What keeps you busy during lockdown?

[kimbob]

So what are you doing besides baking and cooking? Luckily, I'm retired so don't have to work from home. Besides taking care of mom and my husband, mowing, weed whacking, cleaning, laundry, keeping up with friends, etc. I keep busy with knitting and reading. Since the library has been closed I've gotten a lot of cheapie books from ebay and thriftbooks.com. I read mostly (pretty much exclusively) mysteries and am currently on an Agatha Christie Hercule Poirot kick. Got to choose a free book from thriftbooks and chose the 2003 edition of Dr. Oetker German Baking Today the original. That's another thing I love to do -- read cookbooks!

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[kimbob]

How could I forget keeping the bird and hummingbird feeders stocked plus the birdbaths! I feed the chipmunks, too. Lol

[BakerAunt]

I've been thinking about this topic all day, Kimbob. I'm also retired, so the biggest changes for me have been not venturing to the next town for groceries or having friends and my stepchildren visit. I also miss the farmers market, which did open up today, but as there is still not a lot of produce available, and they want exact change (which I didn't think to get before lockdown), I didn't go. Otherwise, it's the usual baking and cooking and home chores. I haven't done as much reading as I'd expected, but I write more emails to friends and family. The rural location makes it easy to get out for a walk or hike. We live on a lake, so I'm practicing my kayaking (sit-upon) on quiet weekday mornings when the weekend influx of visitors--and large boat waves from said visitors--abate.

I pulled out some sewing projects, and of course made a mask. I finished a strawberry table topper that I have been cross stitching on and off for sixteen years. (The outline stitching at the end was very repetitive, as the pattern is repeated four times around each side.) If we at Nebraska Kitchen end up doing a tea party, I'll use it along with a china strawberry teapot and cups and saucers. I'm exploring needlepoint and have completed the front for an embroidery scissors case and am debating whether I want to attempt a more complicated needlebook. I have enough stitching projects stashed to get me through years of sheltering in place.

I had planned on seeking more community engagement this summer. When we moved here three years ago, we were in a holding pattern for the first year, until we realized the contractor was just not that into us and replaced him with another contractor, and we were under construction and living in the small garage apt. for seven months, and the house was only completed three months after we were back inside. Now I'm ready to have dinner parties, but given that our county which is opening up--and has double the cases today that it had a week ago, that will not be happening soon for us.

I do miss travel and the short day trips and several days jaunts we enjoy, especially when school is in session, as that reduces the crowds.

[Italiancook]

I'm not nearly as busy as kimbob and BakerAunt. I avoid reading all things except the Bible, because once I start a book, I don't want to do anything else until I finish the book. Is there such a thing as a reading addiction?

I've been Spring Cleaning and am tired of that project. And watching way too much TV. I've been on the phone a lot each day talking with my sister about the pandemic news and other current events.

I greatly miss having people over for luncheons. I have two tablecloths with napkins from pre-pandemic luncheons that need to go to the dry cleaner. I was holding them until a third set of guests arrived, so I could take three sets to the cleaner at once. But that was canceled because of pandemic. Now, I wonder if I'll ever feel safe having the cleaner handle tablecloths and napkins. I've spent a lot of time in the kitchen baking and cooking. It's my pandemic stess reliever and helps me deal with all we've lost to this pandemic. I'm ready for a vaccine!

[Mike Nolan]

My daily schedule hasn't really changed much due to the lockdown. I don't make as many trips to stores, we wait until we have a list long enough to justify a trip. My online shopping has gone up a little, more because of things I can't get locally than because of the lockdown.

I officially retired from the US Chess Federation in late 2016, but I still do some consulting for them, recently I've probably been doing 10-25 hours a month for them, because they're in the process of doing a major technology upgrade and I'm walking the group that's doing the work through the complexities of a system that has been built up, largely by me, over the last 15 years. I'm guessing this will probably continue until late 2022.

This site keeps me busy for a few hours every day. My various baking and cooking projects take up another hour or two most days. During the summer months, the garden takes a little time.

And when I'm not doing the above, I've got some writing projects I work on. One of these days, I might even finish one.

In the evening, I like to do some reading.

[RiversideLen]

I'm retired, every day is a Saturday and every night is a Friday. The lockdown hasn't changed my schedule too much. The only thing is dealing with various shortages.

