Skip to main content

Making the Best of a Bad Situation

Like many of you, I find myself with an abundance of time essentially trapped at home. This is especially difficult because spring is finally here, meaning that after an entire winter of waiting, the zoo, farmer's markets, and even going out in comfortable weather to lunch at a restaurant are still elusive activities. This isn't so bad for my family during the week because we've got a toddler who keeps us on a pretty tight schedule that hasn't changed since the pandemic. The weekends, however, are another story.

We have a family zoo pass and a membership at the local children's museum, both of which we were looking forward to using as soon as spring arrived and the risk of catching the seasonal flu passed. Both are closed, along with—hold on let me just double check this fact—just about everything else that's fun. But even if they weren't closed, the fear of catching anything from anyone at this point is enough to keep us home.

Don't get me wrong, we're still going to find ways to get outside and have fun together—at least as soon as the rain clears up and the temperature rises to something more comfortable and safe for a toddler. We love hiking, walking around the neighborhood, and last year my partner and I started running together. I'm fairly certain that we can still do those things while maintaining a safe 6-foot distance from everyone around us.

But for the days we're trapped inside, we want to try to make the best out of a bad situation. Frankly, we also need a distraction from all the scary news around us. Put both of those concepts together in this is what you get:


The brainchild of my partner, the quarantine projects list includes just about everything we've been meaning to get around to doing for the last several months. While we didn't have time to get to these things before because we had other fun activities to participate in, it seems like our schedule has opened up quite a bit for the foreseeable future.

Some tasks are going to take a weekend or two while others can be done during breaks in our remote work. The point is to have goals. Purpose. Something to distract us that will be productive to our lives.

I hope to update you with our progress on all of these in the coming weeks.

What are you doing to make the best of this pandemic? Comment below!

Stay healthy and sane!
-Ryan
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Thanks for sharing!

Popular posts from this blog

I've Been Unemployed for a Month

Sorry I haven't written here in a while. So much was happening in those first few months of the pandemic, and then it seemed like everything just kind of slowed to a crawl before it all went stale. Every day has been the same thing. People don't believe facts. People are getting sick. The pandemic isn't over yet. We need to stay home. We need a sense of normalcy. The numbers are down. The numbers are up. On and on and on in a never-ending loop. Like many people, I fell into a sort of numb depression without even realizing it. The pandemic and quarantine weren't great for my mental health, and I stagnated. I kept on going through the motions, but it was all in a sort of half-conscious way. Fortunately, a few months ago I became aware of this and made some changes to improve my mental health and overall lifestyle. It seemed like everything was going to be alright again. Then, after an incredibly stressful two months at work during which I worked and pushed myself harder t
Post a Comment
Read more

News Updates for Posterity

As I said in my previous blog post, I'm not sure there's really anything significantly new to say about this pandemic since it's been going on far longer than it should have. That said, I still want to keep this blog updated on a somewhat regular basis for future historical reference. In the absence of any new insights to share, I'm going to share and comment on some recent news. July 14: CDC says U.S. could get coronavirus under control in one to two months if everyone wears a mask This is pretty much the thing I've been preaching from the beginning because I respect the advice of educated experts. Still, it's nice to have the CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION (spelled out, capitalized, and bold in case you forgot that this pandemic is literally what the CDC was designed to help us with) slap the nation across the face with how badly we're messing up and how quickly we could be done with quarantining if everyone just wore their damn masks. July 15
Post a Comment
Read more

The Escalation of Events

So yesterday I stumbled upon  this article in which a respiratory therapist describes in detail what the worst of COVID-19 looks like in the hospital. These disturbing descriptions were all new to me, which is worrisome given how far into this pandemic the world already is. The details of the disease shouldn't still be unknown or downplayed at this point. I began to reflect on my experience learning about this disease and how long it took for me to take it seriously versus how quickly everything seemed to go wrong. I was away on business in Boston for PAX East (a big video game convention) from February 25th through March 2nd. There was talk of the "novel coronavirus" at the time but I didn't know much about it. While I worked my booth and walked the convention floor I couldn't help but notice the (relatively small but nonetheless) increased number of attendees wearing face masks at the event. I just kind of shrugged it off, thinking it was good that peo
2 comments
Read more