How has your life changed?

xavier mcdaniel

I've always stayed up late and sometimes when I do go to sleep, I don't fall asleep right away. Often I'll wake up around 7 am, check a few things on the phone for a few minutes and then turn over and go to 9. When I take a nap in the afternoon, I fall right asleep for an hour. I work a lot remotely so my time is flexible. I also try to walk at least twice a day assuming the weather is ok

cincybearcat

hedonist said:

I'm determined to keep my activity level on a pre-Covid par, about which I've been diligent so far.

Sleep?  More off nights than on, where it's taking me longer to get into that zone.  Last night found me - lately, many nights find me - with the sweats and some weird looped dreams.  And upon waking, I've found it's one of the first things I think of, as I typically lay there for a couple minutes and think about the upcoming day.

And then, it dawns on me all over again.

That re-realization hits so hard.

(I'm still managing to get seven or so choppy-ish hours of sleep.)

I’m getting less movement, more stress, and way less sleep. It’s been great so far! 

brianlux

I'm not sure where to post this but it sort of relates to "how has your life changed."   I started writing a post-COVID journal and this marvelous piece by writer Kent Nerburn which encourages me to keep at it, especially today as I slept in late and due to depression and lack of motivation and did not want to arise this morning.

https://kentnerburn.com/in-times-like-this-a-thought-for-the-moment/

IN TIMES LIKE THIS — A THOUGHT FOR THE MOMENT

A short bit of advice for those who are casting about during this crisis.

There are rare times when something takes place in history that is so large that we can think of nothing else. Pearl Harbor.  9/11.  This coronavirus fear.

We try fruitlessly to look away, to divert our attention, to assert the normal. But we can’t. Beneath all our thoughts is the concern, even the fear, that this thing we cannot control is ultimately going to control us.

We fear for ourselves, we fear for our families, we fear for our elders, we fear for our children. We fear for our very way of life and the world as we know it. There is no escaping this fear.

These moments have great power, because they give focus to our minds and thoughts.  We cannot escape into movement and diversion. Everything returns to the source.

One of the great balms in times like this is to turn to writing. We all have stories within us; we all dream of sharing them and telling them. But most of us never do, because we think we aren’t talented enough, aren’t important enough, aren’t capable of shaping something as shapeless as our lives into a something worth sharing.

But we are wrong.  I tell you this as someone who writes for a living.  This is a moment that needs to be recorded.  It needs to be recorded for your children and grandchildren.  It needs to be recorded for your own understanding.  Writing it down, documenting it as you are experiencing it, will force you to give shape to the shapeless, and will offer a precious glimpse into a time that will be impossible to recreate in our hearts and imaginations once it is over.  And it will be over.

Have you not longed for your grandmother’s memories?  Have you not found the old letters from relatives and ancestors to be something precious?

Did you assess their writing style?  Did you critique their spelling or the way they structured their thoughts?  No.  They were a window on the times, and no matter how they chose to express themselves, you receive it as a gift.

Did they speak only of their daily lives?  Did they open their hearts and express their feelings?  It does not matter.  They gave you themselves.

I assure you that if you sit down with pencil and paper or at your keyboard, and just start where you are, your story will unfold.  And in the unfolding it will allow you to walk through the confusion of your own feelings and give shape to this shapelessness, because you will have to choose what to include.

And here is the magic.  Choosing will not be hard, because it will be done for you.  You have wandered into a garden of possibilities, and no matter where you turn, no matter what you touch, it is a bloom worthy of the picking.

Do you write a journal, going day by day?  Do you go back to the poetry that you used to write in high school?  Do you just write down your shopping list and say why you chose what you chose?  Do you start with your fear?  It doesn’t matter.  This moment will give you your voice, because only you can tell the story as you are living it.

I’ve used this time of enforced isolation and, yes, discipline, to work on a novel I’ve been threatening to write for years.  And I have no greater pleasure than passing through the doorway of that world and finding the people and places who are living inside.  But I could as easily be recording the thoughts and feelings and frustrations and fears that animate this moment.  Once inside of any writing – any creative act, actually – the world starts to take form and you begin to give shape to the shapeless.

