COVID-19 and your life

[HexMachina]

@aceluby congratulations on the growing family! 

 

I am from the U.K. amd really have no good cause to gripe because i have been exceptionally lucky.

The firm i work for implemented WFH one week before lockdown. Kind of funny, we had a test run on the thursday and friday to see if we could cope with large scale WFH and then on the Sunday we all got a mass email and text informing us it was WFH until further notice. The following week the UK went into essential workers only.

So I still have my job which keeps me busy during the day, and even more fortunately I am one of the practice areas that hasn’t seen a reduction in our workload, if anything we have been busier than usual. So that’s another positive.

I’m able to buy my groceries (though I have no capacity to stockpile even if I was so inclined, there is just no space in my studio). I have books/my e-reader. I am able to video call my family. We managed to get my nanna hooked up with a portal so we can video chat to her too, which eased some of my tears and worries (I went into this more back before everything shut down). Her neighbours have also been fantastic, making sure (from a safe distance/through the windows) that she is ok, bringing her groceries if she runs out. So yet more good fortune for me, knowing that isn’t something I need to worry about.

And yet despite all of this, and despite knowing how much worse things could be, how much worse many of my friends actually do have things, I still find myself feeling horribly depressed these days and very woe is me. It is very self-absorbed of me I know, and I wish I didn’t feel this way. Rationally I know I am so fortunate right now but being stuck inside for around 20 hours a day in a tiny studio tthat gets no natural light is really starting to wear me down. I find myself lacking the motivation to do much of anything aside from work, walk, sleep and stare listlessly at the wall. 

But that aside, most things are objectively pretty good for me right now.

[williamjm]

5 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

I am from the U.K. amd really have no good cause to gripe because i have been exceptionally lucky.

The firm i work for implemented WFH one week before lockdown. Kind of funny, we had a test run on the thursday and friday to see if we could cope with large scale WFH and then on the Sunday we all got a mass email and text informing us it was WFH until further notice. The following week the UK went into essential workers only.

I had a similar experience as well, the company I work for starting strongly encouraging all employees worldwide to work from home a couple of weeks before the UK lockdown began. So far my employers seem to have been far more pro-active than the government, perhaps partly because they have a big office in Shanghai so had an early experience of the impact of the spread of the virus.

Working from home has been going OK for the most part, although I'll be glad when it's no longer necessary. My job seems secure for now, the software company I work for had made a big push in recent years to move our products from desktop applications to the cloud which some of our customers had mixed feelings about, but this now seems to be a very popular move.

My neighbourhood has some big green spaces which are not busy which is good for getting some socially distant daily exercise. From what I've seen people around here seem to be generally (although not universally) following the rules.

I'm a bit worried about some of my family back in Scotland, several of whom are having to shield themselves due to various health conditions, but fortunately they are all healthy for now.

Overall, I think I'm in a relatively fortunate position, but I'm definitely missing the experience of talking to other people in person rather than over Zoom.

[felice]

12 minutes ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Rationally I know I am so fortunate right now but being stuck inside for around 20 hours a day in a tiny studio tthat gets no natural light is really starting to wear me down.

Nah, a serious lack of space and daylight is a real problem, and it's entirely legitimate to find it hard to cope with. Lightless apartments shouldn't be legal!

[Buckwheat]

I was supposed to start a new job - my first job with an actual regular contract compared to shitty freelance/student short-term things I've had until now. I didn't, I don't know how much the decision was influenced by covid and how much it was because of some changed decisions with the school, but it came in the middle of this. So instead of starting something new, challenging, full-time, well-paid, and exciting, that would also help me towards my goal of finally having a real chance of moving away from my parents, I am stuck at home with them and my brother. It is disappointing.

Combined with some other non-covid-related bad news from various parts of extended family, the morale in our household is getting worse. The loud neighbours are annoying us more than usual, the walks around the village are getting more boring, we are running out of ideas what to cook for lunch (as far as I hear from other people, this is a common problem). We try to keep ourselves positive by playing board games and uno and listening to music, and honestly, my family is great, but I really miss contact with other people. We know we are stuck together, so we try not to annoy each other and argue with each other too much, but we cannot really comfort each other either because everybody is sick of the situation.

