Ideas to stay sane if we all lockdown again

[HeatherC]

Granted I know there are more cases but at least known traced cases there have been 278 cases in my state from clusters in a bar or restaurant. Though I am speaking about clusters it's all the information I have about bars and restaurants.

I absolutely do think bars and restaurants have a risk factor to them they do, but if I compare it to clusters identified in long-term care facilities (3,802), corrections (3,989), and meat processing plants (3,610) those are a much larger issue in my state.

I anticipate issues for colder weather though.

Totally agree with you. The places you mentioned like long term care facilities, etc. are such a large issue. My point is just for everyone to do what they can to help stop the spread.

 

[HeatherC]

This is our firepit--bricks from Menards and this year we took ours apart (which I had it dry-stacked so we could do that in the future if we wanted to) and used some quikrete for the base because it was uneven with the ground sloping a bit:

View attachment 533879

We did a few fire pit nights with having chairs 6ft apart, no one going in the house, etc. Was quite nice really. We also got some tiki torches though we splurged for a bit nicer ones.

Love a fire pit! We actually went out and bought a propane one for our deck back in the Spring. We go between that one and a wood burning one in the far backyard. Makes the evenings so relaxing.

 

[ronandannette]

Like I said, I understand and agree with all this. But think about “going out for beers”. It is not just your husbands group at the restaurant or bar because other “cohorts” are also going. They are all then coming into contact with more people and raising the risk of spreading things further. And to be clear, I don’t think those at home should be going out like this at all either. Yes, it totally sucks...big time. But if all of us tried a little harder to just do what the experts tell us, (a especially now with colder weather and people moving indoors more) it really would end quicker. I believe that. But it will never happen and I understand that too. So the COVID crockpot continues to simmer.

What is your take on the fact that we are already doing everything the experts mandate us to do? Our "experts" here, who dictate the rules, are scientific and medical professionals - not politicians. Our provincial Chief Medical Officer has the full authority for what "Phase" we are in and what restrictions are in place. We have mandatory masking everywhere indoors except your own home, no large public events, strict size limits on everything done in public interior spaces (like stores, churches, schools and funeral homes), and strict size limits on private gatherings. Compliance, in general, is very high. Restaurants/coffee shops/cocktail lounges (not nightclubs or sports bars) are open under specific conditions so going to them is not a violation in any way.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Love a fire pit! We actually went out and bought a propane one for our deck back in the Spring. We go between that one and a wood burning one in the far backyard. Makes the evenings so relaxing.

Funny story, we had that fire pit built (minus the concrete pad we just did this year) for several years before we actually used it

I don't know why it took us so long to use it but I'm glad we started last year and then have used it multiple times this year. Should get a few more uses this fall before it's just too cold out.

We have a gas double sided fireplace in the house and I do love that for the nights that are cold but you want a fire. It's not a fire pit but it's something.

You're totally right about it being so relaxing!

 

[*DisneyDreamer]

• Reading
• Playing a lot of video games
• Getting back to learning guitar and brushing up on my rusty piano skills

And finally, there is The Wheel of Movies:

1. Everyone in the house creates a list of movies they either want to watch or want other members of the family watch. Try to aim for movies at least somebody in the family hasn't seen.
2. Each member has one veto.
3. Put all those lists together, remove duplicates.
4. Put that list into wheelofnames.com.
5. Spin.
6. Watch the movie. No complaining. The Wheel has spoken!
7. Remove the movie from the list
8. Repeats step 4-6 until the list is empty.
9. Start over at step 1, if desired.

In fact, my family has two lists going: The Wheel of Movies and the Spooky Wheel of Movies. The last two movies we watched were The Corpse Bride and Inglorious Basterds. The goal is to get through the Spooky Wheel by Halloween, and then create a Holiday Wheel.

This is such a great idea! I downloaded an app to do this because I always have such a hard time deciding what to watch! I love the idea of a Holiday Wheel, I will definitely make one of those as we get closer to the holidays.

I love this. I actually live alone, but something like that will be helpful, because it seems that once I sit down to watch something, I can't make up my mind. Maybe I'll do a wheel of movies, a wheel of 1/2 hour shows and a wheel of hour long shows.

My thought exactly! For me, it’s not deciding between family members, it’s just me deciding for myself! Haha.

 

[Colleen27]

Like I said, I understand and agree with all this. But think about “going out for beers”. It is not just your husbands group at the restaurant or bar because other “cohorts” are also going. They are all then coming into contact with more people and raising the risk of spreading things further. And to be clear, I don’t think those at home should be going out like this at all either. Yes, it totally sucks...big time. But if all of us tried a little harder to just do what the experts tell us, (a especially now with colder weather and people moving indoors more) it really would end quicker. I believe that. But it will never happen and I understand that too. So the COVID crockpot continues to simmer.

I'm not necessarily even talking about bars or restaurants, though both indoor and outdoor dining had been open for months in my state before the fall upswing started and far, far fewer clusters are tied to those things than to workplaces where precautions are difficult or impossible (DH's plant, for example, doesn't allow for added distancing on the line without retooling the entire facility, so a temp check at the start of the day and masks that many wear improperly because of the heat of the factory floor are the only precautions in place). Getting together in someone's home or hitting the golf course is just as frowned on, even though it involves far less risk of contact with other 'cohorts'.

And the bolded? That's just wishful thinking or social shaming. There is only one way this ends - widespread vaccination. The decisions we make between now and then can effect how many people get sick or suffer in other ways in the meantime, but nothing is going to "get it over with" because as long as the majority of the population is susceptible, the virus will simply be there, waiting to resurge any time precautionary measures are relaxed. But it is easier to believe there is someone to blame than to accept that we're almost entirely powerless right now, so it is comforting to believe that if everyone would just stay home for a couple of weeks or wear their masks or whatever, we could end this.

 

[mrodgers]

Two words: Fire pit!

https://www.bobvila.com/articles/diy-fire-pit/

You can make one in your dad's backyard for about $50. A little more if you want prettier bricks. Make one above ground so people won't trip and fall into an in ground one. Grab a few lawn chairs to sit around the fire, well distanced from each other. If you need a couple wind barriers (for you guys, not the fire,) there are also DIY ones to build for that. Alternately, you can simply turn a portable BBQ into a firepit.

According to the CDC and other infectious disease experts, there is an 80% less risk of transmitting COVID outdoors versus indoors, because the breeze/wind naturally fans out and disperses particles. The farther people are from each other, the less of an infectious dose one may receive.

If that is Bob Vila's version of a firepit, I wouldn't recommend you following Bob Vila's DIY. He's a hack.

That fire pit looks to me to be the ole chunks of cement exploding and hitting me in the eye kind of fire pit.

 

[Tinijocaro]

Love a fire pit! We actually went out and bought a propane one for our deck back in the Spring. We go between that one and a wood burning one in the far backyard. Makes the evenings so relaxing.

Same with us-we just bought a propane one for the deck and still have the firepit in the woods behind our house. My dad (92) will not be coming to either this winter-skin is so thin he's always cold.