WOMEN AGES 50+ FOR APRIL 2020

trucker743 wrote: »

Does anyone else besides me enjoy “children’s movies” or YA literature? I’m delighted by how much I’m finding that is highly original and thought-provoking.

Sharon Near Seattle

Yes!

When I worked in childcare, we would put on the children's movies for the kids and found it fascinating that the kids would laugh at a place we found mildly amusing, but we adults would laugh at a different place which the kids didn't really "get". Many of them are cleverly written to two audiences: kids and adults!

So I do have a small collection of kids movies.

In fact we just finished watching a young adult/family series. The "Honey I Shrunk The ..." three-part series. We particularly enjoyed the special effects.

And when my husband was in hospital and for a long time after, I started reading young adult literature. I read the Narnia series, the Princess and the Goblin, some Mary Poppins, Little Women and others. I was just not in the mood for adult literature. I wanted something I could read quickly and which I knew would turn out OK in the end.


Machka in Oz

Sharon: I’ve been in two grocery stores in my town. They both have senior citizen hours in the early mornings. There is an “in” door and an “out” door at Safeway, but the aisles are not restricted. People are expected to stay at least 5 feet apart while in the store. Everyone I have encountered has been courteous and keeping good social distances. At IGA, shoppers are able to access aisles as they wish but do not get close to one another. :noway:

Machka: I am surprised with the information from the Tasmanian government. I’m stunned that they don’t seem to care if people get sick because of exposure to another citizen. yikes! Beautiful photo of the sea and the boats on the beach. I love it. On another topic, I love the Narnia Series. I read the books aloud to my kids when they were in grade school. They loved the books and began to read for themselves.

I went to the liquor store today. There was a marked line outside on the side walk. Customers outside were expected to be 5 feet apart. When it was your turn to go in, you did your shopping, paid and left. No more than 5 customers were in the store at one time and people kept good personal spacing. It is a relatively small store and can't hold a large group of customers all at once. It was a lovely day today. I wonder what will happen outside when it rains.

Katla in Beautiful NW Oregon

Last night I had an odd dream - not a nightmare by any means, but it probably has to be classed as an anxiety dream. I was one of four people who needed to be tested for virus. The healthcare worker came in carrying — a small bottlebrush! She insisted she wasn't going to stuff it into our gullets by way of our nostrils. I woke up before she tried anything. :grumble:

Terri – Writing about one of your Norwegian cruises a while back, you mentioned the spectacular cathedral in Tromsø. When we first moved there, we lived in a basement apartment right beside it! We later moved to another place about a mile away. We still pass by there frequently, whenever we're in Tromsø.


Apart from walks outdoors, my main coping strategy during lockdown has become baking. Today I'm making my standard sourdough, but I've also been trying things I've never tried before. Here's yesterday's bread. The recipe called for 100 grams of walnuts but I substituted half with some pumpkin seeds I bought long ago and haven't been able to use up. The dough consisted largely of spelt flour and was unsweetened, with apricots and raisins to spiff it up. I'm afraid the result was way too delicious.


/Penny, resisting the traps I set for myself at the

Not feeling great. Here we can only go out to exercise 1h per day with certificate and possible control. living alone in a city apartment it's stressful, for 2 months. most of my students are doing ok, but some are clearly down and demotivated. (not particularly in my classes but in general), the 20 year old who misses her boyfriend and is tired of being with family - who knows which families are supportive and which are hard to live with, and how hard and dysfunctional some may be. these are students who are usually upbeat and active. they are polite but i can see they are struggling. i like reading upbeat posts but we don't all have equal situations. of course mine is much less worse than that of people in great poverty, homeless, migrants in camps, struggling single parents, arguing couples, those in domestic or other violence situations, etc.; but i think living with a yard is a big plus and then living with a peaceful significant other or family member would be a good thing.

it's not relaxing to have to have a paper to go out and to have a limitation to 1km to move outside, and to be limited to 1h a day.

a colleague who went to stay in a rural place w his elderly mom is very happy to stay there and teach from there. he will stay until September if he can which he probably can. I used to have a country house and i'm sure it would be nicer there: plenty of gardening and pottering to do, many meals outside in the sun. Lesser danger of walking and shopping in low infection area.

there is something about the lack of future projection which is challenging.

i read that in "The Plague" novel i'm rereading and also heard that in a a meditation talk today. it was not a great talk (for me) but it spoke about how the future plans seemed so concrete and how they are not so now.

people who were living in unstable situations (financially, professional, or other) and needing to keep regular effort just to keep afloat are not in the best of situations.

it's depressing not to be able to see or touch any human being live for 2 months, other than crossing in streets or buying food.

sometimes in lines people in front go on and on and on talking with person receiving them for like 15-20 minutes, commenting on everything and asking every question imaginable. probably they need to psychologically, but it's not great if waiting in line behind them.

there were protest after protest after protest in France (university teachers, students, civil servants of all sorts) and this confinement seems to be positive for the french government.

The level of testing in France remains extremely low, and the plan to do no or next to no serological testing is very disheartening.

France is 4th in official deaths per million, (not counting countries that are just one city, like Andora) after Belgium, Italy and Spain, and 62nd in testing per million, after Bosnia, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Djibouti, Venezuela, etc.

Of course there are 66 million of us dealing with this, so i'm not alone and i know it's not better in some places, notably with no lockdown.


other than machka, i know some who are happy at present:
-a friend who is happy not to go to work she dislikes and to be able to work on a writing project that is dear to her.
- a friend happy to spend more time working at home and not travel and be more with her DH. normally she finds distance working too lonely but w her DH there she likes it.
- my elderly 1st cousin once removed at age 90 in a happy couple, with all her spirits about her, in a top notch retirement place, recently semi-(yes only semi) retired, likes the quiet.

I DO like the lack of noise and pollution.
I DO like the hour of sun in the morning on the balcony reading
I DO like eating more home-cooked vegetables
I HAVE enjoyed some of the contact with students when we havent got computer issues.
I HAVE enjoyed some walks and the odd distant chat with neighbors.

but some things i enjoyed early on i enjoy less with the length of the confinement. i don't actually often get bored, but i tire of this 1km radius and 1h daily.

when i had a country home i loved 2 full days seeing noone, but on average i liked to go out and see people by 3rd day. (get a coffee at the coffee shop, pop by a friends' etc.)