This moment gives us what I like to call “a fine attention.”  It is giving us the gift of mindfulness, where the small is as large as the great.  Take advantage of it.  Grab a notebook or a legal pad.  Open a new file on your computer. Speak in your own voice.  Judge nothing.  Throw away nothing.  Everything you think or feel is important at this moment because the moment is important and you are given the dark privilege of living through it.

You are a living document of the times.  Do not let your voice go unheard.

SPEEDY MCCREADY

10 days since I went back on the road? 10 days

630,00 new cases.

Im home for 12 hours, then I am back out for 2.5 days. Then I may just take a real long weekend. REAL LONG WEEKEND

josevolution

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

10 days since I went back on the road? 10 days

630,00 new cases.

Im home for 12 hours, then I am back out for 2.5 days. Then I may just take a real long weekend. REAL LONG WEEKEND

Glad your home safely get some rest, thanks for delivering much needed items! 

SPEEDY MCCREADY

josevolution said:

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

10 days since I went back on the road? 10 days

630,00 new cases.

Im home for 12 hours, then I am back out for 2.5 days. Then I may just take a real long weekend. REAL LONG WEEKEND

Glad your home safely get some rest, thanks for delivering much needed items! 

Hey, thanks. I got lucky and was able to make a pit stop at home for about 12 hours. Yesterday I was in South Dakota checking out the Crazy Horse memorial. I got within a 1/2 mile of Mt. Rushmore, but never did see it. First time I had ever been out in the Black Hills. 30 years of driving and I had never been out there. BEAUTIFUL SCENERY!

mfc2006

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

10 days since I went back on the road? 10 days

630,00 new cases.

Im home for 12 hours, then I am back out for 2.5 days. Then I may just take a real long weekend. REAL LONG WEEKEND

Glad you got to go home for a bit. Thanks for what you’re doing, Mike. Be well, my friend and enjoy that long weekend!!

23scidoo

Take care dude!!

josevolution

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

josevolution said:

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

10 days since I went back on the road? 10 days

630,00 new cases.

Im home for 12 hours, then I am back out for 2.5 days. Then I may just take a real long weekend. REAL LONG WEEKEND

Glad your home safely get some rest, thanks for delivering much needed items! 

Hey, thanks. I got lucky and was able to make a pit stop at home for about 12 hours. Yesterday I was in South Dakota checking out the Crazy Horse memorial. I got within a 1/2 mile of Mt. Rushmore, but never did see it. First time I had ever been out in the Black Hills. 30 years of driving and I had never been out there. BEAUTIFUL SCENERY!

I bet it is one day I hope to get out there and see some of it too!

xavier mcdaniel

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

josevolution said:

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

10 days since I went back on the road? 10 days

630,00 new cases.

Im home for 12 hours, then I am back out for 2.5 days. Then I may just take a real long weekend. REAL LONG WEEKEND

Glad your home safely get some rest, thanks for delivering much needed items! 

Hey, thanks. I got lucky and was able to make a pit stop at home for about 12 hours. Yesterday I was in South Dakota checking out the Crazy Horse memorial. I got within a 1/2 mile of Mt. Rushmore, but never did see it. First time I had ever been out in the Black Hills. 30 years of driving and I had never been out there. BEAUTIFUL SCENERY!

Oh man, I missed you popping in here by one day. Glad you are doing OK and awesome you're getting to see such great scenery while doing your job that helps others. 

gimmesometruth27

hey speedy, we were supposed to get drunk tonight and tomorrow at the show. i am pissed that we are gonna miss out!!

GlowGirl

“And now my life has changed in oh so many ways. My independence seems to vanish in the haze”

brianlux

MF117973 said:

“And now my life has changed in oh so many ways. My independence seems to vanish in the haze”

Excellent quote for our times!  I read that and in my head immediately went from The Beatles to Neil Young (and wonder if the former lyric influenced the latter):

My life is changing in so many ways
I don't know who to trust anymore
There's a shadow running through my days
Like a beggar going from door to door.

mickeyrat

brianlux said:

In about an hour, the last two book orders I received before shutting down QC will go out and my little book business will be shut down for I don't know how long.  My other jobs (The Bookery and my vinyl business) are already goners (at least for now- possibly for good), so today means the end of work for me.  The disconnect is that I know this is how it must be and that sheltering ion place is the right thing to do, but I also know not having a job is going to hurt financially and psychologically.  I need to find something useful to do- quick!

