OT: - Tough times with weather, Covid, etc for many of us. | The Boneyard

OT: Tough times with weather, Covid, etc for many of us.

The Good: Both my wife and I have the good fortune of keeping our full time jobs at Cornell University. She is full time remote work and I work in the office 2 days a week and 3 days remote. We're saving a ton in gas money :)

The Bad: We miss the daily interactions with our co-workers. I'm sick and tired of Zoom meetings.
 
Interesting all around. Thank you and stay well. Sounds like you are faring better than some we've heard about. We have one friendship in particular, several decades in depth, where the husband got Covid in Florida and ended up being medevaced (sp?) to Mass General in Boston. Home now and recovering very nicely..
 
As my wife is immunosuppressed, and I have some of the risk factors we have been home bodies. While I go out every day for fountain beverages from a drive through, some "to-go" dinners and the rare grocery store visit, it doesn't involve any close contact. My wife goes for blood tests every 4 weeks. I was laid off from a part-time, work from home, job in the travel industry (duh). While there isn't a lot to complain about, the sad thing is my mother-in-law is in a nearby assisted living and we are barely in touch - she is deaf and doesn't want a lot of contact, but we can't visit her anyhow. And she is broke, so I am paying her rent, as the pandemic put on hold my wife pursuing eliminating her final assets and pursuing medicare. Better times are ahead I hope.
 
Things going pretty good so far. Both able to work the whole time. I worked from home for about 5 months, now back in the office (pretty lonely here). Wife works in dental office, it was open the whole time.

One of our kids probably had Covid back in Feb. Had all the symptoms, was sick for about 2 weeks. Was tested for flu and strep, both came back negative....so not sure what else it could have been but Covid. Anyway he was at our house quite a bit during that time, so if he had it we were exposed. I got a small cold for about 3 days, wife got nothing. So hoping that was it for us, but can't be sure because none of us were ever tested.

Other than that, things have been going ok. We get out to the stores on occasion (groceries, Costco, Ace Hardware, liquor store, a couple others). Have eaten out a few times (only outside seating). Have started seeing select friends, mostly outside. So far so good.

Miss soccer though. No coaching or reffing as yet. Maybe this fall. They are still working on that.
 
Going down to the garden every day and pulling weeds while listening to some Louie L'Mour westerns or John Sanford's detective stories. Tomatoes and cukes are coming so the family and neighbors are happy when they get their bags. Lots of tv at night and catching up with shows we never watched like "Longmire". My wife and I are in pretty good shape for eighty somethings as are the rest of the family. I love following my cohorts in the Boneyard and learning new jokes and songs along with the info passed on about our young ladies who give us so much pleasure from Nov. to April. All in all God has blessed us and I hope the same for all of you.
 
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Wife and I so pleased to hear the stories you all have told. Hope there will be more. It can be helpful to unload your troubles to wiling listeners;
likewise it is surely is a blessing to hear uplifting stories in challenging times.
 
Very happy to report that we all remain healthy and safe. I am also happy that circumstances convinced me to retire three years ago, instead of this coming January as originally planned! Luckily the next generation that I left my firm to have youth vigor and stamina on their sides!

But I am most happy that my daughter and son-in-law and grandkids are two back yards away, and my son and daughter-in-law are next door! Definitely counting my blessings.
 
After nearly a year we are back in our house. That was a huge stress relief. The kitchen is still a mess as our contractor is now on the third try to get us a quartz countertop that isn't screwed up. We stay busy every day. The yard is in terrible shape after months of neglect and I'm kept hopping trying to catch up on the to do list.
 
I work in a lab, which I really enjoy. The first couple months staying at home were great -- I was able to catch up on all the stuff that I put off because being in the lab is more fun. I requested, and was granted campus access in early June. The process was a horrible PITA and confirmed that my management chain doesn't have my back any more than I thought they did. Being back at work was great till we officially began Phase I re-opening. They've put in a bunch of silly requirements that make no sense. I'm also required not to be on campus when I'm not actively working in the lab, so am not full-time at work or at home. It's all quite frustrating.

OTOH, we're all healthy and I still have a job, so for those I'm quite thankful and I realize how lucky I am.
 
Wife (68) and I (71) have been virtually nowhere since March. We walk for an hour or so every day and that's what's keeping us sane. Online church every Sunday helps. Other than that, lots of Zoom meetings, weekly grocery pickup at Kroger and curbside from one of our local independent restaurants once a week or so. And 17 straight Friday night Zoom poker games with my long-time friends.
 
