How is everybody doing?


Traveler
 Share

Recommended Posts

I thought to start this thread so each of us can report what is going on in your area - neighborhood, ward and home.   I will start with me:  I live on the east bench of Sandy Utah - USA.  (south of Salt Lake City).

My wife is type 1 diabetic and though she is very gregarious she is concerned and stays home - this is the longest we have gone without traveling.  We have several businesses - our rentals are struggling because some renters are not able to pay their full rents - so far so good - we are meeting our obligations but the cash flow is about 1/3 of pre COVID 19.  I have been doing 90% of maintenance and repairs to keep costs down.   The ski resorts are closed down; which is sad because we have had great snow that is being underutilized.  I have not been riding by bicycle as much because of maintenance work.  Last year I closed down my consulting business.  There has been some talk from my customers of coming back for certain projects but the COVID 19 has put all that on indefinite hold.  I doubt I will start up - I am getting too old.  My wife has a couple of consulting business going and one is very busy  - she is working exclusively from home and is happy - I think she is doing better than me - I have a cabin fever problem.

Our ward has not met - it what seem like forever.  I try to keep in touch reaching out by phone.  Everybody says things are fine - but I think members say that regardless.  Once in a while - when riding my bicycle I see couples walking but it seems to be less the normal.  Traffic is less but I wonder where everybody still driving are going.  The local grocery stores seem to be having the same traffic.  People riding bicycles seems less as well - I have no idea what everybody is dong.  About 1/4 of the shoppers for food are wearing masks.  I get questions where I got my mask - the answer is from my painting supplies.   My mask is not a good mask but I wear it to remind me not to touch my face in public - and in hopes it helps other feel safer. 

We are also spending time cleaning up our house.  We just completed cleaning out our food storage.  Found some jam, fruit and other stuff we canned back in 81.  We threw out a lot of very old stuff.  When we lived in Seattle we invested a lot in food storage.  Over the next 35 years we have gone through about half of our 2 year dry pack supply and we no longer have kids at home.  I do no think we will invest in any more long term food supply.   We have about a truck load of stuff (non-food) we can take to DI's (Deseret Industries) when they open again.

It is my general impression that the economy is not going to spring back.  Also, I think that we need to get on with whatever our new normal is going to be.  I am wondering what will happen to big time sports.  I have thought somewhat about others on this forum - hope you all are doing okay.  My prayers are with you all.

 

The Traveler

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Admittedly, nothing in my life has changed. Pay is being held back a bit, but nothing too bad. The stimulus packages actually paid the last of my debt for me.

Life in Southern Utah is largely uneffected.

Edited by Fether
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The library is my home away from home, so I'm missing that. Grocery shopping has gotten weird. It's strange to see all the parks empty.

I'm missing being able to attend the temple. I'm realizing how much I took that for granted, and now I'm really feeling it. But I'm loving having church at home with just our little family so much that I haven't missed our ward meetings. Is that bad? I'm not sure.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Wyoming here.

It was a chaotic and stressful few weeks getting used to the new normal- which is different than the new normal we had to get used to a week ago.  They were just constant changing.  But things have been steady for the last two weeks are so, which is good.

For me: I can work just fine from home.  Other people are having a rougher time, but I'm fine.  I do miss social stuff, but am surviving.  The chaos was the biggest thing getting to me.

Hubby: is a rock.  

Little girl: it's hard at age 6.  Loosing all play-dates, activities, formal school, parks, etc.    6 year old's... don't have "off" buttons.  Figuring out how to get that energy out and home school and 24/7ness was the biggest challenge we've had.   It's stabilizeing now, but was/is a challenge.     The classic conversation with her was: there's another kid next door her age.  They love to play together in the yard- it's wonderfully old-fashion fun.   He called over "Hey do you want to come and play?  It's my birthday!  Mom and dad got me a new trampoline - do you want to come play?"  And she had to yell back "No- people are sick.  I can't come until the grass is all green and people are better".