Discogs account? Ebay sales?  Mail still runs.......

SPEEDY MCCREADY

Just a simple trip for some weekend grocery shopping.

Put my mask on, grab a few pairs of gloves, and a can of Lysol.

Arrive at the store to see maybe 0nly 20 people in line, each 6 feet apart. Of course I am arriving at store 10 minutes before they open, because who knows what the store will be like 2 hours after they open. Grab my cart, thanking the lady who I just watched disinfect the hell out of it. I rub my hands, with gloves on, under the sanitizer dispenser, because now I sanitize my hands under EVERY dispenser I come upon, and have for 3 weeks now.  I quickly realize there are no cleaning supplies of any kind, so off I go to get some food. I am going to make my wife and I some lasagna for the week. She will have it for her lunches, and I will bring some and stock my truck for the week. A couple more times of sanitizing my hands, I go to the checkout. The young lady behind the counter, who has seen me for 10 years, has her gloves and mask on, plus there is now plexiglass separating us. I pay with a card, because I no longer use cash, and haven't for 3 weeks. I get to my car and grab the can of Lysol. I proceed to Lysol the fuck out of every bag and most of the groceries. My hamburger and chicken are tied up in the bag, and then the bag is Lysoled. Groceries are put in the car. I arrive at home, with new gloves on, and proceed to put groceries on my porch. I walk back to my car and proceed to Lysol the fuck out of my car. Then I proceed to Lysol the fuck out of myself.  The groceries are brought in to the house, where everything is introduced to Clorox wipes. I let everything sit on the counter for a while.  In the meantime I strip all my clothes off, down to the basement they go. I shower, put on fresh clothes, make it back to the kitchen to put groceries away.

JUST A SIMPLE TRIP TO TH GROCERY STORE.

hedonist

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

Just a simple trip for some weekend grocery shopping.

Put my mask on, grab a few pairs of gloves, and a can of Lysol.

Arrive at the store to see maybe 0nly 20 people in line, each 6 feet apart. Of course I am arriving at store 10 minutes before they open, because who knows what the store will be like 2 hours after they open. Grab my cart, thanking the lady who I just watched disinfect the hell out of it. I rub my hands, with gloves on, under the sanitizer dispenser, because now I sanitize my hands under EVERY dispenser I come upon, and have for 3 weeks now.  I quickly realize there are no cleaning supplies of any kind, so off I go to get some food. I am going to make my wife and I some lasagna for the week. She will have it for her lunches, and I will bring some and stock my truck for the week. A couple more times of sanitizing my hands, I go to the checkout. The young lady behind the counter, who has seen me for 10 years, has her gloves and mask on, plus there is now plexiglass separating us. I pay with a card, because I no longer use cash, and haven't for 3 weeks. I get to my car and grab the can of Lysol. I proceed to Lysol the fuck out of every bag and most of the groceries. My hamburger and chicken are tied up in the bag, and then the bag is Lysoled. Groceries are put in the car. I arrive at home, with new gloves on, and proceed to put groceries on my porch. I walk back to my car and proceed to Lysol the fuck out of my car. Then I proceed to Lysol the fuck out of myself.  The groceries are brought in to the house, where everything is introduced to Clorox wipes. I let everything sit on the counter for a while.  In the meantime I strip all my clothes off, down to the basement they go. I shower, put on fresh clothes, make it back to the kitchen to put groceries away.

JUST A SIMPLE TRIP TO TH GROCERY STORE.

That was exhausting simply for me to read, let alone you actually doing it. 

Diligent work on your part. 

SPEEDY MCCREADY

hedonist said:

SPEEDY MCCREADY said:

Just a simple trip for some weekend grocery shopping.

Put my mask on, grab a few pairs of gloves, and a can of Lysol.

