Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
Discussion - Member to Member Sales - Research Center
I think I have weathered the past 9 months of Covid-19 restrictions fairly well. Stamps have been a big part of keeping me busy at home, motivating me without the pressure of time (except when sniping on ebay LOL), and being busy and interested.
As of late I must say that I am hitting a patch of blues... I have been less and less motivated, and the stamps I had ordered now stay on my desk for days before getting situated in the albums. I am bidding less, and spending more time watching Netflix.
I have made promises to myself (and others) to start a new set of Approval books, or even list a few items on Auctions, but alas, I just don't feel like it!
Are you feeling a bit of the same blahs? And if you do, what did you do about it?
rrr...
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
For me, if I am vertical and dressed then it is a great day.
Don
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
My wife and I babysit our two year old granddaughter and she keeps us hopping! No "blahs" here!
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
rrraphy what you have written above is exactly how I got to – no motivation, stamps piled up on desk, Nettflicks was my real mate, but then I said to myself –Self get up off you’re a---e and do something.
Have replanted a lot of plants, done heaps of stamp work, painted a room, and although no one will see them have put up lots of Xmas decorations and a tree.
I find it is so easy to fall into a rut- lets hope that next year Covid will leave us and we can all run around like mad men again.
Happy holidays.
Login to Like
this post
rrraphy please don't faint or have a heart attack......I agree with you!
Yes folkies I feel the same as rrraphy. ( Shock! Horror! )
I have a small box of items I have bought over the last couple of weeks still in their opened envelopes.
Some days I can be bothered to prepare Approval Books or Auction Lots, other days I just do other things, reading, watching dvd's or listening to old radio comedy shows. The motivation just comes and goes.
It could be down to the constant downbeat drivel from the government through and from the media or the complete lack of sunshine. It seems to have been constantly dull and driech for weeks here.
So rrraphy if it is any consolation you are not alone!
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
Between the elder care grind, the virus, and the politics ... life has gotten very small.
I've got a serious case of CBB (Can't Be Bothered), which extends from stamping to stamping around out-of-doors.
The muscle-to-fat transition continues apace.
Yikes.
Login to Like
this post
My "don't feel like it" days generally only last a day or so in a row. I don't sweat it, figure I will be more motivated the next day. It usually works out that way.
One does need the sunlight. From the summer of 1986 through the end of 1990 I worked at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, as a chemist for one of the service companies. Being on the Arctic Ocean coast, we would have our stretch of about two months in mid-winter where the sun did not come up. We worked two-week hitches, spending two weeks at Prudhoe Bay and then two weeks off to do as one wished (the part that I really liked). I didn't notice it so much myself, but one of the guys who worked in the lab with me said that I got really grumpy in the winter-time. Also noticed that if someone stayed for more than two weeks during the middle of the winter, they would start getting extremely testy as the days passed by.
Many people who live in that neck of the woods purchase special lighting that produces full-spectrum light to more closely mimic the sunlight compared to normal light bulbs.
Login to Like
this post
So far I have been very lucky living in Thailand with a government zero Covid policy. I went into a much reduced social life as we have my 96 year old bedridden mother living with us. It's beginning to look like our luck is running out. For the first time we are getting serious outbreaks of the virus connected to labour coming in from Burma. Although there is a compulsory 14 day quarantine for all entering the country, illegal immigration is rife. This is down to greed as companies looking for cheap labour and corrupt officials bypass the restrictions. It is Shangri-La no more.
Login to Like
this post
For me.. I ditto 51studebaker's words....Crazybob. 1 cancer 0 
Great to be alive and kicking.. Love my Family, God, my stamps and I don't give a dam who is the President.
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
I have to agree with Ralph. This has been such a terrible year. The steady drumbeat of bad news is miserable, and saps your motivation. I understand that there are people that are dealing with far worse problems than feeling down, but the psychological wear is bad enough. I still work, in an essential industry, so at least I get out and focus on that.
I have many hobbies besides stamp collecting but most of them have been severely curtailed, which only makes things worse. At least in the summer and fall you could go to the beach or take a walk in the autumn woods, but that's over now here in the Northeast. At least I hope to go skiing next month.
