DH moved his office home a few years ago, but continued to fly out to see his clients about once a week. Not any more. Even if he did go, they are all working from home, so there‘s no one to see in their offices. I really miss that occasional day, for doing the noisier aspects of housekeeping, messy projects, etc.

He’s an electrician, so no days off. His job has been busier than ever. We thrive being together as much as possible (maybe both being widowed changed our perspective? Plus, we just get along so well) ... I wish he was home more.

Well, let's see, so far neither of us has used sarcasm when speaking to the other. We're retired and DH was always busy doing a lot of volunteer work and I'm a homebody and like my alone time. . I was busy most mornings with different things and he was always busy with meetings.

But now those meetings are zoom, at home, so he does spend a lot of time in his office. We did a major landscape renovation in the spring so I spend quite a bit of time in the garden.

So, to sum it up, it's more at home time than he would like and more togetherness than I would like.

I'm with you DLM, and Michelle O. DH works from home but has been very busy lately having to go to court, so I cherish those morning when I get to be ME. lol I'm tense and I'm the type of person who craves alone time, even when I'm in the kitchen doing something. Lately when I go in there he happens to come in a few seconds later with two huge dogs following behind, the cats here me and they decide they need more dry food when they don't. That's when I take my fingers and mix it around and they're good to go. And I want to scream to them, "Be gone!"

Today I sliced my finger tip on some new garden shears and needed a couple of bandaids immediately, but he was in the bathroom where they're kept. I ask through the door to get two of them for me, he does and is so sweet, but he gets the tiny ones.

It's too darn humid to do anything outside so I spend a lot of time in my room reading and iPadding. :)

I’ve gone from flying 100k miles annually to nothing since New Years and I’m hating it. If you don’t live that life it’s really hard to understand how difficult it is to re-acclimate to being home all the time. You get in a groove and it’s more jarring being home - even when you’re totally happy there - isn’t a prize we’re all necessarily waiting for.

We aren't locked down, currently in stage 2 of 3. We can do what we need to do without restriction.

We retired at the first of the year, sold our house and moved to a much smaller house. I don't have much to do beyond keeping up the house and cutting the grass, so I have been volunteering with Habitat for Humanity.

DH has been working on a large project on our boat, two hours away. He is home for a few days, then leaves for anywhere from 3 days to a week. The marina is virtually empty, so he easily isolates. His woodworking shop is in our detached garage, so when he's home, he spends a lot of time out there. I quite enjoy the days by myself when he's gone, eating when I want and watching what I want.

This pandemic has actually allowed us to ease into retirement. Otherwise we were planning to be travelling on the boat, together 24/7.

deegw, I'm totally with you on the bagel for dinner...or more likely popcorn. I have lately rebelled about dinner. My husband used to travel almost every week and I liked doing my own thing for dinner...he wants MEAT. Other than so much meal prep, it's generally fine since he spends a lot of time in his office.

DH retired a few years ago so we're well into the 24/7 routine. But we've always kept separate spaces, he had an office off the kitchen in our previous home and here he has the second floor with a large office, bathroom and even a second guest bedroom. His office is set up like a library and has a sofa where he's been known to nap, a comfortable chair and ottoman, a 64" TV and his wonderful mahogany desk that he rescued 50 years ago after college.

There have been a few times when we've managed to annoy each other but it's minor irritations. I know it gets to him that he can't go out as freely as he used to - partly because of Covid but also because he's physically not able to do what he used to do. However he has been baking bread and now makes dinner more often than I do which is fine with me.

Back in March/April my MIL asked how it was going with all the togetherness. I honestly felt good and couldn’t imagine doing it with anyone else. Today I feel the same way. I’m usually home alone during the day, and I love my alone-time. A few things helped us.

1) We added trim details though the whole first floor and repainted the whole house during the early lockdown. Keeping busy helped.

2) DH started an online masters program in March. Now I joke that I have 4 at home doing school. He really doesn’t like school, but he has gained at least 10 hours a week of “free” time since he isn’t commuting to the office Monday through Friday. At least he’s being productive during this time.

3) DH took our three kids camping and fishing with his dad. It was a “guys trip” that I didn’t feel left out of. I stayed home for a few days, alone, and loved the break.

