it's reassuring to hear that restaurants and bars (no apostrophes needed) are closed because that provides more benefits and positive consequences to a large number of people even through it presents a problem for owners who can't offer take out business. The situation is not their fault or anyone else's, we need to do what needs to be done. It will take a collective effort in all communities to put a lid on the problems and return life to normal.

We too went out a lot, both socially and for eating, and visited restaurants perhaps twice a week. We're also not homebodies. The only positive thing I can say for myself is that I've been reading more, though exercising less (no excuse for that). And we've both done more outreach and more frequent outreach to friends and family far and wide (across the US and in other countries) so that's been a big positive. We both like to cook (not bake) but we're both uninterested in doing extravaganza productions too frequently so we're resigned to more simple fare at home that doesn't take more work to do than we're willing to put into it.

I've been making blankets for project linus...knit or crochet.

I've been doing a lot of the same stuff I did before, only over zoom: line dancing, book groups, ww meetings, monthly retiree's luncheon...

I hike outside with friends or go for walks by myself.

Most of California is the same. It's back to take out only for those restaurants that survived the first closures back in March.

At home I read a lot, do math and logic puzzles, crosswords and play a couple of online games. I also spend a lot of time the computer. I come here, visit Facebook and other sites of interest. I watch a lot of tube videos on horsemanship.

Staying in a whole day is really a luxury for me. DH can no longer drive so I do most of the outside errands or drive him to do them. I horseback ride 3 days a week and each day I do that is pretty much eaten up with the commute, the horse care etc. whether it's a morning or afternoon time. And there is usually something that needs to be procured or picked up while I am out.

DH is content with TV and puttering in the garage.

Judy, I have always tended to like doing things that I do by myself, so staying home hasn't been a hardship for me at all. It is what I prefer to do.

We used to eat out a lot, but we didn't find any restaurants that we really liked since moving up here, although I am sure there are some good ones here. Now Jody is unable to leave the house, except rarely, when he goes to a doctor appointment. As for me, I would rather cook. I like cooking and I really hate eating out and getting something I could have cooked better at home.

We are not very social people. We used to have friends that we enjoyed spending time with, but they have all passed away now.

I don't have much in common with other women, and don't plan to make new friends. I have very good neighbors and they have been very kind and helpful when I needed help, but I am not the type to show up on doorsteps to drink coffee.

Right now, most of my day (and night) consists of taking care of Jody. If I have to go to Lufkin for some reason and I have time, I will go to the 2 thrift shops. That is my idea of a good time right now.

I take care of my horses and other animals, and tho I didn't do much with the waterlilies this past year, I hope to get back to it when I have more time. This is down time for waterlilies anyway. I forgot to close a gate the other day and the horses got out and some got into some of the waterlilies. I don't know how much damage they did. It was my hybrids, and I won't really know until spring anyway. :(

Are the restaurants closed or just closed to inside dining? Some of the restaurants here have found that doing carry out only was actually better financially for them than doing a combination of carry out and dining in. Closing bars probably is a good idea as people tend to be without caution when drinking. It has been a mental switch for some people who the only carry out they have ever done was pizza. Even before the virus started some of the better restaurants were set up for catering and they just expanded that.

With the various new strains of the virus circulating I suspect that there will be even more closures. The initial closures were to prevent hospitals from being overrun. From what I am reading perhaps more closures are needed at this time.

We now also need armed guards at the doors of grocery stores here, to prevent reckless and maskless people from invading.

Pre-Covid, we enjoyed going out to eat maybe about once a week and had outside activities, such as my volunteer jobs. We miss our old routines now, but are otherwise fine about cocooning at home. I still do my 10,000 steps a day, read, cook and do the many tasks required around the house. I don't really get bored and have even more to keep myself entertained now since my sister-in-law recently gave us about 30 books. I also have many sewing projects that I (mumble mumble) will work on soon.

Our unscientific governor shut down indoor dinning/bars for 3 weeks. Only 1.3% of infections were caused by restaurants by our state trackers.
They are legally allowed to open back up on Monday. Although over 700 know and many more flying under the radar never closed down at all and they are packed with customers. The governors mandates aren't law and the governor is losing court cases after court cases due to lack of scientific evidence and unconstitutionally. We didn't have any close to us open so we just drove the short distance to the next state to eat. I've been busier than ever since summer. The holidays have been busy. We left for camp the day after Christmas. I'm looking forward to next week when I have some down time. My daughter and grands are going home tomorrow and my BIL closed on his new house this week so we lost our camp mate. Then we have to go home next weekend for at least a couple days to take down and pack up the Christmas carp.

I am so thankful for Gov. Wolf and Dr. Levine. Fortunately most of my friends and associates are in complete agreement. They have had to endure many rude and disrespectful comments while trying to keep us safe.