I see some folks pointing out how they are happy to still be with us. That's a very good other perspective to consider. To anyone battling an illness I wish you good health and continued success with your treatment.
Good to sign off with a quote from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer:
I wish you a hopeful season
I wish you a brave new year
All anger, pain, and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
"it is just business, trying to attract eyeballs."
This is less of a problem if you get your news from sources that aren't trying to turn a profit.
Login to Like
this post
I'm finding it hard to do...almost everything! It's way too easy to sit in my LazyBoy and be...lazy! On-line puzzles and surfing discussion boards take up much of that time. I've always been a reader, but these days I can rarely get through more than a few pages without falling asleep (or struggling to stay awake)!
Before the pandemic, I was in the daily habit of going to a coffee shop or our local library to work on my autobiography, helping to edit and working on a chapter for a recently published book about the Vietnam War (see Always Faithful — Returning to Vietnam, by Gary Harlan. I also wrote the foreword to a book about kitefliers (see The Modern Kite Flier — Voices of Those Who Pulled the Strings, by Patti Gibbons; my father was the founder of the American Kitefliers Association. But since the pandemic lockdown started in March, my writing has suffered; I just can't seem to get the words to flow as easily when I'm stuck back in the bedroom of our small apartment.
In the summer of 2019, I returned to my teenage hobby of scale model building, and have continued throughout the pandemic, but on many days I just can't be bothered to set everything up on our dining table. I have managed to complete a couple of models, and I'm slowly making progress on another, but at this rate it's going to be finished, perhaps, in time for the next presidential election in the U.S., if there ever is another presidential election!
One of the modelling problems has been the difficulty of getting to the only worthwhile hobby shop in Vancouver, Magic Box Hobbies. It takes a 45-minute bus ride to get there, assuming the buses are running on time, and these days riding a bus is not a wonderful thing to do. There have been some nasty incident with anti-maskers, and I witnessed (and got very angry with) a bus driver who gave a thumbs-up to demonstrators in a anti-masking rally. Instead of risking a bus ride to the hobby shop, I've begun ordering tools and supplies on-line, which is expensive and not always productive: the pandemic has resulted in loss of inventory for most companies. But perhaps the worst thing was the death of my best friend, Mike Strachan.
It was Mike who encouraged me to get back into model building; he and I had met at a BC Philatelic Society meeting in 2001 and had worked closely together as co-chairs of several VANPEX exhibitions. Early this year, in January as I recall, Mike was diagnosed with an exceptionally aggressive prostate cancer. His surgeon told him that only four men in BC had ever been diagnosed with the particular prostate cancer, and only one had lived more than a few months. The last time I saw Mike was in late February, a couple of days after he after he returned home from St. Paul's Hospital, following surgery which left him with both a permanent colostomy and urostomy. He was never free of severe pain following that surgery. I called him often, until he became so weak that he could no longer hold up the phone. He died in a hospice centre in November. I miss him a great deal.
I have continued buying stamps, covers, and postcards, but I don't often "do anything" with them. Before the pandemic, I would likely have included several of them in existing web pages, or created new web pages for them. The effort just seems too great.
Lest I complain too much, I have to say that my wife, Susan, has been affected much more negatively by the pandemic than I have. Even though she was 74 when the pandemic started, she had been teaching four adult fitness classes a week at our local community centre for the previous 14 years, and was one of the most popular teachers they had (as she was when she was teaching school). But on March 17, community centres throughout Vancouver closed. They did reopen a three or four months ago, but only for a week, when they returned to lockdown because of a spike in local Covid-19 cases. Susan is now considerably less fit — and less happy! — than she was in pre-Covid days. We are praying that the two vaccines that are now available, and are in use here in BC, will put paid to the pandemic, and that 2021 may be a much better year than 2020 has been.
Bob
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
I retired in November but I have not had any issues with lack of motivation. There is much stamping I want to do but find now I have more time so I pace myself more. There is less of a rush.
