How are you staying sane?

[steelyman]

Lately, listening to The Beatles helps me. It’s very happy music that was a welcome diversion in a tough time.

 

[aja8888]

I'm doing deferred yard work. I hate it.

I'm also walking the dog about 5 times per day.

 

[2017ish]

Reading (Going through Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire parallel to numerous other books--always wanted to read it, but find that I need to limit it to a couple hours at a time and read another book in its entirety in between!)

Cooking and trying out more new recipes since this will be our longest stretch at home since retiring.

Walking 4-7 miles with DW on alternate days with weightlifting.

Gardening (new asparagus beds!), home repair etc. Particularly nice to be getting some serious chain saw time in with trees that have been downed over the past couple of years on our property....

Enjoying the unfortunate fact that very few advertisers are purchasing time on our favorite radio station.

working with DW in planning future trips--and trying to ballpark the downsides of, for example, the big antarctic cruise scheduled for November (thanks to posters here for information on that debacle)

Catching up on the too numerous "drink now" and "drink soon" bottles in our cellar.

_____________

Edited to add: And virtual happy hours with friends in other cities.

 

[Nemo2]

Staying sane? STAYING?

 

[street]

I don't stay home but to sleep. I head to the ranch and work on projects there and not a sole for miles. I go each day and haven't had a face to face talk with another human for about a month now except by phone or text. I'm going to start fishing, hunting turkey and will be starting to hike again this coming week. Where I hike I will never see another person.
I also been doing projects outside at my home also.

 

[REWahoo]

I find vocal therapy really helps me cope...

 

[USGrant1962]

Reading (Going through Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire parallel to numerous other books--always wanted to read it, but find that I need to limit it to a couple hours at a time and read another book in its entirety in between!)

...

How readable is that? It is on my aspirational reading list.

 

[steelyman]

I find vocal therapy really helps me cope...

I never realized you have so much fur, Butch. It works. [emoji3]

 

[statsman]

Well, we've been watching our 12 year-old indoor cat, who had a few episodes of not using the litter box in the past, deciding in the last month or so to:

• Urinate on the spare room bed twice, both times a day or two after I took a nap there
• Urinate on the blankets on the computer room couch, which is sort of my man-cave, three times
• Urinate in the laundry basket that has my clothes three times (never has done this in my DW's laundry basket)
• Urinate at least half dozen times over the side of a litter box (four litter boxes for three cats)

This cat is up to date on his vaccines, and the blood and urine tests, in addition to the physical exam last month, showed the cat to be in good health. There are no issues with the other two indoor cats (13 year-old, 8 year-old). I should add I'm the one who wakes up at 6am to feed the cats. I'm also the one who scoops, refreshes, and cleans the litter boxes. I'm also the one who clips the cat claws.

I've lost whatever sanity I had a week or two ago.

 

[davebarnes]

Easy.
No changes in daily life.

 

[2017ish]

How readable is [Gibbon's Decline and Fall]? It is on my aspirational reading list.

It is a bit slow. The state of the art in writing style in 1776 differed from the present. Similar to reading Adam Smith, Marx, or Darwin. (de Tocqueville is exceptional in this respect)

I'm finding it worthwhile (am at the history of Christianity detour after Constantine won out), but as mentioned, it requires me to have alternate books going (not all that unusual for me, but this feels more obligatory!)

If you read on Kindle or another electronic device, this is one of the many classic books that are legally available for free via gutenberg.org Take the time to get all the volumes and have them properly arranged--the titles were a bit jumbled.

 

[aaronc879]

Other than it being more difficult to do grocery shopping this has not changed my daily life at all. When it gets warm enough to bike then it will be busier than I would like at the popular recreation paths/trails but that's about it.

 

[Jerry1]

Well, we've been watching our 12 year-old indoor cat, who had a few episodes of not using the litter box in the past, deciding in the last month or so to:

• Urinate on the spare room bed twice, both times a day or two after I took a nap there
• Urinate on the blankets on the computer room couch, which is sort of my man-cave, three times
• Urinate in the laundry basket that has my clothes three times (never has done this in my DW's laundry basket)
• Urinate at least half dozen times over the side of a litter box (four litter boxes for three cats)

This cat is up to date on his vaccines, and the blood and urine tests, in addition to the physical exam last month, showed the cat to be in good health. There are no issues with the other two indoor cats (13 year-old, 8 year-old). I should add I'm the one who wakes up at 6am to feed the cats. I'm also the one who scoops, refreshes, and cleans the litter boxes. I'm also the one who clips the cat claws.

I've lost whatever sanity I had a week or two ago.

Take your cat back to the vet. Never can tell with yours, but when mine did that he had a bladder infection caused by blockages related to the food he was eating.

 

[NW-Bound]

"How are you staying sane?"

The question presumes a person being posed the question was sane before all this virus mess started.

As for me, no change that is worthy to mention, other than I spend a lot of time looking at the pandemic news.

I have been through worse periods in my life, so I do not feel really threatened. I just have to stay on my guard.

 

[FIREd_2015]

By posting on this forum. The number of posts I've made in the last month is probably more than what I've done in the past 5 years.