How’s it going for you Oakley? I guess since your husband was already working from home, you are used to it?

I am stinky and crabby. DH and I have been hunkering down at our CT cottage since May 15th. He’s gone back to Philly a few times. All was relatively wonderful until isaias showed up a few days ago. We have no power which means no water. We now have a generator but the pump isn’t on it yet. I’m waiting for the electrician to arrive. Add in two adult children and my son’s gf in an 1500 sq ft cottage, (been here since May also) and it’s a recipe for extreme grumpdom.

but to answer the op, it’s been fine, though I am so glad our house in Philly is generously sized. 😀

We aren’t in full lock down like we were the first couple of months since things have started opening again. It wasn’t so bad at first anyway since we are both retired and we always have a lot to do outside in the spring to keep us busy. A month or so ago my guy finally showed up to do some minor re-work of our patio and water feature, so that was done, and this fall I will work on some plantings of part of that area. Right now it is just mulched and has a few annuals I put in.

We also did the usual clearing out of a lot of things, so my attic storage spot for donations is piled high, as we still haven’t taken it to our usual donation site. We do have a new thrift shop opening near us that is part of a non- profit we support, so I will likely donate many things to them.

DH and I are usually volunteering at our botanical garden, and me with a volunteer group associated with fund-raising for it. Since it was closed until June, there went a lot of our time away from each other. Thankfully I have been able to return and work in the greenhouse areas 1-2 half days a week and our group holds Zoom meetings, or small 4-5 person socially-distanced, masked meetings.

DH and our sons and 3 grandsons took a camping and off-road trip back in May. They usually go in March or April but all the state parks and thus the roads and campgrounds have been closed. We took a lot of drives in nice days in the convertible and just enjoyed the change of scenery. Did a few hikes back in the spring in he middle of he week when he trails weren’t so crowded. It sure broke the monotony of home.

We haven't been in lockdown since mid May, but I'm just starting the first of three lengthy vacations so will have more togetherness than usual. It's all good though. We tend to come together for a project or two, but have our separate interests at home that make us part, but keep us under the same roof. That's pretty much our SOP at any other time, so nothing is outside our usual comfort zone.

Our county has become a hotspot. We are in self-imposed lockdown. DH is retired. He has Parkinson’s and a couple of other underlying conditions that would probably spell doom for him if he got C-19.

Up until all this started, he spent every morning having coffee with a group of men who are also retired or are small merchants in our town. After that he went to the gym to work out or to the Y for the exercise class for folks with Parkinson’s. I enjoyed my time alone.

I’m probably grumpier than usual. Apparently we went out to eat more than I thought we did. I’m getting really tired of cooking. I’m getting tired of cleaning my own house. But in the overall scheme of things, life is still good!

We've been home together for 15 years! Still, we miss the freedom of visiting with the kids, eating out, playing with our friends, doing things separately now and then.

Hub is a retired journalist and there is no taking the news out of a newsman. He reads several US papers and a few foreign papers every day, watches CSpan, listens to NPR, so I have my own personal reporter keeping me up to date. He is also a talker so we talk all day long, discussing things like verb tenses and how they differ among languages, the history of hunting and gathering, how did wild wheat become leavened bread, the value of being succinct :-):-)

I'm sewing, gardening, reading, experimenting with different dinners, and not getting done what I wish I would - like sorting the stuff the kids have left behind, culling a million books, organizing pictures. It's all good. Very good!

Tina, I commented last night, but yes we're good. I'll always miss my alone time in the public area of the house, but that's just my nature.

I've been very part time for a decade, and DH was retired even before that. So togetherness is de rigueur. Of course we each have social circles, obligations and activities that don't overlap, but that is usually an hour or two at a time. Earlier this week I took my DD on college tours, and because they very strictly limit those, she and I went alone. At the end of the day we met up at the beach house with the rest of the family and DH and I both said we'd missed each other, silly though it sounds. I attribute our compatibility to him. Ask my kids, he is "the nice one."

