Keeping close and socializing with my family and best friends through the hole ordeal and spending a lot of weekends at the lake cabin enjoying their companionship.

Resigning from public office. Hands down. If I hadn't done that it wouldn't have been a matter of keeping sane... it would have been to keep from going insane in a really not healthy way for me, my loved ones, and the office in general. Sometimes it's just much more fair to step down and let someone else serve instead of going all weird and sticking it.

After a series of unfortunate events trailing from back before the pandemic, it was the straw that once taken off the camels back that allowed everything else to start getting unloaded from the camel.

My regular life didn't change much. I live rural, love being prepped and having a well stocked pantry and larder. I still did and do that as usual. But the mental health aspect of that one thing, and then unpacking from there over the last two years... whew! Went from trying not to go insane, to keeping sane, to now feeling like I'm my normal sane insanity, lol.

Well my everyday life didn't change much. We are homebodies by nature so we were not missing anything as far as socializing or activities. We both continued work as normal.

In my work I encounter a LOT of people every night. So in order to not get stressed about it in general I decided to not engage in any sort of discussion about the events happening. I would listen to them rant and rave, but never respond. Eventually, they caught on that they were not going to get what they were looking for from me, whether that be argument or agreement, I had nothing for them. So they would move on and not bring it up again.

That is the only thing I can think of that I actively had to implement, because I do enjoy meeting and talking to new people, so I really had to remind myself "do not engage, do NOT engage...."Other than that, I did not take any measures to distract myself. I tend to do what makes me happy as much as I can anyway, no excuse needed.

not paying attention to the news ... which always seemed contrived

Turning off the TV news. It was non-stop doom and gloom so I watched or read just enough news to be informed but made it a point to walk away as soon as possible. I spent much more time on the boat or gardening, just enjoying the beautiful earth, sky and water. And books.

Jigsaw puzzles - very therapeutic.

We used to exercise at the gym, instead we increased our walking. Feeling stuck at home, I got into jigsaw puzzles. I also expanded my plant collection, growing several new-to-me species of carnivorous plants. A few months into the pandemic, our neighbor adopted a dog who has since become a good buddy to our dogs. I've enjoyed getting to know our neighbor better while our dogs play together in our backyard.

So -- walking, puzzles, plants, and new friends kept me sane so far!

Golfing, biking and walking with my husband.

We also built a 9090 piece Titanic out of LEGO. It’s almost 5 feet long.🤠

I had to laugh at Elizabeth’s comment about doom and gloom.

Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News will be forever known as Mr. Doom and Gloom by DH and I. It seemed he liked nothing better than to relay every speck of bad news, every night, night after night. Was it all true, or was some of it similar to the random weather reporter standing knee-deep in a ditch full of water with an industrial fan blowing water in his face? Who knows?

Riding horses of course. Not only did it keep me sane I am physically fitter than I have been in years. Lost weight, gained core strength, build muscle and stamina. Deciding to enter the Virtual Tevis Endurance Race in the heart of the pandemic kept me sane. Got a whole new extended family out of the experience.

After the initial 3 weeks to flatten the curve I went out and did whatever needed to be done. Took precautions but never got into the I am going to stay inside and have everything delivered until it's 100 % safe again thing.

We live in a first to shut down and last to open area but as surrounding areas opened up I adjusted my itinerary so to speak. So kept things as pre pandemic normal as possible while still doing common sense practices to avoid illness......lots of fresh air and sunshine, avoid crowded places, good hygiene.

I didn't subscribe to the doom and gloom and I didn't think I was going to die with every little upset stomach or headache or whatever. Pretty sure I had Covid back in the early part of 2020 (Jan./Feb.) before it was announced they were testing. At least if you go by the original symptoms they mentioned before getting a hangnail became a reason to be tested.

Facebook became my community. Old friends are on there, including some I grew up with, plus local friends, friends I've known from years ago at the KT, plus lots of family members. Living alone and isolated, I really appreciated this way to keep in contact with everyone.

