How To Not let COVID-19 Ruin My Life Or Others

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!
 
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Woodyg3

Senior Member
Contributor
Great post.

Don't forget to go outside and take lots of photographs. It's a great social distancing activity. :)
 

Patrick M

Senior Member
I agree. It’s a great post. I’d love to share this on Facebook as I’m sure it would as inspirational to many more as well as me.

Thank you for posting it. I’m 67, my wife 66, and this will certainly guide us moving forward in these uncertain and worrying times.

Stay safe, stay well.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 

pnomanikon

Senior Member
Thank you. Feel free to share. I posted this over on the Kia Soul forum that I frequent, and made a few small grammatical changes. If you do share it, please use this slightly modified version. Thanks.

*******

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 hysterical 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 four neighbors (two widows each in their own home 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. The restaurants we like to visit are closed. Our vacation to the Outer Banks of NC next month is now cancelled and we found ourselves getting more depressed. We were slowing slipping into a dark hole. 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. Fresh air is good medicine!

We also limit ourselves to 30 minutes of news in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening. No more endless hours of hysterical doomsday reporters allowed 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)

In addition, I am working with our pastor to do a 20-30 minute online service with music each Sunday morning since our church building is closed with no services or activities for at least 2 weeks. Our congregation can go online at their convenience and participate in a worship service and even sing a couple of hymns along with my accompaniment.

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 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, please.

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. Panic never solved anything.


Thank you!
 
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Michael J.

Senior Member


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.


Cos of the rapidly spreading of COVIT-19, the Government ordered us to close our business (School). So as we are depending on that income what do we do positive. We have faith and trust in our LORD. We pray.
 

Vixen

Senior Member
Make sure you get that solo performance videoed so we can all see it :D

Great post. So far its life as normal in Australia (except for the empty supermarket shelves and large gathering banned). Not sure how long that will last but I'm 90% socially distanced as a norm so it won't be at all hard for me
 

pnomanikon

Senior Member

OMG!! Panic never solved anything.

We just went to WalMart and shopped groceries for ourselves and an elderly neighbor. No lines, and everything was well stocked except no toilet paper (huh?!?!?) and low on bread and meat - although they were unloading the meat truck as we shopped. Tons of fresh veggies and fruit! Lots of milk and dairy. No need to panic.

.
 

Carroll

Senior Member
Cos of the rapidly spreading of COVIT-19, the Government ordered us to close our business (School). So as we are depending on that income what do we do positive. We have faith and trust in our LORD. We pray.

Michael, I wonder if you could set up lessons on a website, that your students could access, to keep up with their work? Of course, that would mean each student would have to have access to the internet in some fashion, which may or may not be a problem. I know you are very good at websites and perhaps an "Online School" would not only help the students, but possibly provide some income for you and your family. Just a thought...
 
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Michael J.

Senior Member
Michael, I wonder if you could set up lessons on a website, that your students could access, to keep up with their work? Of course, that would mean each student would have to have access to the internet in some fashion, which may or may not be a problem. I know you are very good at websites and perhaps an "Online School" would not only help the students, but possibly provide some income for you and your family. Just a thought...

We have our Online group set up, now they join. Better than nothing. They and I am happy when everything will go back as normal.

Thanks Carroll for your input and concern. Deeply appreciate.
 

pnomanikon

Senior Member
We have our Online group set up, now they join. Better than nothing. They and I am happy when everything will go back as normal.

Thanks Carroll for your input and concern. Deeply appreciate.

Glad to hear you are getting set up for online classes. "Back to normal" may take a while.

Yesterday, our town banned gatherings of more than 10 people, including churches, for the next 90 days. This means our online church services will be the only outreach we have to our congregation through at least late June. The minister and his wife (also a minister), choir director, me (piano and organ), a singer, and the audio/tech guy will be the only ones in the sanctuary. As of now, we are planning to just record one service this Sunday morning, but may record 2 at a time after that so we only have to come in every 2 weeks. Last week, the short service the ministers "broadcast" on youtube Live reached about 150 people that morning, with more tuning in during the week.
 

Eduard

Super Mod
Staff member
Super Mod
Great thread and post @pnomanikon! Another idea I'm toying with is to go back and reprocess some of my favorite images. As both Lightroom's capabilities and my skills/experience have increased, I'm wondering if I could improve my results.
 

pnomanikon

Senior Member
UPDATE:

Well, it's been almost 2 weeks of quarantine and we seem to be holding up well. I awoke this morning to the sound of hard, driving rain. Looks like we will be inside today. We try to get out for a walk every day - around 1-1/2 to 2 miles. Maybe not today.