My other S.O.s, ie our 3 kids, are increasingly frustrated that their lives have been turned back ten years and they are playing board games with Mom and Dad after dinner. Thankfully they have created small social bubbles and are getting to do things without us a bit more, since both CT and ME have among the very lowest positivity rates in the nation.

We are not locked down right now (really good numbers here at the moment -yay!), but we were for about 4 months. That was stressful with four of us working/schooling from home and DH and I learning how to do our jobs in a totally new way. I take pride in being self aware and different than the pack, but right as we started hearing that isolating was starting to cause friction in marriages, we had one big blow up. It was instigated by DH which is shocking because he is known for his good nature (obviously if he’s put up with me for all these years) and has only lost his cool maybe twice in the 35 years I’ve known him. It seemed like once we got that out of the way, we were fine. We also have a cottage to escape to that’s fairly close so that helps. We are really lucky to have that and also even tho our house is only 1800 sq ft, it is spread over four floors so the four of us can each have a bit of space. Not looking forward to winter though as we will lose the use of the 3 season cottage and the 3 enclosed porches at home.

I did just finish reading “the cellist of Sarajevo“ about the siege of sarajevo and that helped to put things into perspective. However, as always, I still reserve the the right to self-pity whenever I deem necessary.

However, as always, I still reserve the the right to self-pity whenever I deem necessary. - daisychain

I completely agree!

We definitely noticed a few areas to be aware of for when husband retires.

I can’t actually stay mad though because it’s all so non- maliciously intended. He’s just a goof.

I have had to ask him to stop walking so intentionally slow past me when he is carrying dirty clothes to the washer. If some of those are yours you don’t get a metal.

I have had to bring to attention that he often goes into the kitchen to get himself something to snack so he should stop giving me the “where’s mine” look when I do it.

If I am sitting on the sofa and the TV is on, I’m watching it. Try not to be a remote hog.

Don’t do dumb things in the kitchen. If I have simmered thick pork chops on the bone for a sauce for hours...salivating over the thought of thick tender pieces of meat melting in my mouth...don’t think you are helping by taking a fork and shredding it into oblivion. You were only meant to boil the pasta water.

Anyway, these are really just minor adjustments. We usually laugh them off. A few times at the end of the day we shared a bottle of red and had a really good laugh. Sometimes we find ourselves hysterical.

When Covid hit, a nearby town was a hot spot. We decided to stay in Florida.

Both DD’s have been using our house up north to escape NYC.

We decided to move forward on renovations here in a Florida. DH has been technically retired from his day job for 15 years but still handles his real estate properties, so that keeps him busy.

I do have to admit that too much togetherness is getting a bit old. I find it hard to say no when DH wants me along for the ride to Home Depot or Lowe’s, as it would hurt his feelings.

We are planning on heading back up north and I’m looking forward to it.

Lol, justterilyn. Those are all on my list as well. the Laundry really made me laugh. I am in constant eye roll with his chore completion announcements. “There! I’ve wiped down the counters!” Uh huh. You do realize that has to be done 3x a day, everyday, dont you dear (so far, Im still only saying that last bit in my head).

@sheesh, watch out. If my grad school roomie and I ever find out where you live, we may come capture your DH. A man who discusses grammar....be still my heart!

@just_terrilynn, not long after DH retired, I realized he retired but I kept doing everything I was doing before. I put him in charge of his own laundry. And last week, I put him in charge of cleaning his own bathroom vanity. Today, I’m going to teach him to make vegetable soup. 🤞

Sheesh, I have been trying new recipes myself! We each do our own breakfast and lunhc, although I will occasionally cook breakfast.

JT, thanks for the laughs! Now we need to see your husbands list!

Yep, one day this week I told my sister one reason there are days I get so little accomplished is I will often ride with my husband as he delivers , picks up materials, etc. but it was a beautiful day and I even got to pet a puppy!

Tina, I know one thing my husband would have on his list, “get things done in the morning“. He is a morning person. I am a night person.

We miss going out but have been having some fun. Watching Star Trek TNG with our friend over Zoom every Friday. Backyard fire pit. Tons of scrabble.

As for normal daily life, it helps that we have two offices. Also we don't have kids (on purpose) so that element of stress is removed.

