How is the virus affecting you?

[Complete Turf Care]

How is the virus affecting you?

Here in my world, my business is suffering, but we should survive. Most of my customers are high school athletics, and they have no money to do projects, because they can not have any fund raising activities.

None of my family, or anyone I know has the virus yet.

But, today I took my grandson to visit my mom who lives in an assisted living home. She has dementia and doesn't fully understand what's going on and why we can't visit her. This visit was pretty tough on me so I just thought I would post something here. We have not been inside her apartment for about 3 weeks now.

I have been very fortunate in life and don't have anything to complain about, but today is a sad day for me.

 

[drssg]

That sounds rough. I'm sorry to hear that.

It really hasn't affected me personally very much. I now leave the farm about once a week for groceries, and I used to do some sort of errand just about every day, even if it was just going to the gym.

I'm retired, so I don't have a business to worry about. Investments have taken a big hit, but I think they will be OK in the long run.

Hang in there. It will pass.

 

[Big Barn]

Sad for you CLC, but I have a good feeling that your mom was really happy to see the two of you!

 

[Jstpssng]

That seems to be the toughest thing about this virus... it's preventing us from spending time with people who might not be around much longer.
I read this just as I'm getting ready to call my mother.

 

[JamesHW]

Having dealt with dementia in a beloved uncle after his wife died, I know how heartbreaking it can be. He landed well by buying into an Army retirement village that had a nursing home with an excellent Alzheimers unit, so they took care of him.

Louisiana is getting hit hard. Did you have to take precautions during your visit CLC? Would be interested in how the staff is handling it.

I was going to head up to the farm to get much work done this spring, but that looks delayed.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Louisiana is getting hit hard. Did you have to take precautions during your visit CLC? Would be interested in how the staff is handling it.

The precaution is.....we can't go inside the facility at all. We can only go to her apartment window and get her on the phone. One of the staff has to go into her apartment and answer the phone and give it to her to talk to us. She doesn't know how to answer the phone any more. The director of the home is who took the pictures I posted.

We have sitters who stay with mom at night, because she doesn't sleep well and gets up often at night. The wanted to stop all sitters, but I convinced them to let us have sitters for shortened hours at night. They can now stay only from 10pm until 6am. And one sitter that was staying 2 nights a week, quit yesterday because she is scared of the virus.

We are not sure how much longer mom will be able to stay at the assisted living facility, and we have no idea what will happen if we have to move her out of there. We will just have to deal with that if or when the time comes.

Luckily, there have been no cases of the virus at this facility, but we have a few in our parish (county). As of yesterday, it was 9 cases and one death so far.

 

[grsthegreat]

It seems that i picked a great time to retire. I have been shutting down my business for the last 12 months, and i am only keeping the generator service operation going. As such, this virus hasn't really affected my business, but i am deferring service work for a few weeks. in an emergency i will do a service call as i dont have to interact with the people.

i feel sorry for the younger guys out there and how its affecting their businesses. A friend of mine has temp shutdown and sidelined 4 employees. jobs are starting to back up. it will be a mess down the road.

personally im finally living my lifes dream...staying home and sleeping in.

everyone stay safe out there. having 30 acres to take care of keeps me active and outdoors. i really feel sorry for city folk stuck in the house

 

[bunyip]

We sold our home just prior to the virus and got ourr price, real estate is now taking a big hit and we are getting ready to buy so that has gone our way, work is not affected for us but a lot of retail has shut down such as anything not associated with day to day essentials.
Very few cars on the road.

 

[Rustyiron]

How is the virus affecting you?



But, today I took my grandson to visit my mom who lives in an assisted living home. We have not been inside her apartment for about 3 weeks now.

I'm in the same situation with my Mom. Company and socializing is about all a lot of the old people have or can still do. It's very sad for sure. They are delivering dinners to their rooms, stopped all "activities" and we can't even take a walk with her on the grounds 6' away or not. They are as close to being in jail as you can get.
Myself, very little changes to our lives, retired and I have 711ac. to "social distance" myself on.

 

[Bird]

I reckon I'm luckier than most, so far at least. I'm 80 years old and my wife is 76 with an advanced case of COPD. So I guess it might be fatal IF we should fall victims to the virus.

But so far, my only problem is boredom with staying home.

In times past, I've posted about an older next door neighbor, whose lawn I mowed for about 10 years, took him to do his grocery shopping, to doctor appointments, etc. since his health didn't permit him to drive. Well, he recently turned 90 years old and has been in a nursing home for some time now. He did not like it to start with; wanted to be in his own house, but he's finally accepted the fact that he's going to be where he is for the rest of his life. But I've been going to visit at least once a week, but now . . . well, they have a sign just inside the door that visitors are restricted to certain family members, so I haven't seen him since this virus scare started.

 

[JPRambo]

Has not affected the wife and I much yet. We are
also retired. Left Florida March 6 to stay and do work on our 7 acre woods. Hoping to stay for 6 weeks. Once a week trip to the grocery store. Campfires with downed tree cleanup and a beer. Hope we can cross the border back into Florida around the 14th.