I've mentioned before the watercolor painting class I took from Domestika. Their classes (they have many on many subjects) are on videos, so I could watch them at my convenience. Since this particular class was in Spanish, I watched the videos twice--once to read the (often hilarious) subtitles and once to watch what the teacher was doing. I made progress, and that felt good. Plus I enjoyed the lovely distraction.

In the warm weather, photographing gravestones for FindAGrave gave me the illusion I was living normally.

I wore a mask when required. Other than that no change in my routine. I took care of my husband until he passed away. He had a lung disease... asbestosis, not covid. I had covid in February last year. Almost no symptoms. Dry cough and loss of taste. No fever or fatigue. My husband didn't catch it from me. I met a new friend...I know almost no one here, and we would meet every week to go thrifting and t to eat. I took care of my horses and other animals, and worked my way thru depression over losing my life partner.

We did a lot of yard and garden chores in the spring that needed to be done, including improving some garden borders with rock. Also reading, walks and runs, a few puzzles, cleaning drawers and closets. Painted a spare bedroom including all the trim. Cooked more and enjoyed it less and less as time went on, even though I did try a lot of new recipes. We enjoyed having our condo at the lake as a getaway spot for a change of scenery.

What kept me sane. Doing every thing as pre pandemic as available. Family and friends socializing as aways. Our family vacation. A special thanks to our close neighboring state of West Virginia for opening up early for restaurants and hair cuts. Our camp up north where the mandates were treated as optional by the locals and they treated each other and us as friends and not a virus. Not listening to all the doom and gloom on the TV and radio. Not sanitizing anything that came into the house. I'm thankful that we are both retired and weren't forced into choosing between our jobs or the vaccine. One thing I think I'll keep in practice is the wet wipes in my car to clean my hands. It was always a habit for me to wash my hands first thing when I come home.

When the pandemic started my DD had recently moved home from Vancouver after graduation and a cross country car trip. I’m widowed, and it would have been really lonely without her company during the first year.
I retired from my 44 year career as a pediatric RN in November 2020; if not for Covid I’d have continued to work for at least another 6 months, but I was grateful to have the choice. I did miss the work and my coworkers, but somehow adjusted quickly:).
I have a group of local friends and we met outdoors for a glass of wine every few weeks. Another group of girlfriends from other parts of the Bay Area zoomed every two weeks, and I also had a nation-wide family zoom every week as well, organized by a cousin in Florida in her 90’s. I got to know relatives I’d never met!
I usually see a lot of live music, and luckily my favorite artists had regular weekly streams of past shows, as well as some live streams. I also watched a lot of news, and developed enthusiasm for a few pundits. Despite all this, the period between April 2020 and getting vaccinated in February 2021 were lonely; I really missed being with my dearest friends.
At some point after the first surge my group of friends started meeting at the beach or for hikes, comfortable being together outdoors. Last night for the first time since Covid we all met up for some live music at a local outdoor venue, and it was GREAT.
So…my DD, my friends, my family, music and nature got me through.
Also, I read a LOT, did lots of sorting and organizing, had my kitchen and bath remodeled,and built an ADU in my basement, all designed by me. And a shout-out to my cats for keeping me company too, when they were in the mood.

I didn’t feel the need to maintain my sanity. I took care of business. In between bouts of depression and despair that had nothing to do with the pandemic. Some aspects were to my benefit: some things were deferred, delayed, and relaxed. I did get a regular dose of eyeroll by tuning in CSpan.

Throughout, I have felt fortunate that our children were out of elementary and high school and I didn’t have to deal with that. DS was perfectly capable of managing his remote college, since he’d already done some online college classes. Fortunate that my father passed away six months before the virus emerged; the isolation would have devastated him. Fortunate that my mother was far enough along that outdoor visitis were just another diversion. Fortunate that she qualified for hospice, which allowed me to visit in person and to be with her the entirety of her final week, and that those special to her could come, too.

