewhere, and also get some things at the grocery store to keep around. Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![RioRico](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f04885/32.png) [@RioRico](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RioRico)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 8:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/57 "2020-03-14T08:17:33Z")
We’re in, but not for virus panic. I ran to the local market today before the storm. Some water, TP, sanitizers, and cheap wine were picked over but most remained. We’ll be at home because four feet of fluffy is predicted for the weekend, happening now. That’s after the high wind alert and fire advisory. So much for spring. :smack: At least we’ve a generator now. Let the power lines fall! ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/58 "2020-03-14T09:08:28Z")
I’m 66 and live in a rural town in England (which hasn’t had any cases yet.) I already get my groceries delivered, so don’t need to go out much. I still take a couple of daily walks, but have stopped going to the bridge club for now. (At home, I’m playing Lord of the Rings Online, reading and keeping up with my chess threads here.) To show optimism, I’ve booked a holiday abroad from May 11! ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/59 "2020-03-14T10:39:29Z")
I’m getting better at Civilization (the computer game). I don’t go out much socially anyway, but did go to a meeting of the old and the bold last week. Not too worried. if I get it so be it. Our 50th High School Reunion has been deferred which is probably just as well. You have to die of something. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [March 14, 2020, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247/60 "2020-03-14T10:42:25Z")
I’m 66, but I look and feel ~15 years younger. And my immune system must be pretty good - I almost never get sick; even common colds have become a rarity in my life. I’m not worried at all about the virus on my own account. My wife will have surgery on Thursday - a major reconstruction/replacement of ankle tendons and ligaments - so I was planning to telework almost full-time for a few weeks anyway starting Thursday, so I could be there at her beck and call until she could get around with the boot. But Maryland’s closed the schools for at least two weeks starting now, so the Firebug will be home. Fortunately, the word’s gone out in my division that unlimited telework has been authorized for the time being, so I’ll be teleworking full-time starting Monday. We haven’t had grocery delivery in my exurb until this past year. Now that it’s available, I’m going to place an order just so that if I need it later, it’s something I’ve already got set up. Otherwise, I’ll probably just do my grocery shopping in the early morning when nobody’s there. I figure my wife (who is \>10 years younger than me, but in worse health overall) will be in a weakened state for a while, so I should minimize my contacts in order to keep her safe over the next few weeks. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/over-60-dopers-are-you-staying-home/849247.md?page=4)