I have been reading more after I discovered a series of pdf books issued by the US Marine Corp on U.S. Marines in the Vietnam War.
As for the pandemic, the restrictions do not feel like a burden and disappointed that we are where we are.
Login to Like
this post
It's been one heck of a year here in Pennsylvania!
Early on I managed to keep a good attitude. I spent time in my hobbies, both stamps and my model car building. My wife and I went on a daily walk. I started to research and write about the historic sites within our town. I did a daily Facebook post to friends and family called
"Normalcy Photo of the Day". In July my daughter and her husband brought the three granddaughters to our home for a week's vacation. We had a great time in our pool and barbequing, all without leaving the house.
In early August a recruiter grabbed me for a short term consult in a vaccines facility, essential work that did not pause for the pandemic. Even though the fee was very shy of what I normally command, this wasn't a normal year and I just wanted to get out. I was feeling like a house cat.
So August through the first week of December, I felt near human again! I was getting up, driving to work and working with people. I felt useful and the days went by quickly.
That ended so I'm now back at home. It is encouraging that vaccines are being administered and I'm looking forward to a much better 2021. Right now I am having issues getting motivated so I have jumped into a few house projects. Necessity dictated that I replace the starter on my furnace, which was an easy repair. Our first floor half bath's sink was dripping and what should have been an easy replacement of a washer, turned into replacing not only the faucet but the whole vanity top! These things can snowball!
I also have been scanning all of my New Jersey covers. The early part of my collection was never scanned, but I started scanning covers as I acquired them some time back. Right now I'm up to "P" and trying to do as much as I can each sitting. My goal is to put them all on a website, of which I've owned the domain a few years without doing anything with it.
All in all, I'm just trying to get by. I'm hoping to get back to work soon in the new year. If anything, this free preview of retirement has taught me I won't retire well!
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
Bob a suggestion to your wife Susan, based on the experience of a yoga instructor daughter of a friend. Can she begin to teach adult fitness (boy, could I use such a class) using Zoom?
Our teacher friend was so successful shifting her business from in person class to on-line, that she will probably never go back to in-person. Got more classes, and more diverse offerings than ever before.
And she can even run it as a business, so I imagine that in a non-profit set up it may even be easier.
Just a suggestion We are all looking for something to move us out of the rot we are getting into. Our biggest activity pre-covid-19 was travel related, and I am about to launch here a virtual travel program 
.
rrr...
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
@BenFranklin1002 — I had to chuckle over your "replacing the washer" story. I'm sure we've all been there and done that.
Several years before I retired, the faucet in our shower/bath started leaking, so I bought some new washers and got to it. The corroded copper pipe broke.Then I had to break through the wall in the ensuite bathroom to get to the valve to shut the water off; I know, stupid design but not my design! Then a call to my plumber, who suggested a new faucet and new pipes. When he was finished, I had to drywall and paint the ensuite wall. Total bill — CAN $800 (US $621). Today, I usually call the pros, but the pandemic has made that problematic!
Bob
Login to Like
this post
@rrraphy — Thanks for the fitness suggestion. Susan has thought about that, but she has a love/hate relationship with technology (more hate than love), and doesn't want to get into the hassles of payment, insurance, etc. More significant is the fact that she enjoys the face-to-face contact with her students, many of whom have become good friends. She has done some instruction videos for her students during the pandemic, but just doesn't enjoy the process and feels little sense of satisfaction. Perhaps, with the vaccines that are now being used in BC, she can eventually get back into her fitness groove.
Bob
Login to Like
this post
@angore — I'm guessing that the Marine Corps books you mention are the Shulimson series, which go into incredible (and often boring!) detail. I have both ebook and hardback versions of volume 3, U.S. Marines in Vietnam — An Expanding War, which covers the period that I was there. The book provides a lot of useful information about the three operations I was involved in — Operation Double Eagle, Double Eagle II, and Utah, the battle in which my company took heavy casualties, including me. Even then, however, there is little in the book that matches what I recall. The "fog of war" clouds the view of both combatants and historians!
