The Thread For Sunday, April 5, 2020

[OldStrummer]

It's almost hard remembering what day of the week it is when one is staying home every day. Almost. But not entirely.

I started cleaning up my "guitar studio" yesterday. I took four boxes of stuff up to the attic (which I also reorganized) and today I'm taking down the photo equipment. It takes up too much space, and I rarely use it. I'll put it in the attic as well. I'm not sure when the guitar hangers will arrive, but I'll have the wall space ready when they do.

Spring continues to threaten us. The sun is a brilliant ball of fire, but the temperatures are still on the chilly side. Makes for some great outdoor activity! I aerated the front lawn and applied some weed-n-seed to it, hoping it will actually turn into something attractive (I put an entire new lawn in two years ago and the weeds have taken over. Grrr.). I get in 30-60 minutes of outdoor activity every day, keeping "social distancing" in mind. Just being out helps the mental side of this home "imprisonment."

Hoping everyone is doing well. If you believe the government, this week could be pretty tough. So hang in there! Wash your hands!

[DanTheBluesMan]

Briefly perusing this morning's paper there was a throwaway line of "Friday the governor extended the emergency order an additional 21 days" WTF? Is that the stay at home order or something else. Journalism leaves so much to be desired long before this crisis.

If I were to believe my phone we might get visited by the sun tomorrow before it turns back to another week of clouds and rain. I know, April showers blah blah blah but this is getting on my nerves.

Too bad about the virus cuz the flea market was due to open today. I was hoping to find somebody there who might be interested in my parents' old LPs. There has to be a good hundred of them and some 45s too. Wish I had a decent listening area and have a turntable functioning and give them a listen before I get rid of them. Some of them I can't imagine them ever listening to, I wonder when they did. Certainly not after they had kids.

I'm guilty of becoming a lazy slut this week and I desperately need to break out of this slump I'm in. Going to go for a walk soon.

[Bill Moore]

Nice day yesterday, supposed to be 70's again today. Went to the shop to water my garden yesterday, and ran the A\C in the truck.

[ch willie]

I just got a message that Sweetwater has shipped my AC30C2X. I don't know how long shipping will take, but if it takes longer because of our national emergency, I don't mind waiting.

I have to admit that I'm very afraid of this virus. Like some of you, I'm in the health and age bracket that the thing is very dangerous to me. I can handle that knowledge most times, but I have some pretty bad anxiety at nights, and that feeds into it. I'm going to try to cut down on the news I'm reading and listening to.

Stay safe, folks. It's bad out there.

[gibsonjunkie]

Week three of the corona imprisonment and I'm already exhausted from this mess. Working from home is a PIA. That being said, "normal" is going to seem unreal when the office reopens. I had to cancel my trip to California for April 25. I was going to visit my birth-mother and meet my sister, but mom is 88 and her husband is severely compromised health-wise so I will have to wait a while. I need to get out more - this week I'm going to switch winter/summer stuff out of the shed. Snowblower set up for summer and lawn mower set up to run. Also get summer tires ready to change over on the Subaru and Mustang. Maybe we'll start cleaning up the garage. Stuff tends to get "dumped" in the winter - causing chaos. Everybody stay well!

[dirtdog]

As I sit here contemplating preparing a third cup of coffee, I too enjoyed the brief sunny beautiful spring day we had yesterday. Changed the car tires from winter to summer, washed all the windows of the house and assembled a new set of patio furniture we had delivered yesterday and THEN took one of my motorcycles out for a spin. Briefly considered stopping at the liquor store for a restock but decided not after seeing the lineup out the door. I guess I’ll just stick with my SodaStream for a while longer.

What’s left to do today now that we’re back to chilly rainy weather for the next few days? I’m sure I’ll find something. I did the winter/summer garage swap over last weekend. Taking a look at my snowblower, the body is starting to get pretty rusty. Going to have to do something about that since the engine is still running strong.

Our province (Ontario) just put a halt to new construction and closed all hardware/building supply stores - incl. Lowe’s and Home Depot. So there goes all my honey-do tasks unless I have the tools and materials on-hand. Bummer.

I’ve settled into working from home and have been developing/coding a decision support tool for emergency managers (air evacuation of remote communities at risk of wildfire). Otherwise, our taskings are limited right now unless we’re working directly on pandemic response stuff and the R&D program I manage is on hiatus right now. So, I get to go deep on some other stuff that I would normally have contracted out.

Musically, I’ve downloaded a bunch of 70s funk and disco tunes and started to expand on my bass playing chops. Working on a bunch of Ohio Players tunes right now. Skintight is super fun to play on bass!

