LibriVox Forum

I have wondered and worried about so many of the people I like and follow on here. I hope everyone is doing well. What is life in the age of corona like for you?

I am a bit of a worrier so my antennae were up in February and I talked with my wife and housemate about doing some basic preparing. We decided to plan for at least a month of isolation and did a bunch of food shopping early on. We were just a little ahead of the curve, I joked later that we bought our TP and hand sanitizer while everyone was chasing filter masks, and then bought a bunch of food staples while everyone was chasing TP and sanitizer. Not intentionally, it just happened that way. So we "pulled up the drawbridge" around March 10th. I went out a couple of times to do isolated outdoors activities (I like to walk in old cemeteries) but since the governor (FINALLY) closed everything down I've been completely at home except for dog walks and a bit of exercise around the neighborhood. I'm a huge introvert so I think this has been easier on me than on a lot of people, but even I'm starting to miss some of my usual outings to the library, movies, etc.

I am a retired police officer and profoundly grateful to be at home instead of in the midst of all this madness, tho I worry about my former colleagues a lot. My income was cut in half since I do partially freelance writing and partially in-home dog/pet/housesitting and obviously all my latter gigs were cancelled when the travel stopped. My main writing gig is still going but I'm worried about long term with the writing and a bit concerned that travel will be very slow to return once social distancing starts to end. My biggest petsitting client are a couple who plan big events and conferences - they are usually on site somewhere about once a month for anywhere from 4 to 10 days - and I wonder what will happen to their business if everyone discovers that online conferencing is a good substitute for a lot of it.

I feel relatively safe from the corona situation but worried about what is going ot happen economically over the next several years. It will be a long road back and I hope the pain brings some constructive changes to our society, but I'm also afraid it's going to break it further. Mostly I'm trying to stay calm and patient and healthy and keep busy doing this and other usually "optional" or "when I have more time" projects. I worry about family members who don't take the whole thing very seriously, especially my mom who is 77, watches too much Fox News, and thinks the whole thing is blown out of proportion. And who is currently in Florida where unfortunately too much of the state thinks the same way.

How about you guys? What's going on?

Colleen

Ah. I don't think many people would be interested in my views regarding society and our reaction to this new virus. I'm rather pessimistic.

But I feel safe in my home, as I am already largely isolated (by choice and circumstance) and have a modest retirement income. I find that I don't require much. I wish everyone well and hope that good will come from even the most difficult events.

It's quite hard here in London but at least the weather is mostly a lot better. We manage a walk or two each day but can't get out to our favourite places in the real countryside. I'm fearful for the future and I'm worried that a lot of wonderful theatres and concert venues will remain empty or half full when the thing is over, if it ever is. Now is the time for reading books and recording also, but things are not looking good.

I'm in London, too. I went for a walk to a nearby nature reserve (its entrance was in a council cycling centre, which was closed, so I couldn't get in), but across the road was the local cemetery, with over twenty very new graves near the fence, with workmen digging more. It made the irritating social isolation instructions a bit more tolerable.

Peter

With LibriVox being a remote way of communicating and working together, social distancing may be less difficult for some of us who have been using LibriVox for several years. I tend to be somewhat of an introvert, though I do miss getting together with friends a couple of times a week. I’m happier socializing with just a couple of friends at a time, rather than a “let’s all get together” situation with half a dozen or more people.

A neighbor friend and I go for a social distance walk each day. Our spring weather has been generally nice, so a lot of neighborhood people who are now home are spending time outdoors in their yards. While we all maintain our distance everyone is friendly, which is nice.

While my husband and I are doing all right, I worry about others… a scientist friend who is working in research on the corona virus, while a close family member of his has terminal cancer; friends with new grandchildren who can’t physically bond with the babies; families adjusting to teaching and learning at home; friends in health care who are stressed with the physical demands and emotions brought on by the virus, and so on.

One thing I do to help make things less stressful on myself is to watch the local and national news just once a day, usually at night. I think that it’s important to be aware and keep up with things, but being glued to news 24 hours a day is stressful even during ordinary times.

Whatever happens down the road, it will be a “new normal”

https://youtu.be/3vEEh0GF_C8

The situation in Croatia is relatively stable, probably because the government acted fast and introduced restrictive measures quite early on. I'm not sure how long this lockdown will last, or rather, how long it can last before our economy collapses. I'm keeping myself busy with work and hobbies (including recording stuff for LibriVox), but I'm not very sure what the future holds for me. I'm in my last year of medical school and we're doing online classes, and they're thinking about doing online exams as well. As I've mentioned earlier, the situation is not too overwhelming right now, so there was no need to mobilize med students like they did in Spain and parts of the US. I'm due to graduate in July, so if the pandemic doesn't die down by then, me and my freshly graduated colleagues will be sent to the front lines. I can only hope we will be provided with proper PPE. My mom is a GP/family physician and she had to scramble to get proper PPE on her own at the beginning of the pandemic. Things are better now, but plenty of health workers were infected in the meantime.
I'm self-isolating in a small seaside town and have a lovely view which definitely helps with the prevalent claustophobic feeling. I was still in the capital when the lockdown began, but moved back home because two hefty earthquakes hit the capital about a month ago and my parents weren't very comfortable with me being alone in my apartment (despite there being no damage to the building).
The silver lining in this whole chaos of a situation is that I've stopped worrying about unimportant things, which is quite an achievement for a nervous Nellie like me. Also, I've been spending more time on my hobbies, particularly writing sketches and short stories.
Hope you guys are staying indoors or, if you're an essential worker, that you're keeping safe!