How are you keeping occupied in this period of 'social distancing'

First, please don't use this thread to kvetch about Covid-19 and the government and the people around you. I hope we can use this space to suggest coping mechanisms or just share our stories instead. No politics, please!


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So, now that a lot of us have been more or less restricted to socializing with our families and have to stay at home most of the time, how are you and your family dealing with it? What do you do more, or less, or differently?


I live in WA, and we have been on a 'social distancing' order for a while. I also live near the border with Canada, and that's been closed. We have a 9 year-old and she's off from school. This all changes out lives a bit. 

My wife and I are in 'essential' jobs and have to go in to work as usual, so that's not changed. Luckily, or schedules are set so that we don't have much of an issue with one of us needing to be home at all times. 

The biggest disruption has been having my daughter off from school, of course. She doesn't like not hanging out with other kids, and then there's the fact that we have to spend some time doing home-schooling, which is a new experience for us. It has actually been fun so far as we've all been learning together. She likes the one-on-one instruction and we focus on topics like history, geography, biology and math - all subjects that interest her. Of course, we all spend a lot of time reading.

We also recently bought and moved into a 110 year-old farmhouse with a bit of land attached. As anyone who has moved recently knows, there's a ton of work to do around the house and property. Some of our plans are on hold because we don't want to do any unnecessary shopping trips, but there's still a lot of gardening, building, and other projects going on. That's mostly on me, with a little help from my daughter; my wife does the planning.   

Otherwise, we head out to the sea and spend hours playing in the sand and looking for shells and crabs and stuff. The weather has been great, so we've been outside - either on our property, or at the shore, unless there's a reason to be inside. 

I have been slowly getting my work shed ready for some woodworking. I need to mount my woodworking vise onto the workbench and make a few modifications to it. The list of woodworking projects I need to build is about a mile long, but I need to organize the workspace and the wood before I do any complex projects. 

I would like to say I've been riding a lot, but with my daughter home and bored I don't have the time to do much of that. If we leave her to her own devices she may play by herself or read, but she is also likely to gravitate to her phone or the TV and I like to avoid that as much as possible. She likes being around us, so I'm happy to come up with projects we can work on together. 

In the evenings, we light a fire in the firepit and sit around and chat and listen to the birds. 

There are worse ways to spend your time. 

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So, how are you all handling it?

NH schools are closed. Restaurants are takeout/delivery only.
On Saturday my wife and I took a lovely drive so ML could take photos.
Restaurant and hotel lots were empty.  We drove through part of the white mountains national forest.
All and I mean ALL of the trailhead parking lots were filled. This on a 30 degree day with 30 mph winds.

We were able to get gas and snacks no problem. ML took some nice photos. We stopped in Errol NH at LL Cote an outdoor and all purpose store. Quite a few folks were in there.

On Sunday we walked up to the top of Mt Prospect. Had the icy road to ourselves. Let the dogs off lead to enjoy the area. On way back down we passed 50 people over the course of the descent. All families with varying amount of kids. That is more people than we see in the summer for that walk. I imagine the housebound kids are getting cabin fever.

My wife had the foresight to pick up 3 library books for each of us. Mine are all spy mysteries!!

We have spent an inordinate  amount of time doing taxes. Buying and selling and relocating makes it complicated. And I am still not done.

The dogs are getting lots of walks. Either on the road or just around the property. I was looking forward to cleaning up the yard but 6 inches of snow forcasted put an end to that.

So really not much difference for us except not being able to dine out.

Cool topic.

Our kids have long been grown and off on their own, so childcare fortunately is not a concern for us. Lisa is able to work from home as the office manager for a group of psychiatric providers and I am retired, so work is not a problem. We surf the internet (CNN/MSNBC for her and archeology/paleontology and tech sites for me) and we read a lot, we meditate each day, and we just sit and talk. Neither of us needs a nap. We stroll around the neighborhood for half an hour or so and try to get out for a drive daily, just meandering and looking at other people's houses and lives. We go to Safeway for groceries - with Drive Up & Go delivery to the car - and the bank's drive-up teller about once a week. In the evening, we watch an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot or a feature movie copied from a library DVD or - rarely - a purchased online movie, munching snacks of popcorn or chips. Slow days for slow old folks, but with no boredom and little cabin fever.

