How are you passing the time during COVID-19?

[SallyCat]

Teaching online keeps me busy and feeling connected. For exercise I go for hikes and do trail work on the mountain, getting the mtb trails ready for the season. (Cutting up small logs with a hand chainsaw is a GREAT triceps workout!) I've also been helping neighbors pick up prescriptions, get to the doctor, etc. and respond to calls with our volunteer EMS service. There's a cloud of uncertainty over everything since my job ends in June and I don't know where my income will come from; so I'm glad to be busy and distracted.
Just wish I could sleep better. The sudden inability to fall or stay asleep at night has been brutal.

 

[UtahDesert]

I finally (yesterday morning) caught up on a huge amount of grading (midterms, papers due during the semester) that started piling up as the switch to online teaching started. So yesterday and today I've kind of been at loose ends. (I'm not used to weekends.) Starting tomorrow I'll have a set of new tasks (running our last online discussions in three courses, grading smaller assignments as they dribble in), and then after a few more quiet days I'll have about a week's worth of intensive grading.

And then I'll actually have time to do projects and have routines! I hope I won't fritter my time away. I've got a writing project I really want to work on.

But I definitely should add a daily workout right now. Tomorrow. My husband is working on the garden, but I'm just not motivated. Hoping to get a foster dog soon!

 

[ilovepugs]

My week this week... just keeping it real:

Monday - worked 9am to 10pm with a walk
Tuesday - basically the same as Monday
Wednesday - started feeling crabby about working so much this week, took a walk around 3pm, stained furniture, napped then logged back in to work til late
Thursday - same as Wednesday but didn’t stain furniture
Friday - worked, drove into Burlington to give blood, decided I didn’t want to work anymore this week, napped, got sucked into an iPhone game and missed happy hour, then said oh shoot I probably should have worked a bit more and worked after dinner
Today - spent the morning trying to make up for feeling crappy due to ongoing insomnia, did chores, worked, played with dogs, worked

Cooking and eating meals, animal petting time and random stretching and exercise for 5 minutes generously interspersed throughout.

There’s a common theme here — isn’t it supposed to be a pandemic and aren’t we all shut down?! I’m so confused as to why I’m so busy at work and weirdly many of my colleagues and lawyer friends are too. But, given that I took (or tried to take) something like 3 naps this week, I probably could stand to be a little better at time management too

Unfortunately tomorrow (Sunday) is going to be a lot of work as well - but looking at the bright side, I am very grateful that I’m employed and my services continue to be in demand!

 

[ilovepugs]

Also, I’m definitely aspiring to give more structure to my day rather than letting an amorphous work blob take over - I’m signing up for one of those streaming exercise class subscriptions and hoping to take classes consistently in the morning beginning tomorrow.

 

[kiki]

For me it doesn’t feel like there is excess time, feels about as busy as normal, but activities are more like October/november, which for me is the cusp between golf and ski season, when I normally stay at home more.

- work from home 40-50 hours per week
- cook, recipe research (ok lots of Jamie Oliver videos), bake and eat and eat and eat
- online shopping for food and essentials (like my new waffle maker)
- tv: Star Trek various series
- crafts: card making
- Xbox
- zoom chats
- online chatting
- exercise and stretching (oxygen yoga is awesome)
- go for walks
- gardening

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Last fall, I purchased a high-speed scanner (1 pic per second) with the intent of eventually scanning every film photo I have ever taken , dating from never-mind to 2002, when I went full digital.

It was a project I suspected would take me at least several years, in the off-between-season.

Well, I appear to now have all the time in the world...

It’s distracting - along with the proverbial “trip down memory lane” - and requires a certain amount of concentration to keep pics in order (all are in albums, which are not being reassembled). I try not to do more than 2 calendar years per day, as my brain fries.

I’m up to 1990, have thus far scanned (and stored) 5,177 photos (!). 11 more years to go!

Great project. All going onto a big external drive, then copied to a portable.

Then I hit the sidewalk and walk walk walk.

We got 10" of snow here on Friday. <sigh>

 

[Jenny]

Last fall, I purchased a high-speed scanner (1 pic per second) with the intent of eventually scanning every film photo I have ever taken , dating from never-mind to 2002, when I went full digital.

It was a project I suspected would take me at least several years, in the off-between-season.

Well, I appear to now have all the time in the world...

It’s distracting - along with the proverbial “trip down memory lane” - and requires a certain amount of concentration to keep pics in order (all are in albums, which are not being reassembled). I try not to do more than 2 calendar years per day, as my brain fries.

I’m up to 1990, have thus far scanned (and stored) 5,177 photos (!). 11 more years to go!

Great project. All going onto a big external drive, then copied to a portable.

Then I hit the sidewalk and walk walk walk.

We got 10" of snow here on Friday. <sigh>

Great project! What scanner did you get?

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Great project! What scanner did you get?

Epson FF-680W. Ka-ching. But working well, and seems to have been worth it.

