Pandemic personal consequences

[two sheds]

I get your poiint (and I am in Wales!) but it's all about mornings starting to get lighter for me .... and it takes you beyond February to start to notice that properly, IMO and IME

8 am to 5pm already now

 

[Puddy_Tat]

I have been expected to phone mum-tat every evening since about the time this all started

I am starting to find it hard to think of anything much to say

 

[William of Walworth]

8 am to 5pm already now

4 am or so until 9 pm or so in mid-summer though ( both for now, and for then! )

 

[Artaxerxes]

I have been expected to phone mum-tat every evening since about the time this all started

I am starting to find it hard to think of anything much to say

I managed to call mine every Sunday or Monday initially but its slipping, it is very much hard to think up new topics because a world where i did stuff and made plans seems very distant and long ago.

 

[oryx]

I have been expected to phone mum-tat every evening since about the time this all started

I am starting to find it hard to think of anything much to say

I managed to call mine every Sunday or Monday initially but its slipping, it is very much hard to think up new topics because a world where i did stuff and made plans seems very distant and long ago.

Had a longish phone conversation with oldest friend last week. We laughed at how much we were talking about what we'd seen on TV because, as my friend put it, 'there's f*ck all else to talk about - it's not like we're leading wild social lives or anything!'.

 

[Yu_Gi_Oh]

I have been expected to phone mum-tat every evening since about the time this all started

I am starting to find it hard to think of anything much to say

I do this with my dad. Some days are harder than others, for sure. We always have how much we hate the Tory govt as a fallback, but I also sometimes buy him books or music on Amazon so we can discuss them. We've also learned to regale each other with very textured descriptions of whatever we're talking about, so a conversation about our dinner can go on for a long time. We have also both leaned in to accepting repeating ourselves. It doesn't matter if we've heard it or said it before; it's the being together each day that counts most.

I do get down about it sometimes though, Puddy Tat. And if I'm having a bad day then the whole thing seems even harder. It's the fact that this is even necessary that breaks my heart the most though. x

 

[ruffneck23]

my uncle seems to be doing ok , however just found out one of my best mates mums caught it in hospital (in Ireland) came out and was looking better , actually passed away a few days ago and woke up to a message letting me know

FUCK COVID

 

[William of Walworth]

Just heard that an old V & A colleague died last week

Lymphoma, and with possible? Covid complications, according to my mate -- he isn't 100% sure on that.
Only in his mid-sixties I believe.

This chap (very nice) was in a different department and I didn't know him all that well, but my best pals from those days** did.

They were close colleagues of him, and they're really down because they thought his cancer treatment had been looking successful ....

**(e.g. I went to India with them in 2018, for the second time)

 

[izz]

I have been expected to phone mum-tat every evening since about the time this all started

I am starting to find it hard to think of anything much to say

She doesn't care. She cares that you're ok and you care that she's ok. It's alright to say that nothing has happened

 

[MickiQ]

I phone my parents every Sunday, it's been a ritual for years though conversation topics are drying up these days.
Me: "What's happened with you this week Dad?"
Dad: "Nothing, how about you?"
Me: "Nothing here either"
It's ironically easier with my Mum, she struggles to remember recent events and I just let her have a moan quite often about things that happened months or even years ago. Last Sunday she had a moan about my uncle's former partner and seems to have forgotten that the woman is dead.
Mrs Q calls her parents as well but she increasingly dreads it these days, Her Dad just accepts it stoically and her Mum will invariably bring up one particular subject (Grandson 2) which Mrs Q is bored of hearing about.
Our daughters all live about 5 miles but whilst they call regularly we last saw Middle on Xmas Day and haven't seen Eldest and Youngest for months.

 

[LDC]

Off for a test this morning, started with a slight cough yesterday, and had a couple of hours of feeling bit shit. Woke up OK this morning, but test booked already, so will get it done.

Negative. Less than 24 hours from test to result.

 

[quimcunx]

fingers crossed you've dodged it.

 

[LDC]

fingers crossed you've dodged it.

Yeah, I think for catching it in this house might be OK now.

She almost certainly caught it on the 18th. Didn't really see her very much at all, then she got symptoms on the 22nd, she had a test on the 23rd and we unthinkingly had dinner together that night, then she got the positive result on the 24th, then haven't seen her for more than a few minutes out of her room since then! And she's cleaning anything she touches with a disinfectant wipe too!

 

[Clair De Lune]

Big money worries rn making me feel v anxious I know I'm doing all that I can to make money, apply for benefits and get on top of things but God, this morning I feel paralysed by fear.

 

[existentialist]

I mean it's anecdotal but literally everyone I know seems to be finding things way harder to deal with now than ever before. I know I am.

And that's not weird is it? Like all the stresses are going to have somehow vanished, or everyone is magically going to have learned how to deal with it all and behave as normal? That's the sort of shit that some bosses would like to believe in and pretend is what's happened, but it's not. Call me nuts but generally IME the longer you put people under unrelieved psychological stress, the worse they get.

Yep. Except that we're very good at normalising situations, so even though we might appear to be taking things in our stride, there's an ongoing emotional cost, which is easily missed (especially by bosses and the like).

 

[Elpenor]

Another 4 weeks to wait until my mother can go in the ground. An unsurprising shortage of gravediggers in Kent the reason

 

[miss direct]

Sending you patience and kindness Elpenor. When Dad died it was almost a month until the funeral as there were various paperwork issues. I know how unsettling it is. A funeral is a big comfort.

