Covid coping

[melannen]

I haven't posted here because I feel like all I have to say is "here's how I'm coping with self-isolation" but then I scan down my reading list and that's all anybody has to say, so, I guess.

I have still been trying to get something non-covid-related up on fictional_fans every day, but you are still invited to join in! I am happy to skip a day if someone else gets there first! :D

There's also fandom_checkin, which is a new comm just for people who are feeling isolated to check in every day, if you want an unstructured place to talk about covid.

I am currently on paid emergency leave; in theory we go back to work Monday but the governor closed all non-essential businesses with no end date, and we were supposed to hear an update from the higher-ups today but all we got was a quotation from the governor's order, so who even knows. I am holed up with my mom and stellar_dust (who came home for an early spring break and is staying for the duration) and her cat, and we've barely dented the contents of the freezer and the pie safe. I made a 150-item pie-in-the-sky to-do list that I've barely dented and keep adding to, but I've started with the most complicated and annoying ones first.

Today I finally attempted to get the data off the old hard drives that have been piling up for, oh, five years or more. Anybody have any ideas for a SATA drive that's so busted even ddrescue can identify it but thinks it has 0 bytes? Someone on an old linux forum suggested disassemble it and clean all the contacts.

I've been taking a walk down to the pokemon gym on the corner every day, and I have people I like to talk to in person, a group text and dreamwidth, and a cat to cuddle, so I'm doing okay. In my previous experience of more elective self-isolations, if I get synchronous conversation + sky and fresh air + a living thing to touch every day, I do pretty well, so we're aiming for that.

I started a paper journal and that's helping too, to let me get out thoughts I don't need to share with people (it's in a teeny-tiny notebook with fifteen lines to a page; I put a day's to-do list on the front of the page, and then journal on the back, which keeps both things reasonably unintimidating). And stellar_dust is making us do nightly yoga.

Have also been doing a lot more cooking than usual; we sort of fell into an every-third-day cooking rotation, though the cleaning up after is harder. I am trying to grow a wild sourdough starter but haven't been brave enough to try actual bread with it yet. (I did try the Navajo flatbread recipe that's been going around; it came out pretty good even though the dough texture was not at all what it was supposed to be, so it seems like a pretty fool-tolerant recipe. I though it would end up basically pancakes, especially given my dough was too thin and sticky to roll out, but it was much more bread-like.)

Anyway I bought a set of 250 professional-quality knocking-things-down dominoes the last weekend before things got serious, so at least I don't have to worry about being bored!

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

Thanks for the update!

[dragoness_e]

Telecommuting here, so not so much time to just work on the "to-do" and "honey-do" lists. On the other hand, having work to do probably keeps me slightly more sane than otherwise. On the upside, my "stretch & walk" breaks include "put laundry in washer", "clean fish tank", "fertilize the rose bush", and other chores I normally have to squeeze into the weekend. If I were at work, my "stretch & walk" breaks wouldn't be nearly so useful, just me wandering the halls aimlessly. I'm also eating less, because I can make lunches in portions I prefer rather than settling for the standard-size sandwich from the sandwich shop down the hall.

On the downside, I'm losing track of what day it is, because weekday or weekend, I sit at the same computer.

[melannen]

Yeah, stellar_dust is working from home here, and probably working longer than 8-hour days. I kind of wish I had more work-from-home options, because the toughest thing so far has been feeling like the world's in crisis and I have nothing useful to contribute. If they do announce work closing for longer, we will probably figure out some telework options, but idk. So I am trying to get ahead of myself on my stuff, so I'll have less of that hanging over me if work starts back up. Several of my local friends are on varying levels of work from home, but they are finding the loss of commute time, at least, to be helpful.

The people who are stuck on wfh and full-time childcare have it the worst (next to the people who are stuck on unemployed and childcare, anyway.)

[author_by_night]

I hear you on everything. It's like, I don't want to post about things, but then what do I post about? Right now I'm just trying to answer memes and do some fandom stuff as well.

I'm glad you're doing so well, and yay for cats! My cat has also kept me sane.

Talking to people and keeping busy is definitely key here. I've been video chatting with people, which helps.



I started a paper journal and that's helping too, to let me get out thoughts I don't need to share with people

Oh, that's a great idea.

I definitely need all the distractions I can get, so I've joined fictional_fans! I've also missed fandom activity.

[melannen]

I saw someone posting about a paper journal for pandemic awhile back, so I thought, why not, and it's helped, and when this is over it'll be a physical record that I can either save or ceremonially burn, as needed.

Between that and f_f I think it's eating all my blogging energy, though!

[jesse_the_k]

...and it's a brilliant idea, thank you for sharing it.

[pauraque]

As you say, everyone's been talking about the same thing, which is understandable on an individual level but also quickly reaches a saturation point. So I've just been carrying on with posting about the sorts of things I normally do, and I appreciate folks who've done the same and/or made efforts to post about fun and upbeat topics. I'll check out fictional_fans!

[melannen]

Even my fun happy things are "I had time to do this because I'm in quarantine", you know? I am trying to keep it out of my f_f posts at least as much as I can, though.

[superborb]

If you're concerned about the strength of a new sourdough starter and have some yeast lying around, you can give it a bit of sneaky yeast to help boost a loaf of bread? But if it gave the flatbread bread-like qualities it's probably strong enough...