 

[scaredychicken]

Local Malls have closed under lockdown, major services / businesses are closed or under restricted hours, schools, churches closed, Missions Trip cancelled, medical appts cancelled, no coffee or social times with friends - life is adjusting. Still doing fine, mostly self-isolating especially since my wife is immuno-compromised. I go in / out of town (20 min away) for basic supplies ... chicken feed, dog food, and I have the jerry cans filled with gas / diesel so that I can still run equipment. No trips out of town, no unnecessary shopping. I work from my home office doing taxes and bookkeeping (busiest time) and hobby farming - i have a dropbox at the door for tax documents. The files are slow to arrive (many contacts are from church) and selling eggs needs to be creative also.

other than that ... all good.

God Bless you all - stay safe, we'll get through this Praying

 

[Tomtint]

business for the most part here is at a stand still. We are still sending out proposals and booking jobs for the coming months..when ever that is..but not installing material now.. Your picture is painful on a certain level and beautiful on another. I lost my mom to alzhimers and or dementia not long ago.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Some amount of depression and anxiety. Funny because I like solitude and isolation, but on MY terms.

Like I always say. It's not a power outage or scarcity of a commodity that is the issue, but the uncertainty of when normalcy will return that eats away at one. Not being able to plan ones future. Not knowing what really matters.

 

[LouNY]

I would have to say that I'm being minimally affected, my wife at 69 years old is still going to work at the hospital every day.
Farm work is a bit slow for me this time of year, so I make a few parts runs and help on an as needed basis, couple days a week.
No going out to eat or stopping for a beer now days.
Also not seeing my youngest grand daughter (one year old) and my kids are staying away mostly.
It's 9 miles into town so it stays fairly quite out here don't need to make many shopping trips any way.

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep... I lost the help I had coming in and the Senior centers are closed.

For now it is just me... got called in this afternoon and had to bring mom with.

The medical is shutdown so we are the only ones here and she sure was getting cabin fever asking many times a day why no comes to visit.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

We need to pick up sons stuff from college, but not sure about taking the 2000 mile trip right now.

 

[two_bit_score]

It's given me time off to work on our property in East Texas. Other than not being able to eat out there hasn't been any real negatives. Paper towels are in short supply but we can get by without if necessary.

Our son is starting to work from home next week so that is actually a plus as we will now get to see him more often.


I think there will be some yet to be determined long term changes in the way our fed/state/local system operates in the future because of this but still a little too early to tell for sure.

Example: Our Gov temporarily allowed restaurants/cafes, etc who provide take out food orders to also sell alcoholic beverages 'to go' with food orders. So 'add a gallon of margaritas to those two tacos please'. Now how do you think it will ever be possible to take that option back when the 'new normal' returns???



TBS

 

[California]

Not much change here from normal routines. Retired, and we go back and forth the hundred miles between ranch / home in town frequently. We're stuck in town now. But this is a nice home, while the ranch house is simple, primitive (indoor plumbing was obviously added later), and if we were to get ill there it would cause all sorts of difficulties without the city resources we have in town. The local grocery store in town is now doing deliveries. Amazon delivered yesterday a replacement computer mouse, and scheduled a 30-pack of TP to arrive mid week. Things could be a lot worse.

I read of an older priest in Europe in the midst of catastrophe. He is diagnosed with severe Coronovirus but has refused use of a ventilator, he says he has lived a good life and its time to let someone younger have the ventilator instead. This got me to face our own mortality, at past mid-70's I wonder if I could make that choice if things get that dire. Lots to reflect on.

And Younger Daughter who lives in SF (close enough to drive up) is suddenly asking the hard questions, if our affairs are in order, just in case she has to represent us, or our estate. Thankfully yes. Home, ranch, and vehicles are owned clear. A master account at Fidelity Investments has all savings and IRA's. We were able to explain this to her and put her mind at ease, our affairs are simple. Apparently her husband's parents' affairs are more complex. I wondered if they were busy writing Trust docs etc.

Anyhow no difficulties here, but lots to think about, to be prepared if the worst estimates turn out to be real and the US becomes like Italy and Spain.

 

[Diggin It]

It's 9 miles into town so it stays fairly quite out here don't need to make many shopping trips any way.

While I have 'a town' 9 miles away, it has very little to offer even though it's the county seat. Not more than about 15 or 20 non-residential buildings and only a few going businesses, none of which stock much variety. Any real shopping is a minimum of 20 miles with much of it 30 or more. Since I stopped working in '11, I usually only go anywhere by car once or twice a month. If I'm in the middle of a project and need lumber or other materials, I might go once a week. Over the years, there have been many times when neither car even gets started for 3-4 weeks.

So, nothing has really changed. My routine is as it has been for years. I find myself calling ahead to find out if a smaller, local business is open or not though. I sure don't want to drive 30 miles and find out they're not.