What the Pandemic / Lockdown Has Taught You

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Mrscreative
Posts: 2119
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:06 pm

What the Pandemic / Lockdown Has Taught You

Post by Mrscreative »

I thought this could be fun, so I’ll go first.
- pick up service is a great time saver and something I will continue after the pandemic. It’s a money saver too as you’re not tempted by non food items, what looks really good but you may not need, other “ bargains”
- I learned to Tap to finish payment while using a credit card
- my repertoire of the kind of books I read greatly increased when I was limited to the books in our neighborhood little library
- I discovered new people to follow on Instagram and You Tube
- I discovered Masterclasses and Boomerang for continued personal development skills
- now know what vlogging merch is and even have some
- FaceTime is not the same as an in person visit and I really missed personal contact with others besides my family
- how much I missed our 55 Plus Centre and their wonderful activities
floridacatlover
Posts: 8056
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 7:21 am

Re: What the Pandemic / Lockdown Has Taught You

Post by floridacatlover »

As much as Florida got a bad rap for lax restrictions, I’m glad I live here. I don’t know anyone in my extended circle of friends who died or got very sick. Only two people I know got infected and that was early on.

So, I’ll say I learned that restrictions might be good for medical health but they are not good for mental health. If I had not been able to go to mom’s house (like in Michigan, England, Holland and probably other places), it would have been tough. I’m glad that our stores, libraries and beaches reopened after about two months.

Living alone with no in-person social contact is hard. FaceTime helped and I very much looked forward to FaceTime calls.

On the positive side, not something I learned but it happened that I didn’t have to fret over travel when Pippi got sick and my number one role was and is to care for her.

I was happy to have Walmart pickup and think they do a great job but still prefer in-person grocery shopping.

I rediscovered puzzling!

Dealing with the virus wasn’t too bad early on but I’m totally tired of it now.
Beverley
Posts: 553
Joined: Fri Oct 09, 2020 11:33 am

Re: What the Pandemic / Lockdown Has Taught You

Post by Beverley »

For me it's been an exercise in reduce, reuse, recycle. Now that certain items such as lumber costs a fortune and is in short supply I am trying to repurpose what I have.

Bev
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Mrscreative
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Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:06 pm

Re: What the Pandemic / Lockdown Has Taught You

Post by Mrscreative »

Thanks Floridacatlover for sharing. I also didn’t have anyone close to me who ever contracted the virus. A school secretary and her family who I am Facebook friends with did contact it due to travelling. They have all since recovered and didn’t require hospitalization or have any lingering effects. They become ill before the vaccine was available in their age group.

I discovered Masterclasses and for the most part didn’t get suckered into buying the All Access pass. I did get it for Organizing HQ and don’t regret it one bit! It’s such a helpful resource. I took one on Time Management and Productivity and it’s also been very useful. I even received two free books for my participation in the Facebook group - “ Atomic Habits and Eat that Frog”. With this there was no all access pass. To receive a lot of free resources you had to subscribe and I promptly unsubscribed from a lot as it did become overwhelming.

I learnt that Costco shipped some food items to my region even though the closest store is 400 plus miles away. I like a lot of the Kirkland brands and found it a good source for our printer’s cartridge refills.

I took advantage of the free trials of Apple Books and Apple TV. Dd2 created a second user on her Netflix account which allowed me to gain access to that.

The better I am feeling emotionally, the more I post on social media. The estrogen blocker I am taking caused severe anxiety and depression. I tried to hide it from the world, including my Dh and DD’s. Finally after suffering about 4 months, I had an appointment with my medical oncologist and he had me take a months break which he said would not affect my risk of occurrence. I have been back on the same medication since Aug. 1 st without any of those side effects, so praise the Lord! Living life to the fullest.

Even though I was not able to find a breast cancer survivor group in my own city since no one was willing to conduct it virtually, I connected with a lovely group located in California. The referral came through a colleague of Dd1. Technology can be a wonderful gift!

I let my Ancestry membership lapse over the warmer months as my gardening and other outdoor activities keep me busy enough.

I learned to shop at home more. I finished a knitting project, learned how to sew my own masks, read some young adult fiction when the anxiety was bad, became more creative with my cooking and using up ingredients we already had in the fridge, freezer and cupboards. And definitely didn’t panic with the toilet paper shortage as I had a huge stash already on hand. And in fact gave some away.

Had the time to short through old photos, give appropriate dates, discard duplicates. And yes I fell down that rabbit hole of ordering duplicates for my 35 mm camera not even knowing what the photos looked like. Discarded lots of blurry photos too!
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Mrscreative
Posts: 2119
Joined: Fri Aug 28, 2015 5:06 pm

Re: What the Pandemic / Lockdown Has Taught You

Post by Mrscreative »

Beverley wrote: Sat Oct 09, 2021 12:16 pm For me it's been an exercise in reduce, reuse, recycle. Now that certain items such as lumber costs a fortune and is in short supply I am trying to repurpose what I have.

Bev
Thanks for sharing
chocolite
Posts: 1444
Joined: Sun Aug 30, 2015 8:11 pm

Re: What the Pandemic / Lockdown Has Taught You

Post by chocolite »

Sadly, I learned that some people put politics over science, especially around here, and that some people are just downright selfish. I've lost three people who were very, very important to me. One here in the Memphis area, one in Indiana, and one in California. So I learned that this virus is no respecter of persons -- it takes young and old.

I too learned to TAP to pay, and I love it.

I learned that I could stay at home with not a lot of angst. I'm a homebody anyway. I do, however, have severe Covid fatigue and have been getting out a bit more, while masked of course.
Patty
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