The covid 19 outbreak and the misguided response to it has pointed out to me how truly fortunate we are. I retired a few years ago, and my income is fixed, limited, and adequate to our needs. My wife has some health issues that keep her in the house nearly all the time, and so there has been little disruption to her routine. Other than missing lunches with my friends and not seeing our kids in person, little has truly changed for us. Not so for so many, and my heart aches for those suffering on so many levels. I cannot imagine or internalize the difficult decisions people are being forced to make on a daily basis. Upon reflection, our boring and tranquil lifestyle has been a beneficent imposition. Good luck to all of you Boneyarders, and keep posting about the myriad topics you raise that keep us interested. Go Huskies! BTW, I neglected to comment on the weather portion of the OP. But please be assured that having survived "Hurricane Sharpie" and the devastation it wreaked upon Alabama last year, all has been meteorologically quiet in our neighborhood this year.
 
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vtcwbuff said:
After nearly a year we are back in our house. That was a huge stress relief. The kitchen is still a mess as our contractor is now on the third try to get us a quartz countertop that isn't screwed up. We stay busy every day. The yard is in terrible shape after months of neglect and I'm kept hopping trying to catch up on the to do list.
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PM me and let me know where you are. I've got a guy who is terrific. Figured out how to get our counters out of the slabs without cuts. The cut and fit was perfect.

(FWIW, we are all doing well. I dropped 10 lbs early on when the restaurants closed. Put it all bake since my wife took up baking. [Shrugs]...)
 
Thanks for all the stories about how everyone is coping.

I'm fortunate in that I retired about 6 years ago so I'm not going through all the work craziness most are....I sure hope we can get through all this and at least a partial return to "normalcy" would be so, so, welcome.

Traveling is a main stay of my retirement, but this years trips to Hawaii and Alaska/BC are back on the shelf, so maybe next year. My days are pretty routine, focusing on the stock market (buying/selling) UCONN ladies BB, music, and photography. I sometimes write for Nature Photographer magazine, matter of fact their new issue (Summer/early Fall 2020) should have a story and photos from our trip to the Canadian Rockies last summer.
 
Scud49 said:
Traveling is a main stay of my retirement, but this years trips to Hawaii and Alaska/BC are back on the shelf, so maybe next year.
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I should've pointed out in my post that my wife and I went to Hawaii the first two weeks of March for our anniversary. If we'd been even a week later, it might have been dicey. A scant week on the Big Island and a scant week on Kauai.

The gods must be smiling on me -- best wife ever and best anniversary trip ever.
 
Bigboote said:
I should've pointed out in my post that my wife and I went to Hawaii the first two weeks of March for our anniversary. If we'd been even a week later, it might have been dicey. A scant week on the Big Island and a scant week on Kauai.

The gods must be smiling on me -- best wife ever and best anniversary trip ever.
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We used to go to Hawaii every other year. We would spend a couple of days in Oahu (I am probably one of the few people who will admit to liking Waikiki) and then spend the rest of the time on Kauai. Last year it was Alaska and British Columbia. This year we have cancelled a planned trip to Spain and right now our vacation plans are to sneak into Vermont undetected to spend some time with friends on Lake Champlain.
 
My wife and I are doing fine. We’re both retired, living in upstate NY. We miss travel and have avoided dining out (so far), but we spend a lot of time outside hiking, biking & kayaking.

The biggest hole in our life is not being able to visit my son, his wife and our 2 1/2 year old grandson, other than via Facebook. Our Facebook visits have become “Must See TV” for our grandson as we put on puppet shows, read children’s books and otherwise entertain the little guy, who is an absolute delight to interact with.
 
vtcwbuff said:
We used to go to Hawaii every other year. We would spend a couple of days in Oahu (I am probably one of the few people who will admit to liking Waikiki) and then spend the rest of the time on Kauai. Last year it was Alaska and British Columbia. This year we have cancelled a planned trip to Spain and right now our vacation plans are to sneak into Vermont undetected to spend some time with friends on Lake Champlain.
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So you want to travel without qaurentining and they say the young are irresponsible
 
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Frankly, living on a ranch this size, we do not see the same issues that you see in the "big city". The people that are here live here and work here. We have no commuters. We have FedEX deliveries and UPS Deliveries but those are "hit and run". Mail delivery is a 1/4 mile away at the front gate. I do not do the heavy lifting any more. I ride around with Max, my German Shepherd (11 months) and inspect a lot of "stuff" or I ride a horse and Max follows. My day starts at about 5:30 AM and I usually quit now at 3:00 in the afternoon. Everyone else keeps going. Carrying a phone, these days gives me a computer all day long as I have leased towers on my property.

We had a prairie dog shoot two weeks ago and a small group of people but they are well separated anyway. Just local farmers and ranchers.

All in all, business as usual. Conferences via skype, or telephone. Technology today has mitigated the old face to face. Hay grows, cattle feed, and fuel is pumped. Life goes on. Just would like to see our favorite sports people play to perfection and Geno's face as they run up and down the court.
 