Arrive at the store to see maybe 0nly 20 people in line, each 6 feet apart. Of course I am arriving at store 10 minutes before they open, because who knows what the store will be like 2 hours after they open. Grab my cart, thanking the lady who I just watched disinfect the hell out of it. I rub my hands, with gloves on, under the sanitizer dispenser, because now I sanitize my hands under EVERY dispenser I come upon, and have for 3 weeks now.  I quickly realize there are no cleaning supplies of any kind, so off I go to get some food. I am going to make my wife and I some lasagna for the week. She will have it for her lunches, and I will bring some and stock my truck for the week. A couple more times of sanitizing my hands, I go to the checkout. The young lady behind the counter, who has seen me for 10 years, has her gloves and mask on, plus there is now plexiglass separating us. I pay with a card, because I no longer use cash, and haven't for 3 weeks. I get to my car and grab the can of Lysol. I proceed to Lysol the fuck out of every bag and most of the groceries. My hamburger and chicken are tied up in the bag, and then the bag is Lysoled. Groceries are put in the car. I arrive at home, with new gloves on, and proceed to put groceries on my porch. I walk back to my car and proceed to Lysol the fuck out of my car. Then I proceed to Lysol the fuck out of myself.  The groceries are brought in to the house, where everything is introduced to Clorox wipes. I let everything sit on the counter for a while.  In the meantime I strip all my clothes off, down to the basement they go. I shower, put on fresh clothes, make it back to the kitchen to put groceries away.

JUST A SIMPLE TRIP TO TH GROCERY STORE.

That was exhausting simply for me to read, let alone you actually doing it. 

Diligent work on your part. 

It has to be done, right?

People may read this, and think I'm a little over doing it. But isn't this what everyone should be doing? Especially with the next 2 weeks being as critical as they are going to be?

I  also realized at the store today, THAT HUMAN BEINGS SUCK! Do people really need to discard their gloves in the parking lots of the grocery store? If I wrote the laws, I would fine anyone throwing their gloves in the parking lot $600. Yep, half of their stimulus money. And if they do it again? The rest of your stimulus money is taken away immediately, and you will have a court date. Because I just might fine you an additional $1000.00.

hedonist

I noticed the discarded gloves thing too here.  And people suddenly not cleaning up their dogs' shit.

It's like some use this as an excuse to let their asshole flag fly!

brianlux

mickeyrat said:

brianlux said:

In about an hour, the last two book orders I received before shutting down QC will go out and my little book business will be shut down for I don't know how long.  My other jobs (The Bookery and my vinyl business) are already goners (at least for now- possibly for good), so today means the end of work for me.  The disconnect is that I know this is how it must be and that sheltering ion place is the right thing to do, but I also know not having a job is going to hurt financially and psychologically.  I need to find something useful to do- quick!

Discogs account? Ebay sales?  Mail still runs.......

I thought about selling LPs through Discogs but because they are all at the bookstore, I decided that would be more trouble than its worth (although a couple of times we put a few rare things on eBay that sold).  My on-line books sell through biblio.com and I put the entire inventory on hold when this virus thing broke out.  Not a day goes by that I don't consider putting them back up but that would mean more trips out to the post office and what I do is non-essential.  My wife and I are older and somewhat at risk plus we're complying with the stay at home recommendation because that's our one tiny way of helping get this thing under control.  So for now, I'm out of a job. 

But no complaints.  There are people out there in much worse shape.  I saw some guy on TV who is an Uber driver talking about being down to his last $65 and getting no work.  It's getting really tough already for some folks out there.  Very sad situation.

Spiritual_Chaos

brianlux said:

mickeyrat said:

brianlux said:

In about an hour, the last two book orders I received before shutting down QC will go out and my little book business will be shut down for I don't know how long.  My other jobs (The Bookery and my vinyl business) are already goners (at least for now- possibly for good), so today means the end of work for me.  The disconnect is that I know this is how it must be and that sheltering ion place is the right thing to do, but I also know not having a job is going to hurt financially and psychologically.  I need to find something useful to do- quick!

Discogs account? Ebay sales?  Mail still runs.......

I thought about selling LPs through Discogs but because they are all at the bookstore, I decided that would be more trouble than its worth (although a couple of times we put a few rare things on eBay that sold).  My on-line books sell through biblio.com and I put the entire inventory on hold when this virus thing broke out.  Not a day goes by that I don't consider putting them back up but that would mean more trips out to the post office and what I do is non-essential.  My wife and I are older and somewhat at risk plus we're complying with the stay at home recommendation because that's our one tiny way of helping get this thing under control.  So for now, I'm out of a job. 

But no complaints.  There are people out there in much worse shape.  I saw some guy on TV who is an Uber driver talking about being down to his last $65 and getting no work.  It's getting really tough already for some folks out there.  Very sad situation.

I can buy some KISS and Neil Young.