# How has your daily life changed due to COVID-19?



## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

I'm curious how fellow TLFr's lives have changed due to COVID-19.


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## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

No daycare from March to October.
Working from home with three preschool aged kids (4y, 2y, 1m)
Excess whiskey consumption.
Remodeling/fixing everything in the house since all the social events are closed. 
COVID-19 shutdowns have had a huge impact on my job (supply chain) due to the closure of air movements and new customs restrictions across the world.


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## HoosierLawnGnome (Sep 28, 2017)

We have had a shift in business to help companies collaborate remotely. Everyone is working from home and I don't see it returning to the way it was 100%. Ever.

Work went from 80% remote to 95% for me personally.

Golf courses and parks are packed.

All my friends in music and entertainment are unemployed no end in sight.

No large crowds for us.

My kids' sports are mixed. Tennis and golf are almost the same, but others are cancelled or postponed.

My friend in the alcohol distribution biz can't keep product on the shelf.


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## BobLovesGrass (Jun 13, 2020)

In March my wife(trust compliance for a bank) who was never allowed to work from home despite many requests for limited busy season access to such, has been explicitly banned from the office, not even to pick up personal items. Is working 100% from home.
Kids have been home since whenever WI closed schools, late March or something.

I work in "essential" manufacturing a product highly sought-after domestically and internationally but with long leadtime so we haven't seen workload shift much yet but we could.
I am a CNC programmer which in theory could be done remote but we do a lot of custom one off collaboration with our fabricators and we programmers also help operate our CNC.
Three of us share a small office so I was asked to switch to weekend shift. Was a great deal I could help the kids with school while my wife works from home, then I work 3-12s. 
But then Memorial day I popped a disc in my low back and ended up having fusion surgery a month ago. I am recovering WONDERFULLY I am already using a self propelled 21"Toro to get my walking therapy in while accomplishing something, 25k sq. takes me a couple hours maybe a bit more. I have not been able to do any home improvement stuff. I am very happy to be able to get back to helping with many day to day chores.

Since we had committed to some YMCA summer care we have sent the kids a couple days a week and starting next week they are doing "summer school" which is half day fun classes.

As I was typing I got an email from YMCA the kids have to wear masks as of Monday, guess it will be good practice for them wearing them for hours. One kid has had skin issues though so I am concerned the mask will cause her problems.


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## Thejarrod (Aug 5, 2018)

Movingshrub said:


> Excess whiskey consumption.


+1


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## Sbcgenii (May 13, 2018)

Movingshrub said:


> No daycare from March to October.
> Working from home with three preschool aged kids (4y, 2y, 1m)
> Excess whiskey consumption.


Understandable.


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## driver_7 (Jun 28, 2018)

Haven't worked since 04APR... :shock:. Received full pay, though, which is nice.


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## FlowRider (Apr 7, 2019)

My daily life has not really changed at all, except I have to wear a mask if I go into a store now. I just order stuff online if I can instead.

I rarely go to restaurants anymore, and never cared for the bar scene. The last movie I saw was Batman - the first one. The last football game I went to was in Texas Stadium, when Jamal Anderson of the Atlanta Falcons blew out his knee ending his career. Don't care for the crowds, parking hassle, traffic jams, and ridiculous ticket prices (even if someone else paid - business). Miss live baseball a little, and LSU football a lot. But paying to watch overpaid athletes is not worth it.

I have a "high spatial tolerance" anyway, so I don't like people bumping me or crowding me up. I have always liked social distancing anyway.

I wear a mask when I mow, and have a collection of bandannas.

I like the fact that people are now being more careful about personal hygiene and sanitary measures. Airplanes, chain restaurants, most bars and public restrooms are just Petri dishes so I happily stay away....

I enjoy being at my house, and we are home bodies by nature anyway. I have enough hobbies to keep me occupied, and I recently retired early so now I get to do whatever I feel like doing. My bride works from home now and is likely to be able to keep doing that in her job, so I set up our home office just for her use now. French doors keep it quiet for her.

The stay at home "orders" actually made me happy. I still venture out for supplies, yard goodies, gasoline, and the occasional take out pizza. A lot less traffic makes motorcycle rides much safer.

I honestly have barely been affected by Covid-19. My wife picks up groceries and I grill almost all of our meals now. I had ample supplies of masks from lawn care and hobbies, and bought two extra half-face respirators with P100 cartridges as soon as I realized the virus was in the USA. I already own half faces with organic vapor cartridges, and even have a full face fit-tested respirator from my former career. So I am well equipped to deal with airborne particles of most varieties....