Well, there is still lots of snow on the ground and we're not through getting more for a while yet but daytime highs have been above zero so walking - I walk the dog no matter how cold it is but I've noticed lots more people out walking around than are normally there.  Interesting how isolation is making people more active.  I guess people actually can get tired of their devices.  I've cleared some space in the basement and set up a home gym - I had the stuff, just didn't use it preferring to go to the local rec centre which is closed now.  I miss my daily workouts there with the greater selection of equipment and of course the social aspect - I'm retired so I went in the middle of the day.  The dungeon is keeping me sane - ish.

My wife is working from home and my daughter (Nurse) is still working at the hospital business as usual.  There is a lot more cleaning and tidying going on than normal and we've started a cribbage world championship tournament.  Reading and some TV - the Toronto Raptors 2019 NBA Championship run is being broadcast one game per evening - if you pretend its like its the present.  Its nice to see Kawhai Leonard and Danny Green back in Raptors jerseys    I knew they'd come around.  

I've watched all those Poirot shows and I'd watch them again except Netflix took them off.  There's series called Miss Fisher Mysteries set in 1920s Australia which is similar and quite good.  I might take a look at that again.  Its funny but my TV viewing has actually decreased in this situation - I don't watch every day - maybe I'm trying to spread out the good stuff.  Oh, I am watching the Vikings series on Netflix - a little violent but heck, they're Vikings that's what they do.   Who knows, if this goes on too long I'll start re-watching some of the good shows that I liked - Justified, Breaking Bad, Longmire, Peaky Blinders.  

Funny how peoples'minds work - I tell my wife that there'll probably be a baby boom in 9 months and the media says there'll be a spike in domestic abuse.  I like to think the former not the latter.   I joke that my wife and I sit around and I'm looking into her eyes (meaningfully) and I say, "are you thinking what I'm thinking? (Pinky)". She says "Yes" so I run up the stairs leaving clothing in my wake and she runs and gets the housecleaning supplies.  Great minds don't always think alike

'Poirot' is a great show. I don't watch much TV, but that's one of my favourite shows to watch. I also like 'Endeavour' and 'Lewis' (and, of course 'Morse'). Great acting in all of them.

'Poirot' is a great show. I don't watch much TV, but that's one of my favourite shows to watch. I also like 'Endeavour' and 'Lewis' (and, of course 'Morse'). Great acting in all of them.

Yes, we really like all of those. We're on our third time through the Poirot episodes. We copied all of them from DVDs that we got from the library. We also have copied all of the Miss Marple shows with Geraldine McEwan, all of the Foyle's War episodes, all of the old Star Trek shows, and a number of the BBC nature series and Ken Burns historical series.

'Poirot' is a great show. I don't watch much TV, but that's one of my favourite shows to watch. I also like 'Endeavour' and 'Lewis' (and, of course 'Morse'). Great acting in all of them.

Yes, we really like all of those.  We're on our third time through the Poirot episodes.  We copied all of them from DVDs that we got from the library.  We also have copied all of the Miss Marple shows with Geraldine McEwan, all of the Foyle's War episodes, all of the old Star Trek shows, and a number of the BBC nature series and Ken Burns historical series.

Love Morse. Have you checked out Shetland? DI Jimmy Perez is great. Gritty British  crime drama set in the Shetland islands. Broadchurch is good but a little dark and it gets intense. Also like Line of Duty

Working from home, playing guitar, and desperately hoping my risk-factored boomer parents will start taking this **** seriously.

'Poirot' is a great show. I don't watch much TV, but that's one of my favourite shows to watch. I also like 'Endeavour' and 'Lewis' (and, of course 'Morse'). Great acting in all of them.

Yes, we really like all of those.  We're on our third time through the Poirot episodes.  We copied all of them from DVDs that we got from the library.  We also have copied all of the Miss Marple shows with Geraldine McEwan, all of the Foyle's War episodes, all of the old Star Trek shows, and a number of the BBC nature series and Ken Burns historical series.

Love Morse. Have you checked out Shetland? DI Jimmy Perez is great. Gritty British  crime drama set in the Shetland islands. Broadchurch is good but a little dark and it gets intense. Also like Line of Duty

Indeed, we watch all of those, as well as The Bridge (Danish-Swedish), Commissario Brunetti, The Crown, Fortitude, Grantchester, Hinterland, Marcella, Prime Suspect, Silent Witness, Spring Tide, Stranger Things, Unforgotten, and Westworld.

I don't see any difference at all. We live rurally and go into town when we must, but that's been that way for many years. I need to go in more frequently now to a room with everyone in it at high risk so I'm more careful of my health and not wanting to spread anything to others. Not that I wasn't before, but its heightened now. Other than that, no change.