Coronavirus prep

Holidays and gyms?

Holidays: Usually go to my SIL/BIL's house for Thanksgiving i& Christmas. If invited, I'm sort of torn. My best judgement is "stay home" but SIL/BIL are over 80, remarkably healthy, capable for their age and living in their own big home still, but both have had some real health declines in the last year or so. Not sure how many years, and I love and care for them a lot (they've kept me kindly for the 22 years since my husband, their brother, died, in such an open-hearted way - I have no immediate family of my own). OTOH, their middle-aged kids/grandkids do a lot more social mixing than I feel comfortable with, so it's a tough call. SIL/BIL say the whole fam is being "so careful", but there's a lot of extra-familial socializing, restaurants, jobs, etc. I'll probably solo, which I don't mind for my own sake, but it's sort of heartbreaking for my relationship with them.

Gyms: Not anytime soon. I miss my spin class. They haven't started up yet, but the Y is starting to open some things. But I caught a bad cold back around February (no, not Covid!), and I'm pretty sure I got it from the sniffly sneezy gal on the next bike over, which isn't confidence building. I have weights and a rowing machine at home: it'll do.

I'm not sure what will happen this year for holiday meals. Usually we have Thanksgiving or Christmas or both with the kids and grandkids in MD, two hours away. There are several very vulnerable members of the family (over 80 and diabetic). However, there are also three kids in college having in person classes and a couple of people whose work is around a lot of other people - so they are exposed daily. Knowing my husband, who is a proponent of "I'm going to live until I die" there will be some pressure to join the family meal, if there is one. I've tried telling him I don't want him to die, but that doesn't mean he won't want to go. I have managed to convince him to wear a mask, so there is that.

Gyms: so far it's been pretty easy for me to stay away, because when my gym reopened in July, they did so with limited hours that conflict with my job during the week. I would only be able to go one day on the weekend, assuming I could get a time slot (limited capacity, limited hours, reservation required for a time slot). So I've put my membership on hold until December.

If they expand hours ... I dunno. It's just hard to feel that time spent indoors with people who are breathing heavy is a good idea. I believe they are doing the best they can about things like surface cleaning and mask requirements and limiting capacity ... but in the end, you're still indoors for an extended period of time breathing the air that just came out of someone else's lungs. On the other hand, I really miss my gym.

GaleHawkins wrote: »

Covid-19 prep is over at two of our Walmart's locally for the most part it seems. No staff were outside the store monitoring and people were going in and out the same doors. No one was cleaning carts or the check out lane equipment. One way aisles are all gone like pre Covid. Staff still are to wear masks. There were no free wet wipes at the door and face masks had been marked down.

We have zero Covid in the community (Nrth QLD Australia) here and they are still doing all of the above in all the shops. I don't get it. Do they not believe in Covid or are just thinking of money? Disgusting. If I go into a shop and they run out of wipes or hand sanitiser I let them know so they can replace it. Guess you better take your own Gale. Hugs.

Gisel2015 wrote: »

rheddmobile wrote: »

hansep0012 wrote: »

I would like to hear people's thoughts about the upcoming holidays and whether your "traditional" plans will be changed as a result of COVID.

My self-appointed title is the Grinch that stopped family holiday activities in 2020 by telling the family we would not be hosting Thanksgiving this year.

What, if anything, is changing for you and yours this holiday season?

Both my husband and I are strictly social distancing - he gets groceries and other essentials while masked, we run outside at a distance from others, and that’s it.

My mom is also socially distanced but she’s a bit daft when it comes to understanding what to do. For example she had a repairman in her house the other day so “I wore my gloves the whole time, I didn’t take them off until hours later, after dinner.” I have explained that Covid doesn’t make you sick by penetrating your skin. Gloves make no kind of sense to protect from the air breathed by a repairman, and even if they did prevent you from touching a contaminated surface, EATING WITH THEM ON afterwards would undo any benefit. I can hear the air whistling through her ears when I try to explain the difference between aerosols and droplets and why spending time indoors with someone is bad and masks only limit risk, they don’t prevent it. She’s very intelligent and usually on top of things, this just seems to be a case of old dogs not learning new tricks. At all. Because no matter what is explained she reverts to the same way of thinking even if she seemed to get it at the time.

She’s frail and I would hate for what might be our last holiday season to be spent separately. I think we need to step up and decorate her house, cook all the food for her, and so on, and just accept that we are in each other’s bubble.

My husband’s large family in Indiana all don’t believe in Covid and want us to drive up there. Uh uh.

I also had repair people in my house because certain things can't be postponed for a very long time. They were all very careful and asked COVID-19 related questions, wore masks, and so did my husband and I. We all kept our distance; they did the work and left, and sent the bill by e-mail. I cleaned and disinfected surfaces when they left.