I know that this time is giving me a lot of free time to work on my dissertation (as even the language classes I offer have shrunk and I am currently down to 2 hours a week - even less money), but I keep putting it off and am kind of stuck, so I procrastinate and it makes me ashamed of wasting all this time. I want to go to university and talk to my advisor.

Like Helena, I know that there are a lot of people who are much worse off and I should be thankful that I am in such a good position compared to many, but I just feel stuck, bored, I have trouble sleeping, I miss hanging out with friends and I hate being limited to our commune, as I usually have a lot of things to do in the city (which belongs to another commune), and I've never spent that much time here before without going anywhere, despite living here for the most part of 20 years. Hell, I am annoyed I cannot randomly visit another country, as I am prone to do. I try to keep in touch with friends and extended family via phone and the Internet, but it is not the same as spending time together in person.

I wish everybody to stay healthy and as sane as possible in this situation, and the best of luck to Mr. and Mrs. @aceluby with the little one.

[Derfel Cadarn]

If this was early 2014 (before met wife) I’d be having a ball. My job at that time sisnt suit working from home, so I’d be spending 12 weeks writing, reading, watching tv/films and playing video games on full pay with no responsibilities 

[Fury Resurrected]

I’m in Minnesota.

My industry has been shut down for six weeks and we are all independent contractors. So far the unemployment piece of the CARES act for 1099 workers hasn’t come through for us, and that is very stressful since it is impossible to get through to call the unemployment office to see if there is something wrong with your application that must be fixed because the lines are too jammed. Yesterday I was trying to call every two minutes for over four hours with no success.

I was on vacation in Mexico when the first cases showed up in my state and I was back for about a week before the shutdown, so I feel like it’s been months since I was tattooing. It’s very weird. I decided at 10 years old I wanted to tattoo and it’s pretty much the only job I’ve ever had or wanted and I adore it and it’s so much a part of my whole person that it hurts to be without it emotionally much more than financially (though the zero money thing also sucks)

I had everything set to go with my realtor and mortgage broker before going on vacation that I’d file and pay my taxes once I got back to document my 2019 income and then start shopping for a house here in Minneapolis. Obviously, that plan got torpedoed and while I’m glad I didn’t buy a house before I left in a market that could crash, the apartment feels very small to be stuck in with 3 cats and Young Boring Danzig.

As for Young Boring Danzig and I, it’s okay, definitely more strained than our usual no stress arrangement of each living like indoor outdoor cats. He is a professional musician and delivers for DoorDash, his life is mostly unchanged. He’s not doing a good job of social distancing, he won’t wear a mask while on deliveries and he has been meeting up with his band mates and parents. I have lupus so I’m high risk and not pleased about this shit. He says I can’t talk because I have been helping my sister with childcare because she is a nurse, has four kids, and needed someone to watch them. He has some very woo woo ideas about healthcare, so it’d be a days long almost religious fight with him I have no energy for. He’s always insisting I can cure my lupus with vitamins, for example. My sleep schedule is all screwed up.

My boss, who in all other scenarios is awesome and puts top priority on safety in the shop- thinks this is less serious than the flu and we should return to work now. He thinks the mortality numbers are falsely inflated. This is extremely stressful.

[Zorral]

1 hour ago, Fury Resurrected said:

This is extremely stressful.

Ooof, your entire situation is very rough.  I'm very sorry. 

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

12 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

The only thing I'll say for myself: no excuses not to study for the GRE and LSAT, whenever we can actually take the tests again. Plus side of all of this is grad and law schools should be cheap, once you can go back. 

Go for it

[Impmk2]

We're pretty lucky here. The lock down is minimal. Stores still open, and plenty of people still out and about. My wife is working from home, which she found very challenging for the first couple weeks. Have now settled into a routine where we still get up at the usual 5:30-6am and get all the stuff done before her work day starts (home gym sessions, dog walks, bike rides) so she can focus on her work without interruption. Has helped her coping a lot, though she still has the odd day struggling. She really misses being able to see her grandma in particular.

