How are YOU dealing with our new lifestyle? There are lots of things happening in the world, and most of them are in the USA. High rates of younger people committing suicide because they have no clue how to deal with extreme levels of stress, depression, anxiety, and being confined. Adults having to work from home, which has lots of parents pulling out their hair, because the kids are around 24/7. (In most areas) People having ridiculous fights over wearing masks. Conspiracy theorists are having the time of their lives right now, pumping out conspiracy theories about all of what's going on, confusing people and aggravating their conditions even more. All in all, way too many worries, way too many problems, and nobody seemingly taking any lead or responsibility for any of these things in order to correct them, fix them, or even inform the population of any real facts. So, how are YOU dealing with it all?
For me, I have mild depression and anxiety, and it pops up from time to time. In March 2019 the company I work for sent everybody to work from home, hoping that all this would have been fixed by summer/fall 2019. We ended up having to work permanently from home by October. I'm used to being at home a lot anyway, as I am a lone wolf type person. But unfortunately the place I live doesn't allow pets, so I can't get a pet to keep me company. So, like many people, I'm here.......online. I thought I was dealing with it pretty good, but I've had a recent bout with the Grim Reaper. I thought I was ok with it, but apparently I'm not. It's been brought to my attention that I've been quite the bitch lately. So I guess I'm NOT handling it too well after all. It's just more added stress and anxiety which I really just don't want to deal with right now. But like most people now, it's my little cesspool and I've got to find a way out of it. So, if I've said something that was inappropriate to anyone, I apologize. It's MY life, I'm responsible for it. I can be a total ****** sometimes, but I try to keep away from toddler-esque rants. Getting old is such a drag. But now I've been made aware, so I can work on my issues, and hopefully don't get read "the riot act" again. I think I'm just at the point I'm so freeking bored now, my mind wants to scream. I'm tired of looking at the same walls and never being able to go out and do something just for the sake of doing something anymore. Hopefully by the end of this year, someone, somewhere, will find a cure for COVID and we can all try to get back to the point we were at before all this happened.
Hello, Dr. Phibes, and welcome aboard! Since no one else has responded yet, I'll re-post some of my musings about the general situation you've mentioned, in hopes that some portions may be of some use to you: "Every week there's some new revelation, which often contradicts or doesn't 'mesh' well with last week's revelation.... That said, at this point, here in Colorado, I'm going to "wear the damn mask" -- because, among other reasons, it's the "damn LAW". I may not be in love with our liberal-Democrat Governor, or our liberal-Democrat-dominated State Assembly, but the law is the law, and as a Conservative, I'm law-and-order all the way. I keep my distance from other people -- at LEAST six feet, and more when it's possible, and I've pretty much decided that we're going to wait for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, even though it's probably not going to be readily available to us "common people" until a couple of months from now. I've got many cans of Lysol and an equally good Lysol 'knockoff' sold at Walmart, which has the side-benefit of also being very inexpensive! Being at home all the time is not a misery for us. We're both retired, and we began getting fully prepared very well beginning a year ago for what has happened in the United States ever since. I go shopping about every two or three weeks at times when other people typically don't, and really load up on things. Then, when I get home with all that stuff, we wipe it all down with disposable antiseptic tissues. We date-mark everything with a 'Sharpie' marker and store it so that we can rotate the stock for relative freshness. One suggestion: because I mix our own protein powder nutritional drink, we go through a fairly large amount of milk. I have learned that you CAN successfully freeze milk (we use 2%) in a common household freezer, in the original container -- but first you should empty out about 4 - 5 ounces so that there's no chance of the container bursting. Then, we simply exchange freshly-purchased milk in, and the frozen milk out, of the freezer. Be aware that it will take up to four days for the milk to thaw enough for use after you take it out of the freezer and transfer it into the refrigerator. Cheers!" Beyond that, I'd suggest that you read, read, and re-read! Read books that you've meant to read, but didn't. Re-read books that made a big impression on you years ago, but that you haven't thought about in a while. This can bring QUITE a revelation! Suggestion: re-read Orwell's masterpiece, "1984", if you haven't picked it up since you were in school. If you have subscriptions to Amazon Prime or Netflix, obviously, you have access to month's worth of movies, old and new, as well as some damned fine documentary series, etc. ABOVE ALL -- DON'T LET YOUR GUARD DOWN NOW! It is a strange thing that NOW, when we're mere weeks away from having the new 'mutant' strains of the COVID virus overtake the 'old', original one and swamp the U. S. with many anticipated new cases that -- suddenly -- many government entities are 'opening up' the country... lowering the 'danger' levels... opening the schools back up... and so on. In my opinion, given the anticipated arrival IN FORCE of the new viral strains from the UK, South Africa, South America, and who-the-hell-knows where else as the year progresses, it is madness to suddenly 'shift gears' mentally and pretend like we can just blithely go back to some kind of pre-virus "normal". The fact that Trump's out and Biden's in means nothing to a pandemic disease! My last bit of advice -- BE SMARTER THAN THE GOVERNMENT! It shouldn't be too hard....
I am fine. Haven't missed any work. Some things irritate the hell out of me. For instance, our Walmart is back to everybody using the same entrance/exit which actually increases your chance of exposure, not decreases it. Since it is primarily an airborne disease, forcing more people into the same space breathing the same air is not good. They do it so they only have to pay 1 person to sit there and count the number of customers in the store. Most of rules are theater, like middle of the night curfews. The vax system is a joke. A coworker has been told by her doc that she has to have it as she would never survive getting the virus but he has nobody to refer her to and the state health department doesn't seem to be helping prioritize people like her very well.
