How were the lockdowns for you?

[ronandannette]

I enjoyed the mandatory mask requirement and wish they would keep it for the food industry.
The lockdown time was great. Low traffic for work, cleaner air. Peace and quiet. It was a nice reset. Humans in general are nasty, so it was a nice re-education on important hygiene responsibility.

Nothing stopping you from continuing to wear one, for as long as you like if it makes you feel more secure.

 

[tvguy]

Nothing stopping you from continuing to wear one, for as long as you like if it makes you feel more secure.

Many are.

 

[disneychrista]

As a veteran teacher, I've never been so healthy in all of my career. Masks work.

I have a good friend who went back to teaching this year, after 5 years of not. He has been sick a lot this past year. He is a middle school PE teacher. I bet he wishes there was still mask mandates.

 

[mumto3girls]

As a naturally introverted homebody who often feels drained from the social interaction demands of someone at my stage of life, I very much enjoyed parts of the lockdown. As the parent of three teenagers (at the start of it) and elderly parents who needed help, it was difficult. I was trying to protect my parents while still helping them and at the same time preserve the sanity of my kids who wanted to be with their friends. I worried a lot about giving COVID to my parents through the kids. Oldest DD was sent home from college in March 2020 and went back to her coffee shop high school job.

DH and I were able to continue working because we work together and it’s just the two of us so no different than home. We have a manufacturing aspect to our jobs though and things slowed down fairly quickly when we couldn’t get parts. On that end we are still suffering as the supply chains for our parts are still disrupted today although somewhat improving. The PPP money did help us early on.

As a family we spent more time together—we made great use of the trails near our home taking long walks and exploring different sections. We did some home improvement projects and had more family time. I will always be grateful for that.

My mom had Alzheimer’s. It was already isolating for my parents, but she was fairly far along and never understood the pandemic or masks. My dad couldn’t leave her at home, but also couldn’t take her out. I did their shopping and delivered things to their garage. Other than doctor appointments, that was the extent of his social interaction—talking to me inside his garage masked while I was outside his garage masked. Once he had doctor appointments again, I would sit on their porch if it was warm enough or in my car outside the house if it was cold watching my mom from a distance. She was wandering at that point so I was watching to be sure she didn’t leave and there were also concerns about her cooking (gas stove) and fire. Sitting outside their house watching the doors was probably the craziest thing I did.

My mom died about a year and a half into the pandemic but from Alzheimer’s, not COVID. I will always feel sad that her last Christmas was over zoom. I am grateful though that my dad was protected and does not seem to have ever had it. He has lung issues and is a bit frail and most likely would have struggled with the virus. He is back to seeing kids and grandkids and going to all the kid sporting events he can fit into his schedule. I do think he lost a bit though, but hard to tell if it was the caregiving and loss of my mom or the isolation of COVID.

Kids are okay. Now oldest is a college graduate, middle is in college and youngest in high school. I think oldest was least impacted. Other two suffered more socially and probably academically as well. We were not in person for school through a lot of 2020-2021.

So for us it was mixed, some good things, some bad things. I was just thinking we are headed into the fourth summer since it started; that is really hard to believe.

 

[monarchsfan16]

I'm a school speech pathologist. It was a nightmare and the impacts are absolutely still being felt.

 

[Southernmiss]

Never lost a day of work. The pandemic brought more work of figuring out new ways of doing things and added financial responsibilities with PPP loans.

Dh worked from home.

As introverts, we liked the time at home.

But still mad about missing so much if daughter's senior year sports and activities. She did have a full graduation, though with tickets and social distancing.

Our 3rd son still has social effects from it as college activities stopped and he, though an introvert, needed the interaction. Hopefully, he's working through them soon with new opportunities.

Disliked seeing the divisions that manifested among people and still ripple today.

 

[leahgoogle]

Some of you said that you missed a full year of in person school? Didn't everyone go back to regular in the fall of 2020 (no masks) or was that just our rural area?

Rural here too. We had in-person school, but had mandatory masks (sigh) and distancing for the 2020-2021 school year. By the end of the school year, it was more lax with the mask wearing. Most kids weren't compliant with the masks anyway and I believe they don't work well for respiratory viruses (goes against what most think here). It's crazy what some had to endure. I am so glad we live where we live!

 

[leahgoogle]

I'm a school speech pathologist. It was a nightmare and the impacts are absolutely still being felt.

Yep. They looked at masked and unmasked schools in Michigan and the case rates were similar. For young kids masking wasn't worth the delay in speech.

 

[leahgoogle]

What data exactly? The data that shows that the vaccines have saved peoples lives?? That the Covid precations that folks did, saved lives?

If you believe in natural immunity and that the vaccine is bad, so be it. But there is plenty of data that shows that the vaccine has been a literal lifesaver!

Funny, two weeks ago, I was at the Boston Museum of Science and they had a great little display that spelled out in simple terms how the vaccine was developed in record time and how effective it has been. Its all about science!

You may want to look at recent data (not data given to you by CNN or mainstream media). It's not clear-cut that the vaccine overwhelmingly saved lives. The science is not settled, unfortunately. Developed in record time is an issue. As mentioned before in this thread, the clinical trials cut corners. Natural immunity has been shown to be more durable and better than the vaccine. But, to each their own.

 

[verleniahall]

You may want to look at recent data (not data given to you by CNN or mainstream media). It's not clear-cut that the vaccine overwhelmingly saved lives. The science is not settled, unfortunately. Developed in record time is an issue. As mentioned before in this thread, the clinical trials cut corners. Natural immunity has been shown to be more durable and better than the vaccine. But, to each their own.