I work primarily in micro research which has rapidly changed. I was spending a lot of time driving around to aged care homes collecting swabs and waste water and screening them for at prevalence of resistant bugs. When they all locked down and we lost access we shifted to monitoring covid in waste water, had all of about a week to get the project off the ground and start analysing samples which was hugely stressful... and we happen to be one of the only places on the planet it's not really present. Very good from a health perspective and wouldn't trade that for the world, but it's a little depressing knowing the past month of gut busting work and negative results are basically unpublishable. Now it's getting a little more routine, we're doing this for another month before our funding for this runs out and we can shift back to our other projects.

[karaddin]

This has all coincided with my health deteriorating more - started having pain across basically all my joints, if I'm going to identify a cause I think it's looking most like connective tissue issue - so moving to working from home all the time has made life easier for me and also given me more productivity time.

The stress and anxiety from concern about the world and my family still weighs fairly heavily, i have a lot of old relatives to worry about. I try not to dwell in it, so it mostly just results in sleeping really poorly. The situation in Aus is about as good a anywhere though, so I definitely count myself lucky on that front.

Brook and I have maybe had a couple of moments where we've been a little snappier, or at least I have, but I think even that has passed. We're pretty damn good together without high activity requirements. So the only real thing on the family front is missing her boys while they've had some extended time with their Dad, but we're finally getting them back soon.

[Durckad]

My work converted to work from home almost as soon as the state I live in (Illinois) went into lockdown. Thankfully, my employer is considered "essential" so I still have a job right now, though they've instituted a pay cut right after we were told we were getting a raise. It's supposed to be temporary but if the economy doesn't bounce back right away when this is all over, I could see it dragging on for longer. There were a couple of people I worked with who were stretched rather thin before the pandemic and were both promised and anticipating wage increases, so they are... not very happy now. The consolation of having a job when so many don't only goes so far for some people.

For me, I'm not affected by it too much. The wage reduction makes sense and I don't have a problem with it as long as it remains temporary, but I can understand others not having as cavalier an attitude about it as I do. Late last year, I got evicted from the place I was renting with a friend of mine (our landlord decided to stop renting and sold the property) so I moved back in with my folks until I could find another place to move in to. I was in the process of looking for a home to buy when the pandemic hit so that's on hold for the time being. On the plus side of all this, my bills at the moment are pretty low, since I'm working at home, I don't have the normal costs associated with driving to and from work, and I've been wasting way less money going to the bar after work or eating out for lunch.

The downside? I'm diabetic, so I'm pretty much stuck at home for the time being. The less opportunities I have to catch this, the better, but I'm starting to get really sick of just sitting around the house and I honestly really, really do not want to live with my parents any longer than I need to. It's really mentally exhausting some times and while it's very much small potatoes compared to what other people are going through right now, I can't wait for this to be over so I can get back on the market for a home.

Hopefully, the weather starts to clear up a bit soon so that at least I can go out and start riding my bike through the countryside or start running or do anything that isn't sitting in the house. 

[Tears of Lys]

6 hours ago, Werthead said:

/snip

More concerned about my family. My mother (who is in an age range of concern, despite her excellent health) lives in Spain, although fortunately her town seems to have missed a major outbreak. They've only had one confirmed infection and no deaths. My stepmother is recovering from leukaemia and is completely immunocompromised, so she's in total, severe lockdown, especially after one of their neighbours was taken off in an ambulance with symptoms.

My husband was recently diagnosed with a blood cancer.  Is your stepmother's immunocompromise due to the leukaemia itself, or the medications treating it?  I'm learning day-by-day here.

Yeah, it hasn't been fun and games lately.  I wish I could go out and work, just to keep my mind active on other things.  My mood has been subdued and I've been sleeping a lot.  Like a kid, I just wish this could all be over already.  