So it's going pretty well. I see it as practice for when we retire.

When the lockdown started, dh commandeered part of the upstairs playroom, using a huge farm table to display 3 (!) monitors (one for Teams meetings-they don’t use Zoom- and 2 others so he can work DURING the Teams meetings 🙄😂) He’s on billable hours so the necessary inter-office stuff related to the pandemic that he is responsible for as a partner drives him crazy. Saving the 1 1/2 hours he’d be in the car each day helped with that, though. It didn’t bother me having him home; I never saw him except at lunch and we’d eat together on the porch. It was a nice midday date! He went back to the office as soon as the governor allowed back late May. They aren’t requiring employees to come in, but are encouraging them if they feel comfortable. If not, no worries. They have offices all over the country so obviously each location will be different and can change weekly.

Now, the dear children are another story! It was the one fun thing about the lockdown at first, having college age ds and hs dd home, together, with us, ALL THE TIME! 😂 Now....it’s time for school! Mine are ridiculously social, and I am tired of being the Covid police. We’ve been through 2 scares already with close contacts of theirs testing positive. 🙄 So mine have been tested, and we’ve had to deal with isolating while waiting for results, etc. (Both times they were negative, thankfully.) It really annoys me, though, bc *I* had to isolate through no fault of my own, just bc they weren’t careful. Anyway, I will be glad ds will be returning to school in a couple of weeks...one less vector in the house. 🙄😂 And dd’s school is starting remotely so she will be busy and less socializing. Hopefully.

I guess I do sound crabby!! 😂

My small family was doing fine until tropical storm Asaias hit ct. Now with 4 days without power and not even a single utility crew yet to severe my town until last night, and temps in the house in the high eighties we are all a bit snippish. Our power is due to come on by midnight weds, 8 days after we were hit.

All the frozen meat I started storing when covid hit I am presently giving away to friends with power. Our tp shortage turned in to a generator and ice shortage instead. I had over a 2k worth of fresh produce, meats both fresh and frozen, and dairy in my fridge. Oh well.

I just sent my husband and my 13 year old to a local camp ground until sunday. It is the first time in 140 days I have been alone in my house and power or not I intend to enjoy the peace and I wish quiet but with generators running all around me I will settle on peace.

I am so sorry for all of you without power! 🙁

Life without water sucks! So very sorry for the temporarily powerless!

This is a terrible time of year to be without power! I’m sorry, y’all. 😔

DH and I have been retired for several years, so we're used to being together 24/7. However we have offices on opposite ends of the house. Mine upstairs in the front, his is downstairs in the rear. We communicate via intercom. Also, we are now busy working on the election. Both of us have been doing election stuff remotely for several years, so we're not affected by Covid-19. The last time I had done door-to-door campaigning, I was bitten by two dogs that hadn't had rabies shots, so I don't do that any more.

Terri, a few years ago DH took it upon himself to be in charge of the DW which I'm thrilled about. Except he's allergic to wiping down counters and rinsing/cleaning the sink. I've had to tell him a million times that when he rinses his breakfast plate of bacon, eggs, and toast which he cooks himself, to please use hot water when rinsing the plate off! I finally got the large white Kohler cast iron sink of my dreams and I'll spend good time cleaning it, come in the next morning after he's eaten and I can just see the dullness of his "cleaning."

BTW, anyone notice that after granite counter tops look clean until you run your hands over them? I think that's how DH thinks...they look clean so no need to wash!

Roarah, I was thinking about you. We’re also lost power On Tuesday but a neighbor brought a generator over for two houses to share. It runs the fridge, but not the well pump. No water is much worse than darkness. We have a community pump which helps, but filling jugs daily has gotten old quick. I find myself on the verge of tears often. And the worst part is that as a small summer community, eversource barely acknowledges us. I hope we both get power soon.

vent over. For now.

This is our first time living life with a well - I feel for those of you without water and/or power. We have a large clear creek and have filled buckets to deal with power outages so at least the toilets will flush. Playing Little House on the Prairie isn't fun.