It was all part of life. Continues to be.

For me personally, the fallout that I will continue to deal with is that Dh’s clients who pivoted to WFH, mostly want to continue to WFH. Which means he won’t travel a day or two every week or two to see them. Which means he is home all. the. time.

Chinacatpeekin, Waving from the mid-peninsula. We should have a Bay Area GW meetup some time.

Zalco, YES!! Waving back:)

thing two: my church family and zoom

bpath, your post reminds me that throughout the pandemic I felt very grateful- that no one close to me died of the virus or required hospitalization, that my kids are grown, that my daughter was able to live at home and had graduated before the pandemic began, that my son and DIL were able to continue their grad school studies with some adjustments. My kids and I had it easy, compared to so many.

I live in Florida and THANK Goodness (I won't say God so as not to "Offend" anyone) and a couple of months into this we were pretty much back to "Normal". I really liked the "Social Distancing" while it lasted. I haven't worn a mask in almost 2 years. YAY Life was normal here.

No Covid deaths in Florida a few months after the pandemic hit? If no one was wearing masks then, do you think any of the Covid deaths in Florida from June of 2020 until the end of 2021 could have been caused by people contracted the disease from other persons not wearing masks, or at a time they were not wearing a mask themself?

If one of these decedents was a close family member of yours, or imagine if one had been, how would you feel about their decision or those of others to not take the simple precaution of wearing a mask to protect themselves and others?

Walking my dog was number one. He had no idea what was going on in the world and never wanted to talk about it! LOL. I retired on February 28, 2020. We left for Costa Rica a couple of days later. Had to cut the trip short and reroute on our way home. The memories of the time we did have there and the fact that I was safely home in a great country, with my family all safe around me kept me thankful and content for quite a while.

If one of these decedents was a close family member of yours, or imagine if one had been, how would you feel about their decision or those of others to not take the simple precaution of wearing a mask to protect themselves and others?

Elmer, these people don't care. We see it regularly here in this forum. I gave it up long ago because nothing I say is going to make one iota of difference. I just scroll on by now. It's healthier for me to do that.

Pre covid we'd go to the gym every day but Saturday and I would run on the treadmill for 30 minutes but the week covid hit in the first week of March 2020 , we quit the gym and instead every day we go to the Appalachian trail where I have logged 2200 miles in these last two years. Being in the woods far away from crowds and seeing the deer and other wildlife makes one fight off depression. But habits changed for me after these two years. No longer do I do a weekly shopping trips at HomeGoods, TJMaxx and Target. I only go now when I need something. I still wear a mask in stores and I don't care if the mandate has been lifted. Thankfully none of my family has had covid up to this point but mainly we were very diligent about masking , handwashing and testing when necessary.

Also my cats, books, and gardening kept me going.

Not allowing the fear mongers to get inside my head. Doing my job everyday, focusing on what I could do vs what we couldn't. Trusting this was finite, not THE END OF THE WORLD. Keeping up some semblance of 'normal' routines, even if we had to find novel ways to accomplish them. Having a bubble of friends, finding ways to spend time outside with them.

Zoom did it for me. I was able to keep up with my exercise classes, dancing, book groups, etc. with zoom. Being a walker/hiker helped a lot too as it kept me seeing friends in person on a regular basis. Being at home so much made me appreciate so many things I'd missed by altering my focus to the abundance immediately around me. What I wasn't happy about was the slap in the face: I got that the elderly were more at risk, but what's this bit about *me* being in that group!!!

Not all that much changed in my life. I tend to be a bit of an introvert personally (unless it comes to gardening and my design and consultation business) so staying home and keeping a low social profile was NBG.. My dog is great company - if a poor conversationalist - and with family living close by, I never felt alone or despondent. Not exactly in my nature :-) I did miss traveling across Sound to visit with friends and family living on that side of the water, especially with my stepdaughter (who moved to the back of beyond with her SO in December 2019). Both of us would have benefitted from closer contact after we lost her dad/my ex this past summer to Covid but the logistics of that was not to be, unfortunately. We did burn up a lot of phone airtime, tho!