Working at a school we were required to get the shot and 1 booster

 

[fortwildernessishome]

You may want to look at recent data (not data given to you by CNN or mainstream media). It's not clear-cut that the vaccine overwhelmingly saved lives. The science is not settled, unfortunately. Developed in record time is an issue. As mentioned before in this thread, the clinical trials cut corners. Natural immunity has been shown to be more durable and better than the vaccine. But, to each their own.

Natural immunity is only good if you actually survive Covid!!
As you of course know, many, many, many did not survive it, so natural immunity is no good for them.
Yeah, I am pretty mainstream media. If you look hard enough you can always find someone to support your belief. I don't need to do that though. ABC is good enough for me!
Its pretty clear cut how and why the vaccine was safely developed in record time.

 

[disney4us2002]

See, I have a different view. Until the mandatory "2 weeks off with pay for covid" law went into effect, there were several I knew who were sweating getting covid because they had already used all their sick time, a day or two here and there and would have had to use vacation or time off without pay.
Amazing how many people get zero sick days. In California, sick leave is mandatory, but only three days a year.
But those folks, to be honest, are the ones who in non-pandemic years are already sweating flu season in November because they have been out of sick time for months.

This boggles my mind. Granted I'm state government and dh is federal govt but I find it appalling that so many businesses do not have sick PTO. I earn three weeks per year and it accumulates forever. To think people won't get sick all year or only a day or two is crazy! I'm retiring in Sept and all that sick leave gets converted into "time served" so I my sick leave will add 7 months to my total work years which increases my retirement pay.

 

[tvguy]

This boggles my mind. Granted I'm state government and dh is federal govt but I find it appalling that so many businesses do not have sick PTO. I earn three weeks per year and it accumulates forever. To think people won't get sick all year or only a day or two is crazy! I'm retiring in Sept and all that sick leave gets converted into "time served" so I my sick leave will add 7 months to my total work years which increases my retirement pay.

Yeah, a friend works for a very nice family. Until California started requiring 3 sick days a year, none of the employees got paid sick time. And no paid vacation. And no health insurance However every employee got a check for $10,000 on January 1st each year in compensation for that, and the employees seems to prefer the cash.
I think you commented before about public sector sick leave. My much older half brother retired after 30 years with Federal DOD, and when he retired you had to use up your sick time before you could officially retired. He had 13 months of sick time on the books. At this point, he has been drawing his Federal pension longer than he worked for the government.

 

[disneychrista]

This boggles my mind. Granted I'm state government and dh is federal govt but I find it appalling that so many businesses do not have sick PTO. I earn three weeks per year and it accumulates forever. To think people won't get sick all year or only a day or two is crazy! I'm retiring in Sept and all that sick leave gets converted into "time served" so I my sick leave will add 7 months to my total work years which increases my retirement pay.

Before we there was California sick leave, my former employer had personal days, in addition to vacation time. The only boss called the personal days sick days you don’t have to lie about being sick to use. Once California sick leave kicked in the personal days became sick days and we’re accrued different based on California sick pay rules.

Now like you it is 15 days of sick leave per year with no max and become service credit when I retire. I expect to have 9 months to a year of time added for retirement.

 

[tvguy]

Before we there was California sick leave, my former employer had personal days, in addition to vacation time. The only boss called the personal days sick days you don’t have to lie about being sick to use. Once California sick leave kicked in the personal days became sick days and we’re accrued different based on California sick pay rules.

Now like you it is 15 days of sick leave per year with no max and become service credit when I retire. I expect to have 9 months to a year of time added for retirement.

That is a nice perk. I figure over our 42 year careers my wife and I each lost over 350 days pay because sick leave was use it or lose it.

 

[leahgoogle]

Natural immunity is only good if you actually survive Covid!!
As you of course know, many, many, many did not survive it, so natural immunity is no good for them.
Yeah, I am pretty mainstream media. If you look hard enough you can always find someone to support your belief. I don't need to do that though. ABC is good enough for me!
Its pretty clear cut how and why the vaccine was safely developed in record time.

Well, we will pretty much always disagree then which is OK. Data was suppressed. Covid ended up being a disease of the elderly or severely immunocompromised. The hospitals were using the wrong treatments and ventilators were a disaster and caused needless death. You won't get that on ABC. The chance of a healthy person under 50 dying from covid was 1 in 333,333. That's why it is so important to have choice of treatments and vaccines. You vaccinated based on your risk and research and I didn't vaccinate based on my risk and my research. We both did what we thought was best and luckily nobody in my family was forced to do otherwise. We can't ever go back to trying to mandate a vaccine again. Especially now that we know that this vaccine doesn't protect anybody but the patient (maybe).

 

[leahgoogle]

Working at a school we were required to get the shot and 1 booster

My friend works at a school and she was able to test twice a week in leu of getting the shot. The "rules" were all over the board depending on where you live.

 

[Lumpy1106]

The final count is in; 111.

That's the number of cloth masks I collected in our household over the weekend. That doesn't count the boxes of disposable ones DW was obsessed with buying. Glad that's over.

 

[leahgoogle]

The final count is in; 111.

That's the number of cloth masks I collected in our household over the weekend. That doesn't count the boxes of disposable ones DW was obsessed with buying. Glad that's over.

We still have our cloth and disposable masks. I'm glad it's over too. Time to get rid of them!

 

[tvguy]

The final count is in; 111.

That's the number of cloth masks I collected in our household over the weekend. That doesn't count the boxes of disposable ones DW was obsessed with buying. Glad that's over.

But it's not over. I know more people in the last 2 months with covid than I knew at any other time in the past three years. And that includes my wife and I who finally went on a vacation and brought covid back last month.
Remember, masks are to protect others from you, not you from others. Even after the 5 day quarantine was over, we wore out masks when we went out and still do to protect others, not us.
We still have our cloth masks hanging by the front door, 40 each, and a box of disposables.