Since we last spoke, we have been able to stock up on groceries (and TP!) as well as delivering groceries to 2 ladies who live alone (both in their 80s). I think we will be adding a 3rd lady this weekend - the mother of a friend who moved to Florida and is a Nurse Practitioner there.

We have revised our protocol for bringing in groceries: We have a back door that leads into our laundry room, so I bring all bags to just outside the door. My wife picks out one jar/bottle/container at a time and brings it in to the wash basin which is filled with disinfectant in warm water. Wipes are used for cardboard containers like cereal. Veggies get washed in just water. Then, everything gets set on a clean sheet laid across the washer and dryer. All the dirty plastic bags stay outside and go into the garbage. (They don't recycle plastic bags here)

For groceries I deliver, I take a container of large disinfectant wipes (Lysol) and, in the parking lots, wipe everything down one at a time and transfer to clean paper bags with handles. From there, I take them up to their door, knock, and step back.

Coming back home, I strip down as I come in the laundry room door and put everything in the washer with Lysol laundry disinfectant. Shoes get sprayed with Lysol. The entry area gets wiped down with Pinesol and water. We have a stand-up shower in the laundry room, so it's shower time and clean clothes next.

My wife has been working in her garden. I took the shovel and dug up soil in sections as she is ready to plant. So far, she has spinach, potatoes, and lettuce planted with tomatoes and a few other things started indoors. She is waiting until after frost season to move them outdoors.

I've been working on my piano recital. My teacher at WVU (undergrad and Masters) strongly emphasized SLOW practice when learning new music. This means playing music as slow as 1/6 or 1/8 final tempo. Even slower on technical passages. I'm sure it drives my wife nuts to hear me practicing the same 2 measures over and over slowly, but she doesn't say so. She is very patient!

I managed to install Skype on my Android phone so we can video chat with our son and D-I-L. They live 250 miles away near DC. Glad we saw them in January before all this flared up.

Our church is broadcasting a service each Sunday morning online, so tomorrow I will be going there for a few hours. I am the organist/pianist. Last week, we had over 250 viewers. It feels great to be helping others cope with the stress of quarantine. Many of those are home alone.

Yesterday, I surprised my wife and filled a bucket with hot water and Pinesol and wiped down our entire house (hardwood floors and vinyl floors except the den). It took about 3 hours but it feels really clean. She has been surprising me with interesting meals like hot roast beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy for lunch yesterday. She knows that is one of my favorite diner meals when we travel.

I have also been taking an online course in "Pianists at the Organ", meant for pianists like me who also play the organ. As similar as they look, they are two vastly different animals. This course discusses subjects like legato fingering, pedal technique, different sounds/stops, and much more. More interesting than it sounds.

To wrap things up, I would again like to encourage everyone to look around and see if there are others in your neighborhood that could use your help. Maybe an older person/couple who are afraid to go out to the grocery store. Even a phone call to someone living alone can brighten up their whole day.

Stay safe and stay positive.




 
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Hannah Shia

Senior Member
Personally, I've decided to sit this one out for the health of my family. I do a bit of editing and live on my savings. I hope that the lockdown will end in summer and I'll switch to mini photo sessions for a bit. All people are suffering financially and won't pay hundreds of dollars for a photo shoot, but a couple of nice pics are always in demand. By offering such mini sessions, I'll give a nice alternative to my regulars and hope to bring in more new clients.
 

Andy W

Senior Member
Hannah, I hope the mini photo sessions work well for you. This virus has me rethinking our school/daycare portrait business. I'm not sure I'll ever feel safe going inside a school again.
 

Danno

Senior Member
We have been fine. We have not gotten out much. Pat goes to work still. She and her boss are the only two in her office at most and she is by herself most days. Groceries are going well around here as well even though we are trying to support our hometown restaurants that are doing curb service. Church is good as well. They are doing that on line and Mom joins us from Arkansas and Michael from Thailand so that is nice.

The only drawback is I have not gotten out to take many photos and I have this new Z6, but we are going to try to do a bit today. Hopefully things will return to normal soon. I do miss seeing people face to face.
 

Bikerbrent

Senior Member
Unfortunately, here in the Peoples Republic of Kalifornia, if we dare leave our house for other than medical reasons, to get food, or some other approved purpose, we can be slapped with a $1000 fine and/or 6 months in jail. Not only is photography an unapproved purpose, but we can't even go to the beach to watch the sunset.
 
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