The only thing that really changed at all was I never thought having a roll of freaking toilet paper was some kind of societal status symbol. And yet, there we were for awhile.

Now masks are being marketed as fashion accessories and being glamorized by models, while people pay ridiculous prices for masks when a bandanna is all that is needed. I cover my N95 masks with one.

I had to travel for a funeral. Lots of wipes, disposable gloves, and careful selection of nice hotels and decent family owned restaurants....

They have pretty good BBQ in Florida. But we were glad to get home!

I will be very glad when the pandemic pandemonium is finally over...!

I plan to be here to see that day come. Hope all of you folks are too!


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## jerrywil (9 mo ago)

My life has changed a lot. After losing a job, I started my own business. It was difficult at the beginning, but then it grew into matter of the whole life. I discovered things I'm really interested in, met new people and gained a lot of experience. Now I have a team of 7 people and sometimes it's difficult to communicate as we work remotely and live in different cities. I found very convenient app slack sms  where we all can chat and make calls. Now our communication is much easier.


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## Phids (Sep 24, 2020)

The best thing about the pandemic has been the acceleration of virtual work. My guess is that it sped up the cultural change by at least ten years compared to how life would have changed without it. I think back to all those work meetings that I would have had to go to in person, and which can now be done online. It saves so much time, effort, and even travel expenses, so it's been a great change.

Of course, there have been a lot of negatives associated with the pandemic that we'll only learn about fully years down the road. My guess is there are a lot of people who will be forever damaged psychologically from what went on.


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## ionicatoms (Mar 8, 2020)

Phids said:


> The best thing about the pandemic has been the acceleration of virtual work. My guess is that it sped up the cultural change by at least ten years compared to how life would have changed without it.


There's a big "return to work" initiative at my company. HR is telling me to bring everyone in at least 3 days a week. There's no rationale whatsoever. Just because "it's important."

I just say "ok" and ignore it. Knowledge workers are never going back to "normal." We come in as needed.


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## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

ionicatoms said:


> There's a big "return to work" initiative at my company. HR is telling me to bring everyone in at least 3 days a week. There's no rationale whatsoever. Just because "it's important."
> 
> I just say "ok" and ignore it. Knowledge workers are never going back to "normal." We come in as needed.


Mine started the same, but actually had a good point around the why. New hires. It is easy for me to know who to reach out to get something done, but the new hires don't have that option if there is no one around or everyone is online. I can't also be a mentor remotely. So, I'm trying to go at least once a week and have some 1:1 planned with the new hires, even when it is more efficient for me to work from home.


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## ionicatoms (Mar 8, 2020)

g-man said:


> Mine started the same, but actually had a good point around the why. New hires. It is easy for me to know who to reach out to get something done, but the new hires don't have that option if there is no one around or everyone is online. I can't also be a mentor remotely. So, I'm trying to go at least once a week and have some 1:1 planned with the new hires, even when it is more efficient for me to work from home.


Yeah, I would definitely classify that as a good reason. But a blanket policy isn't needed to resolve this scenario because we're not bringing in new engineers every week or even every month.


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## Lawn Noob (Jul 26, 2020)

I was disturbed to see how easily people disengage their own logic and just trust what they're told. I now look at anything any authority spits out with more skepticism than I used to. I no longer assume the goodwill of others to be genuine by default. That's a daily outlook changer for sure.


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

I find myself going out less than before. My hobbies and interests have shifted as well. Work wise, dealing with wearing a face mask on the assembly line is more or less an annoyance at this point. In less than six months we've gone from face masks to no masks, then back to wearing them again.


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## Phids (Sep 24, 2020)

Jeff_MI84 said:


> I find myself going out less than before. My hobbies and interests have shifted as well. Work wise, dealing with wearing a face mask on the assembly line is more or less an annoyance at this point. In less than six months we've gone from face masks to no masks, then back to wearing them again.


COVID provided some of the greatest material ever for the study of human behavior. I have been going maskless almost all the time for the past few months, but there are times when I feel like I still need to wear a mask purely for social reasons (e.g. not offending others). But I see on Twitter how there are people who are horrified at the prospect of going into stores where there are too many unmasked people.

This whole situation is bizarre, and this is why I think there are going to be serious psychological problems in a big part of the population into the future.


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## Jeff_MI84 (Sep 28, 2020)

@Phids I stopped wearing a face mask quite a while ago. My employer made it mandatory on company property some time ago. Other than that, I've been social distancing since before it was recommended.


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