 

[Jenny]

Good to know, thanks. This exact project is always at the back of my mind, but so daunting to contemplate.

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Daunting, indeed. I had no idea how I would pull it off. I cleared a significant work space in my office to do it. Then I bit the bullet and started - knowing that now I can actually get through the project before life...resumes? Another 313 pics/year in the bag! Off to walk.

Seriously, I do recommend this product to anyone who has a lot of photos to scan. It's pricey, but - how priceless are our pics? Money well spent.

 

[Jilly]

Me too, except most of mine are my Dad's slides....

 

[Jenny]

Me too, except most of mine are my Dad's slides....

Omigosh we had so many of those, too.

 

[Jenny]

Scrubbed the kitchen today. Still need to pull out the stove and fridge and then do the floor, but I wanted dinner waaaaaaay more than I wanted to finish the project.

 

[ilovepugs]

Scrubbed the kitchen today. Still need to pull out the stove and fridge and then do the floor, but I wanted dinner waaaaaaay more than I wanted to finish the project.

That’s a quarantine cleaning project if I’ve ever heard of one!

 

[MaineSkiLady]

Me too, except most of mine are my Dad's slides....

A possibility: have prints made from the slides (probably won't be cheap, can't recall). Once you have prints, you're good to scan.

I had a printer/scanner years ago that had a slide scan option, which I used. However, it was inferior to the prints I'd had made somewhere from the actual slides.

Just a thought...

 

[Jilly]

I bought a slide scanner, but it needed a really old version of Windows. Which I did have on a laptop. I think everything, except the slides, is at the cottage....but you could only do 4 slides at a time. There has to be a better way....

 

[Jenny]

That’s a quarantine cleaning project if I’ve ever heard of one!

I was inspired by other divas who aren’t as lazy as I am!

 

[newboots]

I was just telling Mr. Blizzard how lucky we are. He has work (on a second home near here with the family safe back in Massachusetts), I have unemployment, the kids are staying safe so far, and we can roam all day on these 10 acres and beyond.

Like much of America, I’m planting a bigger garden this year (there’s a run on the seed companies!). I’ve been dragging rotten wood out of the woods to put in the bottom of my new raised beds. (So much better than expensive bags of dirt!). I’ve been baking some bread, and the garden work is lots of exercise.

The chickens are a continual source of entertainment. We have access to food; our very local stores will do curbside pickup, and the supermarket is not crowded. Plus a small freezer packed full.

I have tons of decluttering and paperwork to do, which I dislike very much. But it’s getting done bit by bit. My days are full and it’s good to get outside. I miss social engagement, though, and wonder how long this will go on.
this morning I “went” to my old church in Massachusetts for Easter service. What a joy! I haven’t been there for three years and I miss my friends and the choir. What a wonderful gift that was. We could all see each other, on Zoom, so no looking at the backs of everyone’s heads!

Except for the chronic anxiety about the unknown, all is well here at the Newboots household.

 

[Christy]

Scrubbed the kitchen today. Still need to pull out the stove and fridge and then do the floor, but I wanted dinner waaaaaaay more than I wanted to finish the project.

Pulling out the stove and fridge? We're supposed to do that?

 

[Divegirl]

The 1st 2 weeks I was ill and was quarantined. My DH had to stay in FL for an extra week - took him to Logan the day I got sick. Once feeling better I cleaned/scrubbed the house so he come home.

Since then I had to catch up on the grocery shopping silliness (my sister dropped necessities on my porch). Taking advantage of my DH being > 60 and immuno-compromised to go early am shopping - we've also been shopping for my mother and sister as my sister has had to self-isolate 2x due to 2 possible positive persons allowed in her courthouse - she's an officer of the Trial Courts of MA.

I have gotten into a lot of kitchen mischief - made hummus, roasted carrots, edible cookie dough (just don't do it), several kinds of cookies, experimented w/ making my own frozen veggies since I can't find frozen veg in the grocery stores and bunny butt cupcakes for Easter.

Besides that I have been for some nice walks (weather permitting) either along the beach or in the local state park. Bike shops are essential here in MA so I had my bike tuned up and have been for 2 short rides (when the winds were agreeable). If you average 10 mph and the winds are at 20 mph its not much fun.

I am also taking a post-production underwater photo course via Zoom 3x/wk w/ an underwater photographer in CA.

Learned to knit face masks - can't sew for beans even though I do counted cross-stitch. Takes about 2 days to knit a mask as long as the stitches don't fall off the needles and I have to start over.

Hosted a Zoom call w/ my brother and his family NY state on Easter - my mother was thrilled to see her great granddaughter. Will try to get other family members into Zoom.

I have also wasted much time playing computer games including a skiing game I have - so I have been "skiing".

Successfully stayed away from TV except when ill.

Not thinking of gardening yet - still too cold and the weather hasn't been too good here yet. Another couple weeks.