I don't recall when before the pandemic hit that streaming came into my life but I rate that feature of modern life right up there with sliced bread 😁 Got caught up on all my favorite British mysteries and TV shows and found a bunch of new ones to keep me entertained.

And I did indulge myself in the grocery and cooking arena. Since I wasn't spending any money elsewhere, I bought and cooked whatever struck my fancy. And a weekly bunch of fresh flowers for the house!!

I (like Lucille) did not stay sane through this. I tend to run in the anxious, depressed lane as a matter of course. DH & I went on our first-ever cruise at the very end of January 2020 and felt lucky to get off of the ship the 2nd week of February and fly back to Boston. I believe we caught the virus on that adventure, it took weeks for us to recover. We live remotely (outer Cape Cod) and nothing is back to normal yet here. Difficult to explain. Businesses/restaurants are hurting - desperate for help, grocery stores frequently out of stock of some item or other (we couldn't find egg noodles last week - so weird). I live on the Internet. DH loses himself in watching sports. And now this war in Ukraine. It's so heartwrenching. We do find joy living with 2 amazingly smart, exuberant Australian Shepherds

I'm a homebody anyway so staying home was actually a nice break for me. Also working from home was awesome. I had cats but I got a dog when my elderly neighbor passed away, and taking her to the park or just running errands has been a lot of fun. I upped my gardening game. Today I go back to the office two days a week and I am disgruntled. There is no reason for it! I'll listen to a podcast and reset everything up, and it will be fine by the end of the day.

Cooper - we're retired and I'm so grateful for that. We never had kids. I can't imagine the stress that families have been going through. DH used to travel about 50% of each year, and my profession involved intense person-to-person contact everyday. It's such a relief to be away from our former lives. Gardening is very therapeutic! I wish you well.

I work at a critical access hospital in the northern part of Wisconsin. When the pandemic hit in March of 2020 we shut down, with no surgeries for 3 months. In hindsight it was ridiculous, since we really had no cases here at that time. The first time I remember a significant outbreak was August of 2020 when kids went back to school, and there were 50 cases at once. We had started resuming cases in June. I was terrified at first as I've posted before, especially since my work partner and I were the ones who had to intubate patients, and really went overboard with my PPE. Every nurse has since relaxed, and it assured me that N95 masks do indeed work.

I was still on-call during that time, for emergencies in the ER essentially. So I had many many days that I was never called in. I really amped up my exercise, doing you tube workouts every day and walking my dogs. It made me realize that I never have to step foot into a gym again. I have so much fitness equipment now, from barbells to mini trampolines to a treadmill (which I still hate-boring!)

The thing I missed most was live music, as we went to shows in Minneapolis frequently and also festivals in the summer. The other thing I missed was not being able to travel or have people travel to see us. My son lives in Berlin, and we didn't see him for over a year. But he was able to come this past summer, and came with his girlfriend for Christmas and will come this summer for his sister's wedding celebration which has been 2 years delayed. We also started a whatsapp group that we called "song of the day" where we take turns posting a song that we liked. It kept the 4 of us in touch every day.

Sleeper - I went 2 whole years without seeing my dear mother, who lives in Ohio. Longest period in my life not spenting time with her. She just had her 90th birthday. But we talked everyday on the phone.

If one of these decedents was a close family member of yours, or imagine if one had been, how would you feel about their decision or those of others to not take the simple precaution of wearing a mask to protect themselves and others?

It's all about the tribal affiliation. They are willing to risk their lives, and yours, in the name of a cheap way to feel good about themselves. See r/HermanCainAward to see all this play out in their own words.

Seagrass, you did what was right to keep your dear Mom safe!

