Weekend Plans Post: Social Distancing
I don’t really have any plans this weekend.
We don’t really have to go to Costco and we don’t really have to go to King Soopers. We may have to go to Petsmart eventually, but that can probably wait another week. Maybe I’ll talk to Maribou about that. We might get antsy in the pantsy and run out and enjoy the illicit sweetness of buying some cat litter. Maybe we’ll call first and pick it up so we don’t have to interact much.
The rest of the weekend will be spent mostly inside. Catching up on shows, catching up on games, catching up on sleep.
I understand that that Baby Yoda show is pretty good. Maybe I’ll watch that. Then again, maybe I won’t.
There’s an essay I want to write explaining how to make some decent Hamburger Helperish food. Not for the people out there who already know how to cook, of course. For the people who are used to driving through Wendy’s on the way home instead of making something. Maybe they’d benefit from a photo essay on that sort of thing. That should kill an hour or two.
I’m planning on calling mom, making sure that she’s still okay and doesn’t need much of anything. Planning on walking around the block with Maribou a couple of times as working from home has you get in a lot fewer steps than working at the office (and it’s not like my job has me running around that much anyway). Planning on starting up my jogging regimen again. (I got in my 20 minute jog before writing this, as a matter of fact.)
All in all, I’m just planning on holding down the fort, keeping a lid on things, and keep my fingers crossed.
So… what’s on your docket?
(Featured image is Tiger. Photo taken by the author.)
It’s been very quiet around here since we lost our kitty. (inoperable cancer.)
It’s not like he was especially noisy, but the knowledge that there won’t be any noise makes the silences more profound. No more “mew” from the couch when we walk in the room, no more “thump-thump” as we come around the corner and he jumps off the counter where he was investigating the dishes in the sink, no more “prrrt” in our ears in the morning when it’s breakfast time.
The bird is a sweetie, but we’re still getting used to the idea that it’s just her…Report
I’ve been idly wondering if Quarantine wouldn’t be the best time to adopt a couple of kitties. We’d be home, we’d be around to help socialize everybody to everybody…
But it might also be the worst time to adopt a couple of kitties.
It always sucks to say goodbye to an old friend. Or a new one, with whom you were confident you’d become an old one.Report
That sucks. Losing pets is rough, and adjusting to the missing parts is no fun.Report
Okay, so it’s Friday. I was starting to wonder, for serious.
I have no plans. Because I am a germaphobic fat asthmatic who is 51, I am on social isolation until the news out there is better. I did go to the Lowe’s yesterday for seeds for my garden, and then spent the afternoon tortured by guilt (I went out! When they told us not to!) and fear (what if that person who pushed past me in the narrow aisle had the virus and didn’t know it, and now I’m infected). Both a microbiologist of my acquaintance and a virologist who is a SO of a friend have told me that I was not close enough to the person for long enough and I hope they’re right and anyway there are no reported or suspected cases in my county yet.
I guess my plans this weekend, if it stops raining,are to prepare my garden (I have bean seeds – it’s time to plant them – and flower seeds (I will need flowers, if I am stuck in for most of the summer).
Next week is go in to my office (maybe, if we’re still allowed to) and try to set up short Zoom lectures and try to learn how to do online testing to finish the semester all online and this is very, very much not the adulthood I signed up for.
I have enough food on hand so no grocery shopping for now. I hope by the time I run low on fresh milk, there’s more back in the stores. If not, I guess it’s “learn to love the powdered milk on your emergency shelf”
But I have really learned how boring a person I am and how quickly I get tired of my own company when I cannot go out and just sit here and worry.Report
Make sure the powdered milk is very cold before you drink it, and a little chocolate syrup makes it go down easier. 🙂Report
Do you know about slack groups? There are slack groups out there set up for, for example, knitting.
Find a group of people who care about the same stuff you care about and (virtually) hang out with them.