We are happy to go on many walks, read more, and keep in touch with friends. We are not big TV watchers. We are maintaining our sanity.

I used to eat out a couple times a month with some friends. I don't really miss the eating out but I miss seeing the people. I don't mind cooking but I mostly make easy things. I cook supper each night for myself and my adult son.

Since winter has come I am not very physically active and I worry about that a little but I hate going out in the cold. When it was nice out I spent a lot of time working in my garden.

I sew some almost every day, like Judy, and I read a lot-Kindle books from the library.

We;re also in PA and thankful for Wolf and Levine making strong judgements. Masking here in southern Montgomery County is followed by everyone I see. The restaurants that we like do a good job with takeout, and some with outside dining on heated tented patios. I am still not ready to share airspace with strangers in a heated tent. We have a great friend, a single guy that we used to enjoy wine dinners with, He's to much a social butterfly, meeting others at various outside venues several times a week, So now we only see him when I bake him brownies or cookies, and he stops by, and even then we meet masked on the front porch, He knows that we worry about him.

We started using meal kits from HomeChef to provide a little variety in our meals, and so far we've been pleased. The neighbor brings her dogs over to play with ours every few days, they need the exercise, and we get to talk, masked, on the patio. I bake, and so far the neighbors have not complained with getting about 8o% of the product. We watch little TV, news and a bit else. British baking. I go to the store once a week, alternating Trader Joe's with the regular store. Next week, we'll drive down to Total Wines in Delaware and do a curbside pickup of an online order.

We both read. I like big jigsaw puzzles. Life is dull. I can't wait to eat out someday, like normal people did a year ago.

I am still working, and right now,working a lot as my coworkers tend to take off at the end of the year. Gotta work 2 day shifts, tommorow and Sunday before returning to my 4 night shifts on Monday. My life has not changed much at all since all this started. We are not social butterflies,and are more than happy in each other's company at home. Always have been. We hate bars(I do anyway) and SO is uncomfortable in restaurants, so we have always gotten takeout if I dont wanna cook for some reason.. My days off are spent relaxing watching tv and doing housework,gardening and playing with the fur heathens. I crochet if its something specific needed or requested, but I do not do so just to do it. I enjoy making my candles and cubes to sell but thats a side hustle,not really a hobby, and sometimes I have to do it to fill an order,so I wouldn't call it fun when it is like that.

We ate out a lot, but now with home cooked dinners, I know we are eating better. I missed home cooked vegetables. We fend for ourselves for breakfast and lunch. I find I am reading more, especially since my kids gave me an Ipad for my birthday so that I could get ebooks. Our libraries have been closed since March or April, and bookstores were closed most of that time too. I do needlework when DIL needs a baby gift, as she loves the special baby blanket I make. And I have knit a few extra sweaters and vests for our youngest grandson, 18 months. There isn't much on TV, so we have been watching recommended shows on Netflix and Prime.

I am enjoying my time of course I always have. I do not go much at all now and never to a store or out to eat. I spend a lot of time coloring and doing it with a friend. We take pictures of what we have colored and share. We have several of the same books. Some of my children are also coloring more and sharing their pictures. If I did not have coloring I would probably be sewing or doing a lot of embroidery.

Sue

Here in Missouri the governor has never issued a statewide mask order but several counties and municipalities have them in place including all of the Kansas City and St louis areas. Bars and restaurants are still open with 25-50% capacity I believe. Some are take out only if they have very limited seating.

The southern Missouri county where our cabin is located does not have a mask order and mask wearing is about 50/50.

I've been WFH since March and trying to keep shopping trips to a few times a month. I've only had need to go to the office a handful of times since March and there are only a few people working on my floor when I do go in.

We spent more time at the cabin than we did in previous normal years and tried to take everything we needed with us so we didn't have to go to the local mask-less grocery store most trips. The cabin is now winterized so we probably won't go down there again until sometime in March.

At home I have a pretty small bubble of friends that we spend time with. Mostly my ranching partner and his wife who I have known for 50 years and another couple that we usually watch Chiefs games with.

Living rural and WFH makes isolating pretty easy

We do miss going out to eat, to see movies, to consignment shop, to go on vacations, to visit friends/relatives or have them come to visit us, etc. The gardens have keep me occupied all season and now winter indoor projects are on the menu as well as winter yard work such as pruning the fruit trees. Not sure what we'd be doing or where we'd go if we lived in an Apt? Crazy maybe.

One renter, left, quickly. Full frig and pantry. Bags of children's clothing, furniture. We are thrilled to get the house back. Spent New Years Eve changing the locks. Loading up garbage and donations to take to Goodwill. Today we fix broken items. This is how we've been spending our time. Also renting movies. It's about 27F-29F and I've been doing 5 miles. My right knee is starting to "click". I need to build up the muscles surrounding the knee, my next goal.