Oh you guys without water, power, etc. I am so sorry! To be honest, I have not watched much news at all this week and I didn't know there were areas hit this bad from the storm. This is an AWFUL time of year to be without power and/or water. Even if you are making the best of it, the hot temps with no AC do not help our moods! Jojo I can certainly see why you feel like crying. I would too :( Hoping for the best for you guys and praying you soon have power/water. Take care!

Jo I can bring you water it is all I have but I am on city. Sorry I ran out of battery yesterday on my phone and forgot to check replies. Let me know if you need water.

I have city water but my 76 year old parents are on well two towns over. We went the morning after the storm and were unable to get through state roads. I needed to call fire dispatch to direct us an hour out of route to get within a mile of their house and then walked with my dh, 13 year old and i all carrying five gallon water coolers to them. Thank god no one in their area had a heart attack or stroke. They were inaccessible for 48 hours. Today I was able to get to their house finally with more water.

Oh goodness, Roarah, what an ordeal. My 18yo DD was home alone for the storm, planning to drive up to meet us in Maine on her day off, Wednesday. A 40'+ tree fell in our yard, very lucky it did not do any damage to any one or to the house. We have an automatic back up generator, but she/we had specifically emptied out the fridge because we are spending most of August here in Maine. Thankfully she was able to get thru to a main road the next morning and drove up before work.

What a brave young lady. Your daughter is! I am so happy she is ok. Eversource sent all its crews to Maine and vt ironically and left us with just 450 workers....

Maine, at least where we are, was not hit hard at all. The thing I can't get over is they took down so many trees in our are in CT recent years ,to reduce the likelihood of road closures, and even so. But as I told DH, just cutting the 2 or 3 trees closest to the road means little when the trees are so huge. Hope it gets straightened out soon for everyone.

PS sorry for the hijack!

Roarah, we have a community pump so we’re set for now. Power is expected back today. 🤞

We have power!!! Doing the happy dance!

Hurray! They finally came through for you!

I have been told by eversourse they will restore my street by August 11th 6 am. 8 days after the storm. We are not even on the docket until after midnight august 10 so unless they bring in more crews which they should do but will not it will not be sooner. I called corporate and pura. It is a transformer not wire issue so we are almost the last repair. :( I live in the center of my town. Thank god for city water. Temps are in the 90s the next few days... I have been afraid to use a hotel but I might break down soon. Eversourse refuses to hire more crews. If anyone were to die of heat stroke I hope criminal negligence would be filed against their higher ups. They are are they under staffed.

The worst thing so far is my cordless vac lithium batteries are almost out of juice. Can I bring them to a town charging station? Lol

Want to borrow my Dyson? I can swing it by tomorrow. If you need other things, just shout.

Awe thanks i have a broom so I can sweep away my blues. But let's grab a coffee before you leave. Xo

I'd love that. Good chance I'll be here through September.

Hi CT peeps- still no power here. Glad yours is back jojoco, my friend in Guilford confirmed hers is on as well tonite. Thankfully someone? set up a generator at the utility pole and we have spotty power, but water. Yard is a mess. I’m in Northford with Wallingford Electric - they have a good rep,it could be worse! Could also be better, lol.

DH retired at the end of December, so the adjustments really started back then for us. The biggest, then and now, has been that instead of the morning news shows, we now watch a morning business show so that he can keep up with our investments. It’s fairly boring for me, but necessary for him so I chat with him during commercials and do my daily Sudoku while we eat. Our son and daughter are both living out of state now, and so it’s calls and FaceTim to keep in touch. I miss my lunches and get together with my girlfriends a lot, though.

Another thing that I’m still adjusting to is trying to make us healthy lunches every day. I’ve never been a lunch person when here at home. I used to just grab something when I got hungry, Now though, DH like us to sit down and eat together for lunch. And, being a family practice doc, he likes to eat healthfully. I really enjoy his company but, frankly, it’s more of a bother for me. But please don’t suggest that I just let him make our lunches, as his lunch ideas are healthy but too weird for me most of the time (LOL)!

We've just bought our first RV, and are planning about a 6 week cross country trip this Fall to visit my many siblings in Michigan, our DS&DIL in Augusta, and our DD in the Dallas area. This past week, we stayed at 2 RV parks and enjoyed it. It was great to get away for a while!