Our Saturday Night Gaming Group will be playing D&D via slack come tomorrow night. Hanging out together in a time of social isolation.Report
I think we’re actually using Discord (tomorrow?!), but yeah…hang out!Report
Discord? Hoo, boy. We will spend as much time setting up the game as we normally do eating beforehand.Report
Does slack support voice? I’ve used Mumble and that seems pretty simple.Report
Well, *I* ain’t doin’ nothin’ tomorrow. We should put a process together.Report
Agreed. I just video chatted with another member of the group on Discord. I think we can do this.Report
Just following up to tell all and sundry that discord was *easy*Report
Jay, I would love it if you wrote a DIY Hamburger Helper thread – I’d love to link it in my prepping piece! That’s the exact type of thing many people below the age of 40 ish never learned how to make and they’re at a loss now.Report
I will put something together. In the meantime, here’s my recipe for spaghetti sauce.
And it should be pointed out that the all time number one post here at Ordinary Times is Sam’s post on how to make a simple red sauce.Report
I’ve really been feeling this social isolation thing in my body. My usual routine has about 40-50 minutes of cycling and about the same of walking. Working from home by contrast I go up and down the stairs a couple of times and that’s it. Aches and pains, oh my. I have to establish a new daily routine where I ride my bike in a loop just to accomplish riding my bike rather than to get to any destination or errand.
This weekend we continue to work on the house we’re theoretically trying to sell – not that I expect anyone much will be buying houses this year. Probably get almost all the interior painting done by the end of the weekend. Outdoor painting will have to wait until it’s warmer but other outdoor stuff could continue.Report
I went out for a 20 minute (!) jog yesterday and I couldn’t believe the good it did me. I woke up with my hip hurting but, after jogging, I felt years younger.
Good luck. (Fingers crossed on the house.)Report
This was supposed to be sibling weekend at the oldest’s college, and the youngest was going to stay in the dorm and get a taste of college-life and presumably a subtle or not-so-subtle sales pitch. Since the college is about a six-hour drive from here, my wife and I made a hotel reservation for the weekend. With the campus closing, and her being ordered to vacate the dorm by this weekend, my wife and daughter are right now moving out, and they have the hotel room repurposed.
And as I was trying to think what to do, the Illinois Governor issued a stay-at-home order starting (I believe) 5PM tomorrow, so I had to figure out what I needed to do that may not be “essential” until April 7th. I went to Lowe’s got 9 cubic feet of topsoil to fill a tree stump hole and to Binny’s Beverage Depot and got a couple cases of beer. Depending on how the hole-filling goes, I might be back to one or the other tomorrow. But realized the small shop that I buy my coffee beans from may close, and need to get there tomorrow.Report
Good luck with the beans. Show up early: a lot of people are likely to have the same idea and think “I might never be able to get these beans again!” as they’re picking out what to purchase.Report
One of the kids staying with us ran a D&D game from my PC this afternoon so I got a late start rebuilding, but it’s now well on it’s way. I bought RGB parts and man is it a beautiful machine! Oh, how does it run, you ask? No idea…but it sure is pretty! 🙂Report
What do you plan on playing that requires a significant upgrade, given that I know you were capable of playing XCOM2 already?Report
Nothing at all. Rebuild was necessitated by repeated freezes which seemed to be cause by the cpu based on the diags I ran. I didn’t want to spend the cash or make the upgrade.Report
The Baby Yoda Show isn’t particularly good. It’s about 15 minutes of show with 45 minutes of extended shots and set pieces with a pretense of being “art” and “deep”. Stopped watching after the second episode with a profound sense of disappointment and my contempt for Disney grew 10 times in that moment.Report
But it has Werner Herzog…Report
I’m trying to sort out how to stream a PS4 to people who don’t have one, or an iPad to people who may or may not have an iPad and who certainly aren’t in the same house.
Most of the solutions assume you own a Mac (iPad) or everyone has a PS4.Report