[chocomouse]

I'm also retired, and my schedule hasn't changed. I get groceries once every two weeks or so, pick up meds, medical appointments. Otherwise, I don't leave the property. I communicate with friends via email and social media, and have participated in several virtual gatherings. At home, I take care of the gardens, clean and cook, and am trying to downsize - which at the moment means putting things in boxes and piling them up, ready to go to thrift stores when they re-open. And I read, a lot. However, Thursday I am leaving for five days with my sister to stay at her RV on the coast. We'll transport all our food and drinks with us, and will get take-out seafood to last for two meals, and probably do the ice cream drive-through a couple of times. Otherwise, the same routine, sit in the sun, chat, read, eat.

[Joan Simpson]

I'm retired also,my schedule hasn't changed except going to visit friends or family.I do a lot of reading,cooking and baking.I love to do jigsaw puzzles.I've been cleaning out drawers and going through stuff that needs to be gone.

[kimbob]

Giving my husband a haircut today. Not my favorite thing to do. My 88 yr old mom offered to cut my hair. Um, no thank you!!! This is the woman who needs new glasses and has an eye dr appt in a week and a half. Lol. I'll wait for the salons to open hopefully next week.

[cwcdesign]

Kimbob, you made me laugh. There is no way in H*** I'd let my 89yo Mom cut my hair! It's hard because her dementia/forgetfulness is really kicking in. She told me she couldn't go anywhere because she doesn't have her car (we took her privileges away a year ago) and we sold it March JUST before the lockdown - phew! I pointed out that she couldn't go anywhere because her senior living community won't let her leave - she said they won't? I got a million of these stories! I only live 5 minutes away but haven't been there since March 11th because I was still working before the lockdown.

We were furloughed on March 23rd, but our Market (retail/deli part of Sea Island resort) never fully shut down. So, I took my online course and started making surface patterns with Adobe Illustrator and also have been creating new artwork to upload - it's been great and I can't wait till I'm in a position to make my income with it. A group of us got a plot at the community garden so we have been very busy with that - Friday and Saturday we had to deal with powdery mildew, squash borers AND aphids, but it looked much better this morning.

Cooking, baking, daily walks, online yoga, emails, FaceTime and a few projects take up the rest. I am scheduled to go back to work on the 12th and can't say I'm not nervous - the county numbers went up a lot over last week - we've had so many tourists, it's crazy. We will just have to make the best of it.

[Mike Nolan]

I've cut my wife's hair a couple of times, the ear grew back 🙂

[BakerAunt]

I miss garage and estate sales, but then, this area was never as good for these as the place I lived in Texas. There is one next weekend in town that might be of interest (same place I got the bread machine last fall). Masks are required, as is physical distancing. I've not made up my mind on whether to go.

[Mike Nolan]

I used to be an auction hound, not quite to the point where they kept a pre-assigned number for me. I'd buy the odd boxes of kitchen stuff. That's one of the reasons why we have lots of measuring cups.

I picked up a number of good items at bakery and restaurant auctions, but there hasn't been a good one of those in a while. The last one I went to, a deli/caterer that closed, had people from 4 states at it and most of the prices were a lot higher than I felt like paying. There could be a number of restaurant auctions over the next few months, depending on what rules they're enforcing for them. Might be online-only, I suppose. Boring.

Standing around at an auction for 3-8 hours isn't something my legs will put up with much these days.

Estate sales seem like they're hit-and-miss around here, same with garage sales, though they're both still pretty much shut down. My wife generally does a garage sale over Memorial Day weekend as a fundraiser for local charities, but that was off this year, though our garage is quite full of donations. She's thinking maybe Labor Day weekend, though we found out late last week that UNL will be open (complete with on-campus classes) on Labor Day this year, it's what they call a 'working holiday' for staff, you work that day but it becomes part of the paid time off at Christmas, like Columbus Day or Arbor Day.

[aaronatthedoublef]

I'm in IT and went from working 9-10 hour days to 12 hour days...

[kimbob]

Poor Aaron. I feel your pain. I was a DBA and then a staff programmer at IBM for 27 yrs supporting the mfg line. I was on call 24/7 every single day including holidays. Ugh. I don't even want to think about it ever again! Glad I don't have to do that anymore.

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