If you're interested in the war in general, and enjoy fiction, you can't do better than Saigon by Anthony Grey. Utter's Battalion, by Alex Lee, is an excellent review of the Marines' early fighting in the war. If you'd like some other reading suggestions, PM me.
Bob
Login to Like
this post
Bob, with Zoom and a small group you are in touch with each person on your screen and can watch them even more closely than in person (provided you are not on an iphone size screen). If there is any money involved, Paypal works.
My wife does volunteer work for neighborhood court (a restorative justice project), and finds it a better tool than in person court, as you can see the faces more closely etc...etc.. (plus no parking issue).
I have a basic subscription to Zoom (about $12/month)and have found it invaluable for keeping in touch with no time limit. Susan can try Zoom with just a couple of friends on a free (40 min limit) Zoom access and decide if it works for her.
Technology...naahhh it was really simple enough to allow an old Alzheimer struck and rapidly fading friend to join (although we did have to remind him daily of where the mike activation switch was hidden, and had to phone him on meeting time for him to connect).
rrr...
Login to Like
this post
Hi Bob... The sink story goes like this... The one faucet was dripping. I'm thinking a half hour job to take off the faucet cartridge and replace the washer. I open it up and a washer unlike any I've ever seen before pops out. I make the trip to Home Depot and then Lowes... nobody there has ever seen this style washer either. They suggest a plumbing supply house..
I go over the faucet looking for any hint of it's manufacturer... nothing! I'm figuring that it's probably a 1994 faucet from the original construction. Our house was built by Toll Brothers, a well known builder of high end houses that cuts every corner they can. So they probably got a real deal on these no name faucets, and I cannot complain if this unit is 26 years old.
So one day I take my lunch hour from work and head to the local plumbing supply house. They really tried, counter guys who didn't want to be stumped. But again no washer! I decide to buy a new faucet and new supply tubes since those were shabby too. Good thing because I wound up cutting one off.
I get my tools and prepare the replace the faucet. I get under the vanity and up in the no man's land of the underside of the vanity top, in the narrow space between the wall and the back of the sink bowl I see everything up there is copper and Statue of Liberty green.. completely corroded in place. And I'm not going to be forcing these fittings up in that space. And at that point I've already put a nick in the top of my bald head. I decide the vanity top shows some wear in the sink. If I have to take it off to get at the faucet fittings, I might as well replace it. So off to the stores again...
I find the top I like at Home Depot. Only it's the one style that's out of stock. The helpful guy tells me it's in stock at the store on the other side of town. Okay, so I head there. I find the correct sink unit and they have two of them in stock... only way up high. I start looking for help. I see a woman sitting at a desk in the bath and kitchen department. She says she'll call someone. I go back to the aisle to wait. I check all my email and notice I've been waiting 15 minutes. I go back to her and she's surprised nobody came to help. She calls again as I stand there.. she says the guy is cutting pipe for a customer and will come when he's done. I wait another 15 minutes.
A random Home Depot employee walks down the aisle headed for the employee break room. He says hello and I accost him. He agrees to help. He goes off in search of the electric lift thingie. He's gone a good ten minutes when he comes back with the lift. It takes two minutes to retrieve the item and put it on my cart.
I realize I need to get the two supply tubes so I go a few aisles over. I see the pipe cutting machine and there's three young guys lounging. One of them says that somebody needs to go help the guy in the vanity top aisle. Another one says, "No the woman called to say nevermind." Guy one says, "See! If you wait long enough they just go away!" I see sparks and I lay into this guy big time.... I make sure to advise him that if the customers go away there won't be any job for them lazy clowns! I then check out and find a manager to report this entire incident. He doesn't seem to want to hear it, just nods like he's heard this story dozens of times.
Back at the ranch the next day I replace the sink, faucet and supply tubes. The back splash is a separate piece and the side splash isn't available in the store, you need to order that online. It's $35 and free shipping is a $45 minimum. I see that shipping is $20 so it will be cheaper to find some $10 item to add to the order. I went through that with the TV wall mount I ordered from Walmart.. it was literally cheaper to get two of them than to buy one and pay for the shipping!