[Laker]

I really thought today was Saturday...this Corona crap is really getting me confused. We just finished our Sunday morning traditional Bloody Marys (in honor of our absent friends) and, after a hearty breakfast of pancakes and sausage, will head out for a relaxing bike ride on our new Harley Street Glide. One of our stops will be at 1:00 PM to watch our good friend, Buckshot in Wisconsin, do his one-man show from his garage for anyone who wants to enjoy it. I think he will be streaming it (is that the correct terminology?) on Facebook.

[dirtdog]

I just got a message that Sweetwater has shipped my AC30C2X. I don't know how long shipping will take, but if it takes longer because of our national emergency, I don't mind waiting.

I have to admit that I'm very afraid of this virus. Like some of you, I'm in the health and age bracket that the thing is very dangerous to me. I can handle that knowledge most times, but I have some pretty bad anxiety at nights, and that feeds into it. I'm going to try to cut down on the news I'm reading and listening to.

Stay safe, folks. It's bad out there.

I’m with you on the anxiety Willie. I’m in that age bracket and have some risk factors as well - such as recent bouts of pneumonia and cellulitis. I can’t afford to get the regular flu, even. So I’m just being extra careful and hardcore minimizing my exposure to anyone outside my immediate family. Taking solo walks in out of the way areas, fortunate that my wife is doing the groceries (curb side pickup). Aside from my near stop at the liquor store yesterday, I haven’t really been tempted to go anywhere where people are congregating. As a person who doesn’t like crowds - or strangers in general - in the first place, I’ve found the adaptation easy and can keep this self-isolation and physical distancing up for a very long time if needed. But I do get concerned about stuff beyond the immediate pressing health care capacity concerns - like what happen to critical infrastructure, supply chains etc if a good percentage of people come down with the virus. Or if we come out of this in not bad shape in a couple or few months, how will we as a society need to adapt? Obviously, larger and more abstract concerns that I have little control over but that’s the stuff that makes me anxious....aside from getting sick from this in the here and now.

[dirtdog]

I just got a message that Sweetwater has shipped my AC30C2X. I don't know how long shipping will take, but if it takes longer because of our national emergency, I don't mind waiting.

I have to admit that I'm very afraid of this virus. Like some of you, I'm in the health and age bracket that the thing is very dangerous to me. I can handle that knowledge most times, but I have some pretty bad anxiety at nights, and that feeds into it. I'm going to try to cut down on the news I'm reading and listening to.

Stay safe, folks. It's bad out there.

and in terms of dealing with that anxiety at bed time and aside from medication or self-medication, my trick to getting to sleep (usually the time my mind starts spinning), I use a mindfulness or meditation trick: focus only on the sensation of breathing. Even if your mind wanders for a microsecond, focus on taking the next breath. I don’t bother counting my r anything like that. For me, it seems to take only a few minutes before I’m out - instead of the hour of tossing and turning if I don’t use that technique.

[ch willie]

and in terms of dealing with that anxiety at bed time and aside from medication or self-medication, my trick to getting to sleep (usually the time my mind starts spinning), I use a mindfulness or meditation trick: focus only on the sensation of breathing. Even if your mind wanders for a microsecond, focus on taking the next breath. I don’t bother counting my r anything like that. For me, it seems to take only a few minutes before I’m out - instead of the hour of tossing and turning if I don’t use that technique.

I do practice mindfulness when I'm in the throes of an attack, and I am seeing a professional and taking medicines by prescription. They help, but I've just had to switch to a new med, and it takes time for it to get into the noggin. I have long term sleep issues. At the moment, I doze wherever I am at around 9pm and always wake at 11:30 or 12 midnight and stay up until 3 or 4 before I can go back to sleep. I'm hoping that will straighten itself out too. Thanks.

[DanTheBluesMan]

I'm finding I'm having sleep issues, something that is new and foreign to me. I'm not having problems going to sleep, that is not an issue for me. The problem is staying asleep. I'm finding I'm waking up after 4 hours and not getting back to sleep again until it's time to get up.

I know part of the problem is I'm napping and sleeping too much during the day. With the stay at home order there is precious little i can go do. I spent the first 6 weeks since the move constantly going back to the house to pack and take stuff to the storage unit. Then, bam, the shut down order gets given.

The freaking weather hasn't helped much keeping me from doing the walking I'm accustomed to. I had originally planned to just walk up and down the halls in the building on rainy days, it's a huge old mill that's over a quarter mile long. With the virus thing I have no desire to be passing people in the confines of the halls.

I'm almost completely done with the house so I have nothing to do but sit all day. And if I sit, I will sleep, it's that simple. I just hope that's enough sleep to keep me healthy. One of the pre-existing health issues that causes problems for people with this virus is lack of sleep.