Ward: has not met or had anything formal.  I miss getting to worship and discuss the Gospel with other people IRL.  Really miss it.  But ministering has really stepped up, and people text each other.  Little girl's primary teacher dropped off the easter-egg-Easter lesson, which little girl loved.

Side note: my never LDS sister-in-law receives The Friend magazine for her three year old.  With them being cooped up, 3 y.o. is OBSESSED with that magazine- the stories, the cut outs, etc.  It's been really good for them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't say this because I know a lot of my friends are struggling, but since we're all anonymous here I'm just gonna say... I like this shelter-at-home thing.

Usually I spend most of the daytime all by myself in the house but now I have my son's school and my husband's work within a few feet of me.  We're all each on our computers but we get to chat back and forth all day long.

Yes, I realize I'm fortunate because my husband and I's work are both in technology - so the home office is the norm, no change in wages;  And my son is in high school equipped with several types of the latest hardware tech in a school board set up for virtual school so the transition is seamless;  In a city with grocery stores still open with a micro homestead and surf fishing within 10 minutes to stock up on fish when the grocery meat section is wiped out;  In a household stocked up on essentials due to church-encouraged provident living.  And a priest who is assigned to deliver sacrament to the infirmed on a regular basis so we have the portable sacrament trays and a Melchizedek priest to oversee sacrament at home.  With ward membership that is happy to get together for seminary, sunday school, come follow me, etc. online.  And friends who are super creative in getting together doing birthday celebration drive-by for friends complete with balloons, banners, and noise-makers...

Anyway, being able to personally visit each other is, of course, much much better so we await the end of the month when things go back to normal.  Because, it is going to have to go back to normal at some point or you're going to have a revolution on your hands.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On the whole, this is a foretaste of exaltation. My whole family home, together, under one roof, working and playing and eating and talking and just living together, with all the comforts and amenities of 21st-century America at our fingertips. It may not be perfect, but it's hard to imagine things being much better than this. Yesterday, we celebrated my youngest's 14th birthday, all together, something I never would have dreamed possible. The only thing that limits my enjoyment of our current situation is my own weakness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am now embroiled in a wicked love triangle.  It occurs daily in the basement, where our two failed barn cats have lived for 7 years, after all the other barn cats got eaten by coyotes. 

I set up my "home office" here, and the soap opera commenced.  The arrival of a one-cat-capacity warm lap threw this happy couple into disarray.   Here we see a temporary truce between the happy-go-lucky Sparta, and his deeply suspicious and codependent bride, Sparkles the Ugliest Cat who is Loved by Nobody.

424576238_IMG_31191.thumb.JPG.eb7bc6cd72a16217b356004811d6a2b8.JPG

The upstairs humans will do fine as long as there is internet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, NeuroTypical said:

The upstairs humans will do fine as long as there is internet.

 

3 hours ago, MormonGator said:

Dude, we're all like that. 

 

At our house, my son has been staying with us with his family during this time. It has caused a bog on the internet.  His children still have school work which they do and I have been trying to do Zoom and other items in relation to those I work with so we've had to coordinate computers and other items.  One of the grand children even gets to use my computer half the time so that we have enough of computers for all of them to be working on their schoolwork they do from home now.  Normally they stay downstairs in our basement (we have a full family room and three bedrooms down there so they aren't that cramped) but internet usage and computer usage need to be negotiated.

I think we are all healthy currently though.  We have a lot of food and we still have a LOT of food storage so currently we are doing well.  I still go about weekly for groceries, especially for essentials (grandkids drink a LOT Of milk, I had forgotten how much milk and bread children go through.  We are going through about a gallon a day), but so far we are doing well.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My work involves preparing food for shipment, so I have still been going in regularly. Actually, my hours have gone up for the past several weeks. Probably one of my favorite life stories to share when I get old will be about the day of the earthquake when almost everybody in the country was being advised to stay home and I was paid for several hours of chatting with my friends about books and television while waiting for the power to come on, because apparently we were nowhere near the top of the priority list for the people in charge of our backup generator.