So now the sink is replaced and water working. There is a gap on the rear and side of bare wall up to the wallpaper. It will be that way for the 30 days Home Depot estimates for delivery of this side splash piece. That gets me to thinking again... maybe it would be easier and cheaper to find a nice tile to finish the gaps... My wife comes in to inspect and I share this with her... her response, "She never liked that wall paper....." NO! I'll order the side splash before this entire thing goes off the rails into a full bath renovation!
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
For me it seems like life hit the "pause" button - so many things are stalled. I think that lack of forward progress contributes to the feelings that Ralph mentioned.
Login to Like
this post
Tom, re home repairs, I can relate! 44 years in what is now an 81-year-old house.
Tom
Login to Like
this post
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant
22 Dec 2020
01:02:40pm
I should really say LACK of motivation.
I think I have weathered the past 9 months of Covid-19 restrictions fairly well. Stamps have been a big part of keeping me busy at home, motivating me without the pressure of time (except when sniping on ebay LOL), and being busy and interested.
As of late I must say that I am hitting a patch of blues... I have been less and less motivated, and the stamps I had ordered now stay on my desk for days before getting situated in the albums. I am bidding less, and spending more time watching Netflix.
I have made promises to myself (and others) to start a new set of Approval books, or even list a few items on Auctions, but alas, I just don't feel like it!
Are you feeling a bit of the same blahs? And if you do, what did you do about it?
rrr...
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
For me, if I am vertical and dressed then it is a great day.
Don
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
My wife and I babysit our two year old granddaughter and she keeps us hopping! No "blahs" here!
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
rrraphy what you have written above is exactly how I got to – no motivation, stamps piled up on desk, Nettflicks was my real mate, but then I said to myself –Self get up off you’re a---e and do something.
Have replanted a lot of plants, done heaps of stamp work, painted a room, and although no one will see them have put up lots of Xmas decorations and a tree.
I find it is so easy to fall into a rut- lets hope that next year Covid will leave us and we can all run around like mad men again.
Happy holidays.
Login to Like
this post
Auctions - Approvals
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
rrraphy please don't faint or have a heart attack......I agree with you!
Yes folkies I feel the same as rrraphy. ( Shock! Horror! )
I have a small box of items I have bought over the last couple of weeks still in their opened envelopes.
Some days I can be bothered to prepare Approval Books or Auction Lots, other days I just do other things, reading, watching dvd's or listening to old radio comedy shows. The motivation just comes and goes.
It could be down to the constant downbeat drivel from the government through and from the media or the complete lack of sunshine. It seems to have been constantly dull and driech for weeks here.
So rrraphy if it is any consolation you are not alone!
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
Between the elder care grind, the virus, and the politics ... life has gotten very small.
I've got a serious case of CBB (Can't Be Bothered), which extends from stamping to stamping around out-of-doors.
The muscle-to-fat transition continues apace.
Yikes.
Login to Like
this post
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
My "don't feel like it" days generally only last a day or so in a row. I don't sweat it, figure I will be more motivated the next day. It usually works out that way.
One does need the sunlight. From the summer of 1986 through the end of 1990 I worked at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, as a chemist for one of the service companies. Being on the Arctic Ocean coast, we would have our stretch of about two months in mid-winter where the sun did not come up. We worked two-week hitches, spending two weeks at Prudhoe Bay and then two weeks off to do as one wished (the part that I really liked). I didn't notice it so much myself, but one of the guys who worked in the lab with me said that I got really grumpy in the winter-time. Also noticed that if someone stayed for more than two weeks during the middle of the winter, they would start getting extremely testy as the days passed by.
Many people who live in that neck of the woods purchase special lighting that produces full-spectrum light to more closely mimic the sunlight compared to normal light bulbs.
Login to Like
this post
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
So far I have been very lucky living in Thailand with a government zero Covid policy. I went into a much reduced social life as we have my 96 year old bedridden mother living with us. It's beginning to look like our luck is running out. For the first time we are getting serious outbreaks of the virus connected to labour coming in from Burma. Although there is a compulsory 14 day quarantine for all entering the country, illegal immigration is rife. This is down to greed as companies looking for cheap labour and corrupt officials bypass the restrictions. It is Shangri-La no more.