[dirtdog]

I do practice mindfulness when I'm in the throes of an attack, and I am seeing a professional and taking medicines by prescription. They help, but I've just had to switch to a new med, and it takes time for it to get into the noggin. I have long term sleep issues. At the moment, I doze wherever I am at around 9pm and always wake at 11:30 or 12 midnight and stay up until 3 or 4 before I can go back to sleep. I'm hoping that will straighten itself out too. Thanks.

Right on. Sounds like you're doing the right things. I've struggled with sleep for a long time as well. Did a sleep study and was negative for physical issues. So, psychological I guess. Never found a med that made a difference for me and/or didn't make me feel sluggish the next day.

I also ramp up energy wise after around 7PM or so and that can last until midnight/01:00, so getting to sleep at a reasonable hour has always been a struggle. I was not built for a 9-5 job but that's what I've got. I felt at my best when I often worked the second shift when I was younger (3PM-11PM).

What kills me is during the day, I can fall asleep on a dime. At night, not so much! I have to really work not to nap during the day knowing that it'll catch up with me that night.

Now that we're on lockdown and WFH, I'm focusing on diet and exercise - seeing if that makes a difference when I don't necessarily have to adhere to typical office hours. So far, so good. Not having any booze in the house seems to be helping!

[ch willie]

Good, dirtdog. Isolation is tough, but I'm going to try to squeeze some positives out of it. That's my modest goal for the day.

[Don]

I've been working from home and have been glad to be busy. On Thursday my employer announced that they're cutting our work hours in half to 20 hours per week. I'll have to collect for the rest. This is on top of my wife's hours being cut by 5% and her pay rate being cut an additional 10% on top of that.
Luckily, we have been living below our means and have quite a bit of rainy day money saved up (besides retirement accounts).

My main goal is for everyone to stay well.

I just have more time to practice, paint the bathroom and work on the yard (right after I sleep in).

[phantomman]

Our governor mandated that all barbershops, styling salons, tanning salons, and massage parlors close by 5:00 PM yesterday and remain so "for the duration" but I was able to sneak in around 1 PM on Saturday for a much-needed haircut. With spring here and in full blossom everything *looks* perfectly normal but even in this relatively small city of 40,000+ the tension and the anxiety is still palpable. Like many here on the forum I'm in one of the riskiest demographics, elderly and with underlying health issues. Thus far, things are copacetic but we're prepared in the event that another shoe drops. The most remarkable issue to emerge is that, unlike with most doomsday scenarios where food, water, fuel, and ammo are the most common currencies for barter, it's toilet paper that's the prime commodity. Go figure!

[gibsonjunkie]

Turns out it was so nice out and things went so smoothly that I ended up cutting the grass. Earliest I ever did it. I ran the blade all the way up. I was more interested in sucking up dead leaves and debris. Now I'll read a book and relax before another week of work from home.

[gibsonjunkie]

Turns out it was so nice out and things went so smoothly that I ended up cutting the grass. Earliest I ever did it. I ran the blade all the way up. I was more interested in sucking up dead leaves and debris. Now I'll read a book and relax before another week of work from home.

[DanTheBluesMan]

i keep watching in dread as my lawn turns greener. I don't want to have to start spending money on lawn care I want the house sold and out of my hair.

[dirtdog]

i keep watching in dread as my lawn turns greener. I don't want to have to start spending money on lawn care I want the house sold and out of my hair.

I hear you Dan.

We sold our lake house last fall. I had my misgivings but I'm so glad we did at this point. It's in another province and the inter-provincial borders are locked down right now. At this time of year, I'd be out there prepping for the summer - raking, burning, trimming branches, getting water supply system hooked up, getting the dock in the water, launching the boat, cleaning, repairs and so on and so on. If we owned the place today, I couldn't even go there if I wanted to. Maybe in an emergency, but not for fun.

It's someone else's problem now! And we're mortgage-free!

[phantomman]

And we're mortgage-free!

It's great feeling, isn't it?

[S. Cane]

Our governor mandated that all barbershops, styling salons, tanning salons, and massage parlors close by 5:00 PM yesterday and remain so "for the duration" but I was able to sneak in around 1 PM on Saturday for a much-needed haircut. With spring here and in full blossom everything *looks* perfectly normal but even in this relatively small city of 40,000+ the tension and the anxiety is still palpable. Like many here on the forum I'm in one of the riskiest demographics, elderly and with underlying health issues. Thus far, things are copacetic but we're prepared in the event that another shoe drops. The most remarkable issue to emerge is that, unlike with most doomsday scenarios where food, water, fuel, and ammo are the most common currencies for barter, it's toilet paper that's the prime commodity. Go figure!

What's a haircut, again?

[phantomman]

The haircut is a tonsorial procedure that makes men appear more civilized while reducing the opportunity for dangerous parasitic infestations of the scalp and ear canals.

[dirtdog]

It's great feeling, isn't it?

oh hellz yeah!