 

[statsman]

Take your cat back to the vet. Never can tell with yours, but when mine did that he had a bladder infection caused by blockages related to the food he was eating.

He was doing this weeks before his physical, blood and urine tests. A check for a bladder infection was done since we indicated at the time of the appointment about the episodes. This cat has had similar episodes in years past, but they were so infrequent we never saw a pattern. He did tag our DD's backpack when she came home for a visit three years, and he also tagged the bedspread the stagers placed on our DD's bed when we sold our house in early fall 2018.

The vet thinks this might be behavioral related, and those are difficult to correct. Sometimes, cats will develop vision or hearing or physical limitations that will cause them to go off. Some signs of cat dementia, although the cat's vision, hearing, and physical well-being seem fine to the vet. But cats can't tell us everything, and if it is a slow progress of cat dementia, it would be hard to pick up. I should also add this cat started meowing loudly (more like howling) in the middle of the night walking about the house. That started a bit over a year ago. Sometimes, this is related to vision and/or hearing also, but again, the vet has no obvious sign of either being an issue.

 

[steelyman]

"How are you staying sane?"

The question presumes a person being posed the question was sane before all this virus mess started.

As for me, no change that is worthy to mention, other than I spend a lot of time looking at the pandemic news.

I have been through worse periods in my life, so I do not feel really threatened. I just have to stay on my guard.

That makes sense. Maybe this whole mess is a time to get “more sane”? Come back to our senses?

 

[NW-Bound]

Strangely, when the entire world is threatened, I do not feel being singled out to face a danger all myself.

I think it would be scarier to have a tornado bearing down on you, for example.

I know that there are efforts to save society, and together we will get through this. I just have to do my little part. No heroic effort is called upon myself. I feel quite fine.

 

[W2R]

I'm glad that some of us have figured out how to stay sane in the middle of all this crazy pandemic/lockdown/freakout!!

To paraphrase the Serenity Prayer, I have been trying to find the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

In other words, I try to keep informed, but when doing that (or anything else I might be doing) becomes too much then I try to just let it go and instead do something else and enjoy the moment. We only have a brief time on this earth and I intend to treasure each minute.

For me this involves limiting my coronavirus news focus to just a few hours a day, maybe 3 hours, because by then it is too much for me. Yes I am a wimp. Then I play my video game, or do jigsaw puzzles on my iPad, or surf the internet and write insane posts like this one. Today I did all that and also got to do a little bird watching from the car up by the lake, a very peaceful location.

 

[brewer12345]

Bourbon.

When the weather breaks I will head out to the Forest.

 

[steelyman]

That’s a very sane post, W2R. You do what you do, we all do!

 

[jollystomper]

The only regular things (activities that I do more than once a week) that have been eliminated for me are golf, gym, bowling, and in person socializing. I still have plenty of other things to do. Even the socializing we can still do via skype, webex, and zoom. For me this is more a time to relax and smell the roses.

Being thankful every second for our situation also keeps me sane. In truth, this in not really impact our lifestyle. My portfolio might be smaller, but all that means is that we might leave less to our heirs. We still do not have to worry about loss of a job or paying the rent/mortgage or directly dealing with illness, as many others do. We can still afford whatever food we want and/or is in stock. We are still just as healthy as when this thing started.

Finally, I limit watching the news to get the basics, as I was taught in grade school what to glean from stories: who, what, when, where, why. I can get that in about 5 minutes. Everything else devolves into why-extended-into-who-should-be-blamed, how, predictions/speculation for the future, how celebrities are doing/being impacted, etc. - stuff needed to fill the rest of the news cycle time but is not meant to increase sanity.

 

[Calico]

I snuggle with my cats more.

I limit my intake of TV news to one hour per day. Consuming more than that keeps me awake at night.

I keep as much routine as possible, given that I am working from home and the "normal" routine went out the window three weeks ago.

I mark the days off on the calendar - otherwise I will forget what day it is - they are all running together due to their sameness.

I step outside and spend a few minutes in the sunshine every day.

I keep in touch with family and friends - we all check in with each other frequently.

I allow myself a few extra treats/snacks (in moderation).

I make sure I get 7-8 hours of sleep a night - extremely important.

I watch the late night comedy shows (in their new iterations).

I walk on the treadmill. I honestly think without that I would lose my sanity!

 

[TheHobbit]

I'm doing deferred yard work. I hate it.

I'm also walking the dog about 5 times per day.

I tried to get a dog to walk..... turns out the shelters are out of dogs. At least something good is coming of this.

 

[TexasPE]

Prozac!

He was doing this weeks before his physical, blood and urine tests. A check for a bladder infection was done since we indicated at the time of the appointment about the episodes. This cat has had similar episodes in years past, but they were so infrequent we never saw a pattern. He did tag our DD's backpack when she came home for a visit three years, and he also tagged the bedspread the stagers placed on our DD's bed when we sold our house in early fall 2018.

The vet thinks this might be behavioral related, and those are difficult to correct.

same issue - Our vet put our adult male cat on Prozac - did the trick! Of course he spent hours just staring into the distance...