 

[danny la rouge]

I’ve just discovered my elderly mum won’t be having a vaccine because “it has aborted foetuses in it”. She’s a Wee Free, and must have got this from church. She won’t listen to reason and says she’ll send me “the facts”.

What can I send her?

 

[lazythursday]

I’ve just discovered my elderly mum won’t be having a vaccine because “it has aborted foetuses in it”. She’s a Wee Free, and must have got this from church. She won’t listen to reason and says she’ll send me “the facts”.

What can I send her?

She is quite right, the Astra Zeneca vaccine is made out of dead babies, sort of. It was created using cells that are descended from an aborted Dutch foetus, but they are used it its creation and are not present in the final vaccine.

The Pfizer vaccine, being fancy modern synthetic mRNA, does not have any dead babies in it.

There's an explainer here COVID-19 vaccines and aborted fetuses and it does include a link to a religious point of view at the bottom in favour of having the vaccine. The Vatican says it's ok too but I guess that would be the wrong thing to tell her!

 

[brogdale]

My hospitalised FiL (90) has had both Pfizers & now tested +ive and been moved to the Covid ward. At present he is essentially symptom free; I suppose Bob is now a living test of the Pfizer capability to protect against the worst ravages of the virus.

 

[cupid_stunt]

My hospitalised FiL (90) has had both Pfizers & now tested +ive and been moved to the Covid ward. At present he is essentially symptom free; I suppose Bob is now a living test of the Pfizer capability to protect against the worst ravages of the virus.

What were the dates of his first & seconds doses, and when he test positive?

 

[Sue]

The Vatican says it's ok too but I guess that would be the wrong thing to tell her!

I suspect the Wee Frees and the Catholics might have more in common than either lot would care to admit.

Hope you manage to sort things out, danny la rouge, that sounds quite stressful.

 

[brogdale]

What were the dates of his first & seconds doses, and when he test positive?

23/12/20 & 13/01/21 and 27/01/21

 

[cupid_stunt]

23/12/20 & 13/01/21 and 27/01/21

Oh, that's a fair old gap.

 

[bellaozzydog]

My hospitalised FiL (90) has had both Pfizers & now tested +ive and been moved to the Covid ward. At present he is essentially symptom free; I suppose Bob is now a living test of the Pfizer capability to protect against the worst ravages of the virus.

Am I getting this wrong. My understanding is that you can still get corona and test positive for it and pass it on the vaccine stops or minimises the symptoms of the virus, the range of efficacy being a range rather than a binary works-doesn’t work

 

[brogdale]

Am I getting this wrong. My understanding is that you can still get corona and test positive for it and pass it on the vaccine stops or minimises the symptoms of the virus, the range of efficacy being a range rather than a binary works-doesn’t work

Yeah, pretty much...but when it's so close to you & yours you start to think about that 92% (or 95%?) efficacy rate and wonder whether your loved one is in the 95% or the 5%.
He's had a good life, but....you know

 

[brogdale]

Oh, that's a fair old gap.

If he's in the 92/95% efficacy group, yeah...it looks ok according to the official guidance. I suppose the nest few days will tell; if he stays largely symptom free then well done Pfizer.

 

[sojourner]

I know it sounds soft, given the enormity of all other consequences, but I'm losing the sense of myself as a poet. It was such a strong part of my identity, having done it for over 10 years now, and I've not gigged in over a year, apart from 2 pre-recorded festival gigs. I refuse to do live streams for reasons of quality/sound etc, and whilst at first it was fun to write about Covid, now it's a seriously depressing drag. I don't seem to be able to come up with anything that isn't virus-related, and I'm sick to fucking death of writing about it. I'm soaked in it, there's nothing else going on, and my sense of humour has fucked off so I can't even write funny shit anymore. My 3rd book was meant to be out last year, then got put back to this year, but my publisher knows I fucking hate Zoom gigs, so unless we can do a live gig launch, it won't be coming out for the foreseeable. I'm really worried I've lost it, that it'll never come back. That I'll forget how to perform, my voice will break, I'll shit myself, I'll BE shit.

Sorry. Very navel-gazy, but it's proper getting me down.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

I know it sounds soft, given the enormity of all other consequences, but I'm losing the sense of myself as a poet. It was such a strong part of my identity, having done it for over 10 years now, and I've not gigged in over a year, apart from 2 pre-recorded festival gigs. I refuse to do live streams for reasons of quality/sound etc, and whilst at first it was fun to write about Covid, now it's a seriously depressing drag. I don't seem to be able to come up with anything that isn't virus-related, and I'm sick to fucking death of writing about it. I'm soaked in it, there's nothing else going on, and my sense of humour has fucked off so I can't even write funny shit anymore. My 3rd book was meant to be out last year, then got put back to this year, but my publisher knows I fucking hate Zoom gigs, so unless we can do a live gig launch, it won't be coming out for the foreseeable. I'm really worried I've lost it, that it'll never come back. That I'll forget how to perform, my voice will break, I'll shit myself, I'll BE shit.

Sorry. Very navel-gazy, but it's proper getting me down.

There are ways of streaming with high quality video and audio, away from Zoom. PM me if you want to chat

 

[wayward bob]

(((soj))) i had a real knock-off-course when i lost my studio a while back. it felt like everything i'd put into getting "somewhere" work-wise had been swept away. irrelevant, devalued, unrecoverable.

despite my up-til-now failure to reignite, well, any of it, i don't feel lost in that way any more. it's not the number of times you get knocked down it's the number of times you get back up - and if anyone has that written through them like rock i reckon you do xx