Zalco, I follow the HCAz site on Facebook. It's easy to go down a rabbit hole with the insanity these people share. All the suffering and medical care these people receive, when a vaccination most likely would have made it all so unnecessary.

Sleeper blues, I so don't get it. The jab, no. A zillion medical interventions, many with a vanishingly small chance of success, those, yes, please.

We gutted the last phase of our 1850 house. School shut down for 2 weeks plus Spring Break so I had a huge jump on it before summer. I also had bought a convertible the year before that brought huge joy in running to the beach for a day, when we could be outside, not around people. We're still milling, painting and putting up trim- but very "liveable". I'm a basic introvert, so being at home was fine with me.

I wish I could say our family all made it through unscathed. My sister had a covid related stroke at 45, before vaccinations. We lost 2 cousins, both refused vaccinations-Mine was 55 and his cousin was 65.

haha I never thought of losing my sanity. I enjoyed staying home, I sure missed seeing most of my family and friends but we talked almost everyday on the phone so it was no big deal. I don't drive but my cousins who were in my bubble, we often went for car rides and I did my produce shopping outside at farm stands. I think if I had adult children, grandchildren or parents I would have felt different not being able to see them. I didn't even mind wearing a mask, it was no big deal. I had a health scare in April last year and ended up in the hospital and found it didn't even bother me to be alone with no family members to come and visit me. It really surprised me how well I coped with that medical scare because I think of how family and friends could have been "in my ear" offering medical advice etc I think I might have been scared. Going into the hospital was the first place I had gone to a year after the pandemic started. I felt safe though, not worrying about catching covid and this was before vaccinations. I was on a Covid free floor. I also spent time doing on line jigsaw puzzles on Jigidi and continued working on family genealogy. The saddest part of this pandemic for me was not being able to attend my niece's wedding in Detroit which was held at the beautiful and historic Whitney Mansion. Changes in testing to come back into Canada was cost prohibitive for me plus finding where to get the test before crossing the border to come home was hard to find. Some of the guests stayed overnight then went to a Red Wings game the next day just to get the test done. I went out today for the first time since December to have lunch at my cousin's house. It was nice to get out and see others.

Can I say three things? Music, reading, and our grandchild that was born at the end of 2019. We were able to see her because often we were the daycare..

Our dog and our granddaughters (mostly the toddler whom we watch frequently. I had marvelous conversations regularly with them both. and lots of crazy fun. DH, not so much-ha.

My pet bird and I are really flock now, having spent so much time as co-workers. He actually says some whole sentences now with no deliberate instruction by me. I also upped my exercise level which helped me burn off stress and some of the effects of the early pandemic's banana bread challenge.

reading through the responses, it seems that everyone handled/handles this pandemic pretty well.!! Thank goodness for that

lots of gardening, reading, cooking and exercising (in or out) w/wo dogs, made the cut for many!!

heatheron40: so sorry to hear of your heartaches. i hope your sister is fully recovered. your cousins, if only...

keep them coming, i feel its great way to think about what we have been through and life lessons learned along the way.

thanks to all the health care workers, we could not have gotten to where we are now w/o you!!

Oski the dog

Dog walking group

Husband

Seeing family even if was outside masked

Facetime, tv, Internet, KT

Going to the nursery

Delivered groceries

Gardening

Restaurant meals picked up

My husband and reading.

I painted a lot and read. I also practiced ventrioquist act with my puppet Lola.

A therapist and my dog.

I volunteer and was able to do a lot of that at home. The schools reopened which gave me a break from having everyone at home. I did some research which helped. The restaurants reopened for takeout which allowed me to get a break for cooking. The weather here is more conducive to getting outside than most places so I didn't feel as cooped up.

We were able to work on our Florida house. Things took a while to tighten up and we took advantage of that. We stayed for almost a year.

Oldest DD and her fiance stayed at our house and helped with mail etc.

We were able to walk outside everyday with the dog.

Well, it was the end of the world, for well over 6 million people.

Kathsgrdn, sadly it was.