I think that it was safer than getting together with family over the holidays, because in those situations it is very hard to keep masks on all the time and not be close to each other. Workers on the other hand, are very interested in staying healthy because they need to work, and I noticed that they take the health restrictions and recommendations more seriously than some family members.

With respect to gyms/fitness centers: I live in a gated community and both fitness centers are still closed. My husband mentioned that the main association is trying to open them with a lot of restrictions, and a 10% to 20% capacity. It will be hard to do. The centers are not very large and machines can not be moved far a part. The only thing to do will be to "eliminate" the use of some machines, and restrict the workouts and attendance. They tried that before and it didn't go very well. Fitness classes like yoga, Pilates, step up and aerobics are all canceled, and who knows when will they be open again. Activity clubs are also closed because they are indoors.

For me is not gym or fitness classes until I get vaccinated, which is not going to happen anytime soon. Sad, but necessary.

I have had pest control workers and other maintenance several times since May when I realized there was a nest of feral bees in one of my walls. It was in an interior wall even, that connects to an exterior wall with large holes around an old window. This is in a closet, so I put diatomaceous earth all over inside, blocked off cracks around the window itself, and then blocked iff cracks around the closet door, including diatomaceous earth piled high against the bottom of the door. So any bees that got in eventually died. But then several figured out how to travel through the floor under a hallway (outside the closet door) and then back up theough some cracks where different interior walls meet the floor. So I basically had a swarm that ended up convening around the bedroom light and was big enough to form a connection between different pieces and bust the breaker. I don't know what happened, but couldn't just turn the breaker back on at first. Even 12 hours later, I could only turn the breaker back on when the light switch was off. *kitten* soon as I tried to turn that light switch on again, the breaker would blow again. So I had someone repair that also. But this was in July, and I was working from June-Aug. on-site. Which wasn't really necessary for my work, but some people at the company don't care.

hansep0012 wrote: »

I would like to hear people's thoughts about the upcoming holidays and whether your "traditional" plans will be changed as a result of COVID.

My self-appointed title is the Grinch that stopped family holiday activities in 2020 by telling the family we would not be hosting Thanksgiving this year.

What, if anything, is changing for you and yours this holiday season?

Dude! SAME! Thanksgiving is a major deal with all the aunts, uncles, and cousins coming by. I'm not going to be part of the problem. So they can have it elsewhere and put their health in their own hands and risk it if they like.

Mask and distancing guidelines are widely NOT FOLLOWED here. This includes my inlaws. So there will be no Thanksgiving with them. They will be angry with us. How do I choose between my elderly Dad and them? I can't help that they don't care about their health (they are mid60s and very unhealthy: diabetes, obesity, high BP, high cholesterol, and etc.) and don't think it's a big deal. I'm not being unfair here. They literally said to our face "I don't care. I'll get it or I won't. If the Lord decides to take us, then that's fine. I'm still gonna go out and live my life!" I figure we will try to work out something for Christmas and see them then quarantine from Dad. My sister will probably be coming over from Houston to visit him, and if we time it right, our quarantine will coincide with Dad having a visitor most of the time even if it means we won't see him ON Christmas Day. What usually happens is that on Christmas Eve the whole local family has a shindig (all aunts, uncles, cousins.) Then on Christmas Day, they are like an open Subway (the sub shop) with all the items to make subs. Hubby and his siblings and the grandkids (the only grandkids are my children) open presents and everyone else stops by when they feel like it during the day for food. That's obviously not happening. At least for my immediate family anyway.

ETA: They will still likely have all these large "parties" without us. This is very hard on my kids who have sacrificed so much to keep their one grandfather safe (and to be honest my husband, too, with the wonky genes for heart disease swimming around from both sides). It breaks my heart. I never had involved family. It was just me, sis and parents. I would have killed for family gatherings like that so I know what they are missing. They'll have to settle for one gathering, and even then that depends on what the world looks like around Dec 25th in our neck of the woods.

Yeah, I don't get that whole, "If I get it, I get it - If I die, I die - I gotta live my life" thing. You can't wear a mask briefly in public or give up one year of holiday parties or even just self-quarantine ahead of the visit to ensure grandma's safety? How spoiled are we?

I don't love these restrictions either, but I can go a year without having things "my way" if it means saving a life or lives, maybe my own. I feel like I have decades more to live, and one year playing it safe is a drop in the bucket. But I'm a long-term thinker anyway. I've never been an instant gratification kinda person. I'd rather still be alive in 10 years time. A weekend of parties today isn't worth a lifetime of "swiss-cheese lungs" tomorrow.