I've been clear enough in the past about where I stand on an individual's responsibility to protect the community, so not gonna beat that dead horse.

As to what we have been enjoying ... a lot of that was outdoors. Gardening, walking/hiking, and a few very careful outdoor beers at local breweries when they weren't crowded and we could sit way far away from other people. Any activity that requires lingering indoors in public places just doesn't appeal, no matter how socially distanced or well ventilated the space is. Now that winter has arrived, we're going to have to find more indoor, at home activities. Jigsaw puzzles, here I come again *sigh*.

I have been culling and organizing and kind of disinvesting my self of my home by downsizing and kind of packing it up to make it easier for us to make a move when the time comes as we get older. I have been making decisions about things so that my kids won't have to.

I have been doing some refreshing cosmetic work around the house and much editing of material possessions.

One thing that has occupied me for most of this past half year is that I have culled, organized and edited all those masses of photos that have been scattered about. This is a much more involved job than it appears to be. I am reaching a finish point for the part that deals with actual photos and have organized the digitals, but not yet put into a final form.

It is surprising the narratives that can emerge from a page of photos once you have put them together and edited out the noise.

I have found that the best is to compose them onto 12x12 pages. And the best if to use a three ring binder that allows you to easily rearrange the pages as you proceed. Some of those albums you can add more pages, but it is not very easy to do so.

Then, I have been scanning some too.

We had intended to make some decisions and possibly a move before all of this happened. Now we are afraid of getting into an underwater mortgage if we sell here and buy elsewhere. But, we need to be closer to our daughter as we get older.

Hubs, especially has some progressing health problems.

I have watched as much streaming media as I can possibly stand!!!!

I must add, we do carry out at least twice a week at our local places. We do not want them to close down as many have.

Great point, Judy. We do the same thing, trying to keep our favorite mom and pop places going, Places where the wait staff knew us. And we tip a lot. A $30 takeout order, we tip $20.

I'm glad we have a governor who cares about keeping us safe. He gets a lot of hateful comments from not so bright people here in this state. He is the reason our number of covid 19 haven't overrun our healthcare system like in some places.

There are still people here after all the deaths from this who still don't wear masks.

I haven't stopped working so that's the same. In the warmer months I did a lot of gardening. I also have been working on my house and clearing out a lot of junk.

My son just flew to London yesterday. He had to fly out of St. Louis because that is the drop off place for his car to be shipped out. We are only 4 1/2 hours from there but I didn't see him off because of covid. I'm hoping things are better in 2022 and I can go visit him and Scotland.

In the meantime I will do some more work on the house. I have to recover the kitchen chairs, repaint my bathroom, put up some hooks in my newly redone closet. I also still have a bunch of gravel to put down. I haven't finished putting my garden to bed for the winter. Hoping the rain and cold go away for a day or 2 when I'm off next week.

We are also playing board games and card games lately.

I'm hoping things are better in 2022 and I can go visit him and Scotland.

I love your positive outlook and plans. That will be a beautiful trip!!!

Everyone should be prepared for COVID to be a permanent feature, as are the common cold and flu strains - maybe if there had been diligent, widely practiced seasonal masking in the past there would have been less incidence of those. Including flu strains that killed a percentage of those infected.

Also the economy was already changing before COVID, due just to the still increasing shift to ordering off the web for home delivery to begin with. Resulting in malls and other brick and mortar retailing drying up significantly. And there being a consequential killing off of jobs. On top of the massive reduction of domestic employment opportunity caused by downsizing, exporting of jobs and corporate mergers that had already been taking place for some time.

Awhile back I watched an interview on the CBC TV channel. The expert was asked if the economy was going to bounce back after the pandemic like it did after WWII. The reply was that in the 1940s there was 5% growth that continued for decades. And that this time there is going to be 1% growth. (With a friend I mentioned this to yesterday replying that such a rate is not even enough to compensate for inflation).

And of course that 1% growth prediction is for a situation where there actually is an after the pandemic happening, as in things being more or less like they were before COVID began to cut a swath through humanity.

A suggestion that even gardening people or those who are adventuresome eaters can spend some time doing. The new online gardening catalogs are available. Even if there are many types that will not grow here or I will not eat they have allowed me to think of Spring during this dark time of the year.

Maifleur - I just got my Johnny's seeds catalog today and Baker Creek on Thursday. I love perusing the catalogs but I always do the ordering online.