Here it's been lots of audiobooks, self reflection and care, and lots of zoom/ google hangouts. Once I decided that being stressed continually about trying to teach remotely was useless, I tried to stay zen while state directives changed continually about student grading, accountability, teaching new/ review concepts, etc. I kept in touch with students and focused more on staying connected as a school community rather than harping about precalculus so much. I looked outside my usual instruction to consider real life applications as much as possible.
Now I'm busy not taking it personally when people keep blaming teachers not wanting to return to school for their lack of childcare in the fall. I'm trying not to be worried that I haven't seen a class schedule yet or know which courses I'll be teaching and in which format. It'll all work out in the end and it's just doing the best we can one day at a time.....


and lots of cat snuggles, too much news following about both cover and politics and still waiting to see the first absurd face mask tan or sunburn line..... as someone must have one!
 
I'm technically retired, but went back to work as a grant writer at the local Boys & Girls Clubs more than four years ago. When COVID hit, I worked from home for maybe two months, but we're now open again -- under CDC guidelines -- so I'm in the office, which I prefer. My wife has immune system issues, so she stays home. I do some sort of shopping almost every day, very carefully. This is Florida, where they have been extremely reluctant to do the right thing, in terms of precautions, so we are not doing any social things like eating out.
 
Twice retired, military in 1997 and real estate in 2017. I got rid of all my investment properties back in 04 and was glad that I did, the bottom fell out and would have lost a lot of money. My wife is still working at one of the casino's, but is thinking about retiring at the end of the year. I had a tumor removed from my bladder on 6/16, non-benign, but have been back to the emergency room 4 times. They finally diagnosed that I had UTI and have been on antibiotics for over two weeks. Have only been to my local casino twice and the last time was 6/8. I had to self-quarantine on 6/10 until the operation, then was on 10 day self-quarantine after the operation. After that I've been too sick to go anywhere, and don't want to take a chance to catch anything while I'm ill from the UTI. I'm kind of lucky because I have my military retirement, military disability, and Social Security, so we're not hurting like so many others, but I do wish I could get out of the house and do something. I see the Urologist tomorrow morning and hopefully get the okay to go have some fun.
 
MSGRET said:
Twice retired, military in 1997 and real estate in 2017. I got rid of all my investment properties back in 04 and was glad that I did, the bottom fell out and would have lost a lot of money. My wife is still working at one of the casino's, but is thinking about retiring at the end of the year. I had a tumor removed from my bladder on 6/16, non-benign, but have been back to the emergency room 4 times. They finally diagnosed that I had UTI and have been on antibiotics for over two weeks. Have only been to my local casino twice and the last time was 6/8. I had to self-quarantine on 6/10 until the operation, then was on 10 day self-quarantine after the operation. After that I've been too sick to go anywhere, and don't want to take a chance to catch anything while I'm ill from the UTI. I'm kind of lucky because I have my military retirement, military disability, and Social Security, so we're not hurting like so many others, but I do wish I could get out of the house and do something. I see the Urologist tomorrow morning and hopefully get the okay to go have some fun.
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Good luck to you sir. I never had a UTI, but my wife has bouts and they are not nice.
 
Bama fan said:
Good luck to you sir. I never had a UTI, but my wife has bouts and they are not nice.
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No they're not , my mom just passed away in July. She was 95, the main cause was UTI with underlying heart condition. My brother informed me after I had told him I was diagnosed with it. Thanks, I'm feeling a lot better now than a few weeks ago.
 
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Retired from my regular job 10 years ago and sold our last income property 5 years ago. Turned it into a Charitable Remainder Unified Trust With the principal going to our Alma Maters, Worcester Polytechnic Institue and the College of Wooster when we are gone. Great deal for us - no tax of any kind on the huge increased value of the property, 7% income each year on the remaining principal, plus tax credits that have cut our income taxes in half for the past five years. Versus a regular sale we estimate that by next year we will be past break even and playing with “house money.”

We, too are big travel fans (OAT) and had to cancel a trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. We have had the good fortune to have traveled to many countries and are missing the adventure!

We FaceTime with our two sons and their families a lot. We are also Face Timing with our personal trainer who we had been working with previously at the local 24 Hour Fitness gym. We set my IPad up on the table facing the family room and use one of those giant rubber balls, some hand weights, stretch bands and wooden blocks to pump, jump, squat, stretch, etc. three times a week. She can watch our form and we can watch her show us new moves. It works well.

Things are opening up out here - much more car, bike and walking traffic now. We may be about to push through this thing. Let’s hope so!
 
Zanzman said:
So you want to travel without qaurentining and they say the young are irresponsible
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For Vermont, if you are from a county with low rates, no quarantine is required. There’s a list on their state website. Hubs and I were there a couple of weeks back (Isle La Motte) and it was heaven.
 