[VigoTheCarpathian]

Oregon, USA here.  The last 5 weeks have been a blur of work stress and trying to adjust to me and the grade-school children being at home and acclimating to distance work and learning.  So very fortunate to be able to work from home and manage my team virtually - and we work for a health plan/hospital system and had equipment in place to do so, so are relatively essential, for the time being (concerns about revenue and membership are already bubbling up, as clinic personnel are being paid to sit on their hands).  It sucked having a front row seat to the surge planning and how woefully unprepared most health systems seemed to be for this - very glad our peak seems to have become a plateau that isn’t reaching toward bed/vent capacity, for now.

Mentally, very low - the planning horizons for second wave of infections, amidst trying to plan/staff/equip to do necessary surgeries (starting this week) give me dread about just how much is unknown about what is coming, and what human behavior will do, in reaction.

Been meditating daily and doing 30min+ of home exercise, but every day is a variation on sameness - my friends are working or too depressed to talk much/process what is happening, outside of apocalyptic talk or railing against the idiocy of political leaders.  My parents, 5 hours away, seem to be finally taking it seriously- I am still very concerned about rural health systems being completely overwhelmed with poor, at-risk, rugged individuals like them and the rest of Western US red country.

We celebrated our youngests 6th birthday on the 26th of March, and her friends had to wave at her from the sidewalk and sing over zoom.  She and her mom are both very social/emotional creatures, and there are tears from both of them, every day, missing friends and hugs and the people things we took for granted.

But we are healthy and fed and have plenty of resources.  Luck to all y’all.

[S John]

18 minutes ago, Tears of Lys said:

My husband was recently diagnosed with a blood cancer.  Is your stepmother's immunocompromise due to the leukaemia itself, or the medications treating it?  I'm learning day-by-day here.

Sorry to hear that, best of luck to y’all.

So far the worst for us was that we had to move to a different state at the end of March amidst all of the chaos.  There was a lot of uncertainty.  I didn’t know if I would be able to start my job when we got here.  My job is considered essential, but I didn’t know if it would be considered essential to start a new person.  The Covid situation was changing every day.  All the lock downs were starting to be announced and it wasn’t clear if we would be able to travel at all.  

On top of all the stresses of moving and changing jobs during this time my wife insists on listening to The Daily every day and by mid-March they were running a marathon of shit-your-pants horror stories about the situation in Italy which was really not helping me be decisive and also caused me to develop an irrational dislike of Michael Barbaro.  Jesus, here comes that bad news motherfucker again.  

Anyway, we left early, opting to try to get to where we needed to be rather than risk getting stuck.  Moving sucked, but that is true no matter what.  We outran our stuff since we left early and had to live in a flop house with pretty much just a mattress for 4 or 5 days but we eventually got our stuff and, more importantly, we didn’t pick up Covid at a rest stop or something which I was fairly concerned about.

Thankfully my new job went out of their way to get me in as scheduled and, in another stroke of luck, my wife is keeping her job for now as well.  She had already put in her notice before we moved but then the local stay home order went out and she got to stay on because everyone there is working remotely right now anyway and they can’t exactly replace her at the moment either.   That will eventually end but it has helped with the transition. 

Mentally I was somewhat prepared for the lifestyle change.  For about the last 18 months I’d already been working from home.  I won’t be doing that my new job once things get back to normal, but for now I am pretty much living the way I have been.  Only real difference is that my wife is also home, which is honestly a big upgrade from when it was just me and the dog all day.  
 

We moved from a big city to town of about 25,000 people.  There are 20-ish confirmed cases here but that’s a far cry from the thousands they have in the county we left, so I do feel a liiiitle bit safer when we go out for walks, exercise, or groceries but we are still doing all of the recommended precautions.  Most people here seem to be as well.

Now that moving and job stuff is settled I have little to complain about, but I’m absolutely ready for normalcy.  I want to be able to visit friends and relatives. I want sushi.  I want to drink in a room with more than two people in it.  I want to go to the gym.  I want to not have to plan my toilet paper situation weeks in advance.  I want to go to a baseball game.  I want to get a real haircut from someone who knows what they are doing.  Current lockdown in my area extends into June and I feel like that’s probably pretty reasonable.  I’ll definitely be ready to bust out by then.
 