When I think about all the REAL hardships and sacrifices people have suffered throughout human history, this is minor in comparison. My life is mostly unchanged except for a few extra hassles. I still do most of what I want. I realize not everybody has the patience to wait it out, but some people aren't even trying. They just want to do whatever they want to do, and screw everyone else. It is what it is...

hipari wrote: »

Noreenmarie1234 wrote: »

Theoldguy1 wrote: »

My company just announced that all in US and several other countries that can will work remotely until at least January, 2021, extended from October, 2020.

Getting sick of this stuff.

I wish I could have worked from home forever. It was the best thing ever (for me). I am really surprised some people want to go into work. I prefer to stay in my pjs all day.

In my workplace it seems to be divided: those with bigger homes and good desks, chairs and dedicated study/work rooms want to continue WFH, especially if their kids are school-aged so they have to leave early to bring their kids to hobbies etc, or if their kids are old enough to have moved out. These people tend to be older, and are also more experienced in their field and therefore need less guidance from colleagues. Our younger people with smaller homes and less possibilities to get nice desks, distancing themselves from spouses who also work and have meetings online, or have daycare-aged kids that make working from home a struggle seem to prefer working at the office.

I'm in the latter group: being in the same room with my husband 24/7 for 3 months straight was pretty rough. Now I'm leaning into a hybrid model where I do some work from home and some from the office. Today I'm spending the morning at home, answering emails and messages, then going out for lunch and spending the afternoon in the office doing high-focus work with my properly set-up desk and external monitors.

Currently we have a WFH recommendation in place until further notice, meaning everyone is allowed to choose for themselves but all meetings must be held online so nobody has to come in. The amount of people at the office seems to be 1-5 per day, out of 25 people. We had a pretty strong WFH culture even before covid and everyone has always been allowed to work from home whenever they wanted unless there were in-person meetings, so this is not such a drastic change.

My bosses are younger than me, but more old fashioned in their thinking. One day they abruptly stopped the Work From Home and called everyone back to the office. They're the sort who don't even like sales staff working on the road. Never comfortable with any staff who aren't visible all day in the building.

JustSomeEm wrote: »

jenilla1 wrote: »

Yeah, I don't get that whole, "If I get it, I get it - If I die, I die - I gotta live my life" thing. You can't wear a mask briefly in public or give up one year of holiday parties or even just self-quarantine ahead of the visit to ensure grandma's safety? How spoiled are we?

I don't love these restrictions either, but I can go a year without having things "my way" if it means saving a life or lives, maybe my own. I feel like I have decades more to live, and one year playing it safe is a drop in the bucket. But I'm a long-term thinker anyway. I've never been an instant gratification kinda person. I'd rather still be alive in 10 years time. A weekend of parties today isn't worth a lifetime of "swiss-cheese lungs" tomorrow.

When I think about all the REAL hardships and sacrifices people have suffered throughout human history, this is minor in comparison. My life is mostly unchanged except for a few extra hassles. I still do most of what I want. I realize not everybody has the patience to wait it out, but some people aren't even trying. They just want to do whatever they want to do, and screw everyone else. It is what it is...

I fall partially into this camp, as I have a fairly fatalistic view of my own life. If I get it, I get it, but that doesn't mean I don't take basic precautions, wear a mask in public, wash my hands frequently, and it doesn't mean that I don't take precautions before going to see someone who has a higher chance of having severe complications. I do all of those things, and I am more than happy to continue to do them. I certainly care about the comfort level of others and take into consideration their concerns and act accordingly. However, I also know that I could get hit by a cab walking across the street, or slip and fall down the stairs and break my neck, or have an accident while cycling or running on a busy road or even driving a car, and those things may kill or maim me (just like the virus might). Living in fear is more stress than I'm willing to place on myself. It isn't being spoiled. It is simply knowing that I have no control (outside of basic precautions) over whether I get hit by a bus, or get COVID, and refusing to stress over it.

Accepting responsibility for your actions is commendable, and appreciated by many of us.

Unforeseen accidents are different than using proven precautions to avoid possibly contracting or spreading COVID-19 to others. No one wants to live their lives fearing possible, unforeseen occurrences. People with “I die, I die” attitude and refusing to take simple precautions (wearing face coverings and social distancing), ARE being selfish. Little thought, or care, about others they come in contact with who may have compromised immune systems, pre-existing conditions or other factors that may make them, and others they are in contact with, particularly vulnerable.

We’re not at the beginning stages of this anymore. Everyone knows face coverings and social distancing lessens the likelihood of spread. If you’re attitude is personal freedom to choose not to use these precautions, you are selfish and uncaring for others.