I've been staying with my parents, both of whom started working from home around the time church got canceled, but Dad started going into the office a while back because pretty much nobody else is there, so it's plenty socially distant.

At the beginning, I would occasionally see kids at the playground a block over, but haven't the last couple of weeks. There is one family that has been out in their front yard a lot when I'm coming home from work, and another family on my street who I hear in their backyard regularly, but other than that I don't see many people out and about in the neighborhood. There have been periodic neighborhood "scavenger hunt" things posted about on facebook where people are encouraged to put pictures or teddy bears in the windows or draw something on the sidewalk in front of their houses for families to look for while taking walks, so I assume there are plenty of walks happening that I don't see.

My parents and the other people on the street seem to be texting regularly and we had some early 'everybody stand at least six feet away from each other and talk loudly' gatherings, from which our tentative future block party plans were born.

Mom's been doing the shopping, so I don't have much to report on that front. I did make one trip to the drugstore a couple weeks ago, where the checkout counter had an extra table in front of it to give the pharmacists their six feet of distance and the other employees had masks, gloves, and were disinfecting the shelves and the stuff on it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our government announced another 3 weeks of restrictions and it seems like people are settling into a new state of mind. I have lost my ex father in law. My son was very close to him and living in different counties it has been difficult not being there for him, on the end of a phone is not the same.  My sister has chronic COPD has also been affected by the virus and is now making a slow recovery, thanks to amazing medical care.

I live where I work, but have 3 vulnerable people on site so restrictions were initiated before official government guidelines. With no staff able to come on site I went from part time to full time overnight as we still have the same number of horses who need caring for, whilst also studying full time. My university had confirmed cases before restrictions were put in place so shut down early and all learning has been online for the last 4 weeks. This is challenging for a physiotherapy degree which is mostly hands on and our mandatory placements have been cancelled this year as NHS is too stretched.

Very grateful for my food storage for the first 4 weeks when shops where overwhelmed and many basic supplies not available. Trying to get an online food delivery slot has become an obsession... currently nothing available in our area between now and 8th May, slots after this have not yet been released.

Missing my couple of hours at church each Sunday. It's my only chance to have gospel related discussions. The people I live and work with are lovely but can not get their heads around the fact that I believe in God. I usually only work Sunday afternoons but now working more hours.  I have less hours a day but have been more mindful over my personal prayers and scripture study. I have actually heard from my ministering couple. I have got to know the sisters I minister to better (I am new to the ward) as we now have WhatsApp groups. A couple of people form church have reached out which is really touching.

I am now starting to worry about the longer term implications. I had intended to work through the summer to make enough money to meet my needs, however if I go off the property I am not allowed back on, so that is scuppered.  I also have issues next summer as we will have an extra 5 week placement in July/August so again will reduce my ability to earn enough over the summer.  But I will worry about that after exams are over and see what I can come up with online.

Now just trying to look forward, its hard to plan with so much uncertainty.

Edited by KScience
Link to comment
Share on other sites

My full time job is from home so I'm still able to do that.  Thank goodness.  Of course my part time job at Hobby Lobby is non existent at this time but it won't be forever.  However my tubs and tubs or fabric and thread have come in handy.  My kids call it hoarding...well we disagree on that terminology.  But it has kept me going as I've been sewing so many masks for people for labor price only.  Good way to start cleaning up some of my fabric stash.  So actually the income from that is kind of making up what I've lost at Hobby Lobby.  

I don't mind being at home but I am now starting to feel a bit of cabin fever.  I just want to go places.  Having just moved to Texas 7 1/2 months ago, I want to discover places but nothing is open or available right now.  

This all too shall pass.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Vort said:

You should charge for fabric, too. It wouldn't raise your price much at all, but it would allow you to replace your fabric when this is over, or else buy a new Lexus.

I thought about it.   Any new fabric yes but I didn't want to take advantage of the situation.  Plus this fabric is all leftovers from other projects so it's great finding ways to get rid of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
 Share