[Skyrazer]

I must be the only person who's basically experienced almost no change.

I work in a court (so essential service) and I'm required to be onsite while the court is operating (so no wfh). Although when the lockdowns were implemented last month, our workload practically tripled and our team were all working 60+ hours a week to get the court equipped so staff could start working remotely.

I'm also a bit of a hermit who lives on my own, so domestic life hasn't changed at all.

[Rorshach]

It's strange, but for me this has had more positives than negatives so far. For reference, we're in Norway.

My work hasn't been affected, and neither has that of my wife (she's essential, I'm not - but archives don't dissappear over night). I am normally relatively seclusive, so staying at home is not a problem. For me, it has actually reduced stress, since I no longer feel any stress thinking about people we really should have met. Now, before someone asks, I do enjoy meeting other people as well, but not many at a time, and a relatively limited group. My wife, being more social, tends to drag me along more often that I would.

Our boys have had schooling from home, which has been a mildly stressful - mostly to make sure the younger one actually does something. The elder one is coping fine. 

Economically, we benefit as we spend less, mortgage has reduced *searching brain for word here* interest rates (which of course goes for savings as well, but we have been spending lately on redecorating, so beneficial). 

All of which makes me feel a bit guilty, because I know (and read on here) that this most certainly isn't the norm. 

 

[Zuzu Bolin]

I'm in the UK. I work for Fedex and we are still open although the depot has some people working from home. Work is actually better if anything with slightly better hours and reduced travelling time.

I live on my own so not much change in that regard. I have you could say an arrangement with a woman thirty miles away in Manchester who I see once a month. That's stopped for now which is a downer.

Historically between 5-20% of my income has come from betting on horse racing and that sport has stopped since late March so I have been impacted there somewhat although the money isn't guaranteed as such,

The main impact in my life has been worrying about my parents and a sister who manages a care home but they seem safe at the moment.

 

 

 

[baxus]

Working from home hasn't worked out badly at all for me so far. My wife and I take our daughter to our friend who's been babysitting her since last summer, work from home and pick her up in the afternoon, so our productivities haven't taken a big hit. Our friend has a rather big yard so our daughter is even better off now than she was before we had to start working from home.

My crossfit coaches are releasing daily home workouts which I have kept up with most of the time, so I've been working out even more than before the lockdown.

We have found a rhythm and a schedule for everything so that it works out reasonably well.

Still, Serbia has some pretty restrictive policies for this lockdown, like not allowing people older than 65 out at all. That ban was lifted a bit recently when 65+ year olds were allowed out for a walk three times a week. Still, buying groceries, getting medicine and all that is a big problem for them so I'm doing that for my parents and my aunt and uncle which is a bit time-consuming but it's the least I could do.

All in all, we have made the most of this situation but I'm still rather pissed off for not being able to go for a walk between 6PM (was 5PM until recently) and 5AM and at all on the weekends. Also, I never really realised how much I actually like being around and talking to people throughout the day. Guess I'm a bit more social than I thought.

[Rippounet]

16 hours ago, Werthead said:

apart from one, who was hit quite badly and is still having breathing problems and chest pains over 40 days after symptoms first appeared. She avoided hospitalisation but it sounds like it could have been close.

This is close to what I've had (/still have). Two different doctors told me it's benign (just a form of bronchitis), but I sometimes wonder if anyone knows for sure at this point. Have to say though, it doesn't feel like it's really bad and according to my research there's surprisingly little to be done when it comes to the lungs anyway (except rest and stay hydrated).

[Fury Resurrected]

2 hours ago, Rippounet said:

This is close to what I've had (/still have). Two different doctors told me it's benign (just a form of bronchitis), but I sometimes wonder if anyone knows for sure at this point. Have to say though, it doesn't feel like it's really bad and according to my research there's surprisingly little to be done when it comes to the lungs anyway (except rest and stay hydrated).

I am high susceptible to pneumonia and one thing that helps is to prop yourself with pillows into a downward dog position almost to get fluid moving in an outward direction.