Embothrium - I am politely asking you to improve your attitude ;-p

I'm working from home and can make my own hours. It's been difficult to have much enthusiasm for a lot of things due to anxiety and stress - trying to juggle work and caring for my mom in her home, which is only a few minutes away. My son lives there too. I'm there at least 2X daily, making sure she gets her meds and fixing breakfast every day, doing all her shopping and taking her to Dr. appt.s. Son is taking care of her financials & bills. I was sleeping there for the first 7 months of this and that was stressful too. She has dementia and some other disabilities and it makes me so sad that she'll never again be the woman we knew.

I mostly enjoy scrolling and commenting on Gardenweb and other social media 😊

I also enjoy online shopping now more than ever. I love that I can open the grocery apps every time I think of something we need or want and build a shopping cart over several days before making my final purchase.

Another pastime I've really ramped up is taking online surveys for rewards. I've earned a pretty good amount of spending money/gift cards.

I envy those with governors who've taken their oath of office seriously. Ours has done the opposite - in fact he forbade local officials from enforcing safety measures/ordinances! Some mayors - ours included - chose to ignore that and are still trying to keep their citizens safe, so our numbers are lower than many other populous areas of the state, but we're taking no chances and have been staying safe at home as much as possible.

After family from out of state coming to visit, I miss thrift shopping and museums the most, I think.

In COVID-ravaged Los Angeles, new records are being shattered daily and the Christmas surge has just begun. Despite pleas from public-health officials, the mask wars continue and some restricted businesses are operating in defiance in SAH orders.

The global response is interesting. South Africa has imposed another alcohol ban and "The slew of restrictions announced on Monday will be in place until mid-January and will be enforced by the police with support from the army."

Judging from the lax enforcement in my area, I'm unsurprised that it's become the COVID epicenter of the US.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-55476832

carolb time to talk to your son about stepping up if he is living with your mother before as many caretakers find you have stress induced medical problems. You did not state if he is working from home or elsewhere but breakfast and dinner could be on him.

Embothrium is actually much more optimistic than I am.

those doing the shutdowns make it clear those are for the little people, not for them. hopefully more recalls will be in the works across the country.

but riots are ok. no ban on those.

@ maifleur - son already does plenty and is with her when he's not at work. Thank goodness his job does not expose him to others! He fixes her dinner every night, takes her out driving on the weekends just so she can get out of the house, watches TV with her, besides doing lots of other things for her around the house, like repairs and maintenance - and as I said, keeping track of all her bills, insurance and bank accounts, etc.. We each do what we can. She can be difficult, and he has the patience of a saint, compared to me.

He also pays rent.

Carolb if you are over stressed what happens when you are sick or worse. One of the things stressed in the caregiver group I was in was that many caregivers become ill and/or die because of the stress. Time to start making other plans for your sake before your doctor tells you that you must.

Carolb, I may be overstepping my bounds, but . . . my and my mother’s lives transformed on the day she moved to memory care. I still have to manage her finances, look after her house, but seeing to her daily needs, or seeing to her caregives, has been removed from my plate.

As a friend of mine said, I can be her daughter again. And we are both more content.

While staying home, I enjoy watching travel videos and scouring the market for a property to buy. I have just been settling into my usual winter routine of staring out the window, looking at the snow covered garden, whining like a dog until I can get back out there to plant.

I'm just sitting here making my "click bags" and listening to the TV. Tomorrow a girlfriend and I will drive to the next town to run in to the grocery store and call the Chinese restaurant to get a pick up order. DH and I order out once a week, I'd like to do more, but a lot of the places are only open Friday, Saturday and some on Sundays. I really miss the lunches out with my friends and playing Euchre and Pinochle 3 or 4 days a week. But it looks like card playing is not going to happen for quite some time!

Oh yeah, I made 2 masks and a "bag" to put your plastic bags in, it was a special request.

Embothrium is actually much more optimistic than I am.

And for the sake of accuracy actually also a man. And not a "she".

No minds were ever changed in a thread about masks.

Kathy, we love pinochle. Very few play it.,

We go out to eat rarely, and only started doing so a bit in 2019. 2020 stopped that, but we did order carry out a few times. And delivery a couple times from the one place around that will deliver out here- glad it's Chinese :)

But driving around local into our little town. 1 of the 2 bars is closed. The other seems to be closed too, but looks like it's being worked on while it's closed.

The two taverns of food and drink are still open. The few local restaurants are still open. Except one- it was a new branch of an existing restaurant that was slated to be opened in June 2020. It's still sitting finished, shuttered and yet to be opened.

A couple places that are more open during tourist season look like they might not try again this year. Another one that is usually closed was chugging out the smoke, so someone is there- it's a bbq place :) But still closed for the season :(. And one place that usually depends on the tourist season and some limited winter hours for the locals has expanded a bit and is doing fuller winter hours to accommodate more carry out orders.

Colorado went code orange Monday. Restaurants can serve food indoors with a limited seating capacity.