pnomanikon
Senior Member
As 99% of the world's population is acutely aware, COVID-19 has become the dominant force shaping our lives in the past month. TV news reports have stirred fears to the point of panic (toilet paper???!!!) and for older people who don't get out of their homes often and rely on TV/Social Media, it has become a very frightening time. We have three neighbors (a widow and an older couple) all in their late 80s who are afraid to leave their homes and go shopping. I have contacted them and told them to email me a grocery list and I would try to go to the grocery store once a week and re-supply them with anything they need, then drop it off by their front door.
My wife and I are both 62 and just on the fringe of the high-risk age group. We are both relatively active and healthy. But - we found ourselves staying inside and watching TV for hours and hours each day. Our vacation to the Outer Banks of NC next month is now cancelled and we found ourselves getting more depressed. The restaurants we like to visit are closed. Not good!
Therefore, we have found new activities for the "New Normal" to not only survive, but to thrive. Part of that is a 2-mile walk once or twice a day as weather permits. One of our loops is quite hilly and a good workout.
We also limit ourselves to 30 minutes of news in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. No more hours of doomsday reporters whipping up hysteria in our house.
Some of our new goals and resolutions:
1) I have a Master of Music Degree from WVU in piano performance, and was a pianist in the US Air Force Bands for 16 years before hearing loss forced me to cross-train and finish as a Paralegal and Law Office Manager. I have stayed active musically as the pianist/organist at our church for the past 10 years, but have not done a solo piano recital in nearly 40 years. So, I looked through my piles of old music and decided on 4 pieces to perform later this fall. All will be done from memory. Estimated preparation time will be 6-10 hours per week until the planned date of mid November. My planned repertoire will be:
a) Haydn Piano Sonata in D Major (1767)
b) Debussy Estampes (3 Movements)
c) Brahms Intermezzo Opus 118, #2
d) Ginastera Piano Sonata #1 (4 Movements)
2) My wife and I have a small collection of "Great Courses" DVDs, and are going through and learning about cooking, photography, music history, and astronomy. Hopefully, when the world returns to "normal", we will be a little better educated. She is using the cooking class DVDs to come up with imaginative new meals. Mmmmm.
3) I'm going through my old webpages (travelogues) and slowly updating the first ones from 2000-2005 when my web host had very limited space and I downsized and limited all photos. I'm going back in and replacing them with the slightly higher res original photos and also including more of them. www.MichaelElyard.com
4) My wife is starting her garden by planting seeds inside and nurturing them with grow lights. She disappears for hours at a time on the patio and always comes back in happy and stress-free. Happy Wife = Happy Life!!
5) I dug out my Darrell Young book Mastering the Nikon D7200 and have been slowly learning how to use all the features on this fine camera after 2 years. I've also watched several online photo classes - Steve Perry rocks!
6) And last, but not least, I have reached out to our older neighbors I mentioned earlier to hopefully add a measure of calmness and reality to their lives. The widow came to her door (as I stood back 10 feet) and was on the verge of crying, saying she was afraid to go out and asking me if we're going to be able to buy food at the stores. I assured her we have passed the test of many challenges before (swine flu, bird flu, ebola, mad cow, sars) and afterward wondered why we panicked. With common sense measures of hygiene and personal contact, we can get through this, too. Each year, 1.7 million people contract infections from hospital visits/procedures and 99,000 die. Do you hear the TV news shouting "end of the world" over that? Are people buying up a year's worth of toilet paper for that? Perspective.
SUMMARY - I hope each of you can find ways to come out of this situation better than you came into it. Please post POSITIVE ways you are coping so others (including myself!) can benefit.
Be a part of the solution and not part of the problem. Stay safe, keep things in perspective, and help others when you can. Panic never solved anything.
Thank you!
My wife and I are both 62 and just on the fringe of the high-risk age group. We are both relatively active and healthy. But - we found ourselves staying inside and watching TV for hours and hours each day. Our vacation to the Outer Banks of NC next month is now cancelled and we found ourselves getting more depressed. The restaurants we like to visit are closed. Not good!
Therefore, we have found new activities for the "New Normal" to not only survive, but to thrive. Part of that is a 2-mile walk once or twice a day as weather permits. One of our loops is quite hilly and a good workout.
We also limit ourselves to 30 minutes of news in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. No more hours of doomsday reporters whipping up hysteria in our house.
Some of our new goals and resolutions:
1) I have a Master of Music Degree from WVU in piano performance, and was a pianist in the US Air Force Bands for 16 years before hearing loss forced me to cross-train and finish as a Paralegal and Law Office Manager. I have stayed active musically as the pianist/organist at our church for the past 10 years, but have not done a solo piano recital in nearly 40 years. So, I looked through my piles of old music and decided on 4 pieces to perform later this fall. All will be done from memory. Estimated preparation time will be 6-10 hours per week until the planned date of mid November. My planned repertoire will be:
a) Haydn Piano Sonata in D Major (1767)
b) Debussy Estampes (3 Movements)
c) Brahms Intermezzo Opus 118, #2
d) Ginastera Piano Sonata #1 (4 Movements)
2) My wife and I have a small collection of "Great Courses" DVDs, and are going through and learning about cooking, photography, music history, and astronomy. Hopefully, when the world returns to "normal", we will be a little better educated. She is using the cooking class DVDs to come up with imaginative new meals. Mmmmm.
3) I'm going through my old webpages (travelogues) and slowly updating the first ones from 2000-2005 when my web host had very limited space and I downsized and limited all photos. I'm going back in and replacing them with the slightly higher res original photos and also including more of them. www.MichaelElyard.com
4) My wife is starting her garden by planting seeds inside and nurturing them with grow lights. She disappears for hours at a time on the patio and always comes back in happy and stress-free. Happy Wife = Happy Life!!
5) I dug out my Darrell Young book Mastering the Nikon D7200 and have been slowly learning how to use all the features on this fine camera after 2 years. I've also watched several online photo classes - Steve Perry rocks!
6) And last, but not least, I have reached out to our older neighbors I mentioned earlier to hopefully add a measure of calmness and reality to their lives. The widow came to her door (as I stood back 10 feet) and was on the verge of crying, saying she was afraid to go out and asking me if we're going to be able to buy food at the stores. I assured her we have passed the test of many challenges before (swine flu, bird flu, ebola, mad cow, sars) and afterward wondered why we panicked. With common sense measures of hygiene and personal contact, we can get through this, too. Each year, 1.7 million people contract infections from hospital visits/procedures and 99,000 die. Do you hear the TV news shouting "end of the world" over that? Are people buying up a year's worth of toilet paper for that? Perspective.
SUMMARY - I hope each of you can find ways to come out of this situation better than you came into it. Please post POSITIVE ways you are coping so others (including myself!) can benefit.
Be a part of the solution and not part of the problem. Stay safe, keep things in perspective, and help others when you can. Panic never solved anything.
Thank you!
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