If not for pickleball (ever heard of it?) I would have gone nuts. The same is true for a lot of other people as the outdoor courts are now packed with players. I tried this sport 1 1/2 years ago after playing tennis for 45 years. I haven't gone back to tennis. The wife plays too but she's not competitive or so she says.
A part-time job that was unaffected by the pandemic is also good and it allows me to work from home. All I needed was a VPN.
 
Zanzman said:
So you want to travel without qaurentining and they say the young are irresponsible
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Is it true that if you can't spell quarantining you can ignore it? In any case the Gov has removed our CT county from his list so we are good to go. We would have gone anyway because we are old and irresponsible.
 
Ex Nutmegger said:
Retired from my regular job 10 years ago and sold our last income property 5 years ago. Turned it into a Charitable Remainder Unified Trust With the principal going to our Alma Maters, Worcester Polytechnic Institue and the College of Wooster when we are gone. Great deal for us - no tax of any kind on the huge increased value of the property, 7% income each year on the remaining principal, plus tax credits that have cut our income taxes in half for the past five years. Versus a regular sale we estimate that by next year we will be past break even and playing with “house money.”

We, too are big travel fans (OAT) and had to cancel a trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel. We have had the good fortune to have traveled to many countries and are missing the adventure!

We FaceTime with our two sons and their families a lot. We are also Face Timing with our personal trainer who we had been working with previously at the local 24 Hour Fitness gym. We set my IPad up on the table facing the family room and use one of those giant rubber balls, some hand weights, stretch bands and wooden blocks to pump, jump, squat, stretch, etc. three times a week. She can watch our form and we can watch her show us new moves. It works well.

Things are opening up out here - much more car, bike and walking traffic now. We may be about to push through this thing. Let’s hope so!
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Ah. I was supposed to go to Peru with OAT this past June. I spent part of this morning looking at OAT trips. I am probably going to sign up for a 2021 trip soon in a fit of optimism. One recent day my partner and I had fun looking through a list of "underappreciated UNESCO sites" per another tour company, Smartours. As for fitness, while my partner goes to a trainer, I have my own free methods. I can't say I see the same results in body shape, for example, as my partner. But when I traveled to Spain last fall, I was able to do things such as climb multiple flights of stairs for a view that I would have passed on a few years ago when I still had my desk job. At that time, my "exercise" didn't amount to much more than walking a block to lunch at a Mexican restaurant from time to time and walking to and from the parking garage.
 
Hey VTC, we're up in Vermont; been here mostly since January...Quite retired (81) but working on a book.

We enjoy traveling, skiing in the Winter and sailing in the summer...This year blew a big hole in our plans. My wife convinced me not to put the boat in the water this season in Westbook Ct (wonderful yard).

Anyway, I've been thinking of getting rid of the cruising-style 34 that we now own and downsizing to day sailing on a Hobie Getaway...Have a teriff place to store and bop around in...Spanish Wells, Bahamas...cute town, great deserted beaches...of course, can't go there now, so we wait...

We've spent at least three months in Italy, the last few seasons...either Fall or Spring but again, impossible to get there now...I'd be willing to quarantine, but no go.

I do have a lovely long term rental lined in Umbria; an old stone house amongst, farms, villages, mountains, and not far from moderate sized cities; Perugia, Sienna and Arezzo (that we've never been to).

A few words about the inequity in today's world...I am acutely aware that enjoying (what in the old days) what would have been considered a "normal" middle class retirement is a bridge too far for many...and that we're entering what I refer to as a split screen economy...one of my sons is working remotely in his mom's country house and dong just fine...my other son in the arts, is unemployed and broke with few prospects....

We're not "rich" by any standard; never got close to 200k ...but fortunate, I suppose...pension, unheard of cheap rent in town (my son's hanging there now, rent-free). a house in the country that almost pays for itself...way too big... two permanent tenants.
Great health, wrap-around plan from New York City...

Bottom line: not too much to worry about...my dad (bless his soul) even paid for the kid's college. And a frugal, Chinese wife, who watches every centime.

We are the last of the old-time pensioneers...I truly pity the 401K generation.

So, there's nothing, really to save for...so for the most part, we don't.

But I am completely aware that the lack of comprehensive retirement packages, now putting the onus on the individual will lead to a future catastrophe around the time we check out.

And that's for the middle-class...For the bottom 30%, many without even the prospects of employment...simply adequate food to eat and putting a roof over one's head is a struggle, that's difficult to contemplate.

I don't have any answers; haven't heard many proposed; but we intend
(as best we can) to enjoy our reasonably good health and spend our retirement in the (now anachronistic) manner of my parents.

And try not to feel too guilty.
 
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