Login to Like
this post
10:43:42am
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
For me.. I ditto 51studebaker's words....Crazybob. 1 cancer 0
Great to be alive and kicking.. Love my Family, God, my stamps and I don't give a dam who is the President.
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
04:54:45pm
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
I have to agree with Ralph. This has been such a terrible year. The steady drumbeat of bad news is miserable, and saps your motivation. I understand that there are people that are dealing with far worse problems than feeling down, but the psychological wear is bad enough. I still work, in an essential industry, so at least I get out and focus on that.
I have many hobbies besides stamp collecting but most of them have been severely curtailed, which only makes things worse. At least in the summer and fall you could go to the beach or take a walk in the autumn woods, but that's over now here in the Northeast. At least I hope to go skiing next month.
I see some folks pointing out how they are happy to still be with us. That's a very good other perspective to consider. To anyone battling an illness I wish you good health and continued success with your treatment.
Good to sign off with a quote from Emerson, Lake, and Palmer:
I wish you a hopeful season
I wish you a brave new year
All anger, pain, and sadness
Leave your heart and let your road be clear
2 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
"it is just business, trying to attract eyeballs."
This is less of a problem if you get your news from sources that aren't trying to turn a profit.
Login to Like
this post
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
I'm finding it hard to do...almost everything! It's way too easy to sit in my LazyBoy and be...lazy! On-line puzzles and surfing discussion boards take up much of that time. I've always been a reader, but these days I can rarely get through more than a few pages without falling asleep (or struggling to stay awake)!
Before the pandemic, I was in the daily habit of going to a coffee shop or our local library to work on my autobiography, helping to edit and working on a chapter for a recently published book about the Vietnam War (see Always Faithful — Returning to Vietnam, by Gary Harlan. I also wrote the foreword to a book about kitefliers (see The Modern Kite Flier — Voices of Those Who Pulled the Strings, by Patti Gibbons; my father was the founder of the American Kitefliers Association. But since the pandemic lockdown started in March, my writing has suffered; I just can't seem to get the words to flow as easily when I'm stuck back in the bedroom of our small apartment.
In the summer of 2019, I returned to my teenage hobby of scale model building, and have continued throughout the pandemic, but on many days I just can't be bothered to set everything up on our dining table. I have managed to complete a couple of models, and I'm slowly making progress on another, but at this rate it's going to be finished, perhaps, in time for the next presidential election in the U.S., if there ever is another presidential election!
One of the modelling problems has been the difficulty of getting to the only worthwhile hobby shop in Vancouver, Magic Box Hobbies. It takes a 45-minute bus ride to get there, assuming the buses are running on time, and these days riding a bus is not a wonderful thing to do. There have been some nasty incident with anti-maskers, and I witnessed (and got very angry with) a bus driver who gave a thumbs-up to demonstrators in a anti-masking rally. Instead of risking a bus ride to the hobby shop, I've begun ordering tools and supplies on-line, which is expensive and not always productive: the pandemic has resulted in loss of inventory for most companies. But perhaps the worst thing was the death of my best friend, Mike Strachan.
It was Mike who encouraged me to get back into model building; he and I had met at a BC Philatelic Society meeting in 2001 and had worked closely together as co-chairs of several VANPEX exhibitions. Early this year, in January as I recall, Mike was diagnosed with an exceptionally aggressive prostate cancer. His surgeon told him that only four men in BC had ever been diagnosed with the particular prostate cancer, and only one had lived more than a few months. The last time I saw Mike was in late February, a couple of days after he after he returned home from St. Paul's Hospital, following surgery which left him with both a permanent colostomy and urostomy. He was never free of severe pain following that surgery. I called him often, until he became so weak that he could no longer hold up the phone. He died in a hospice centre in November. I miss him a great deal.
I have continued buying stamps, covers, and postcards, but I don't often "do anything" with them. Before the pandemic, I would likely have included several of them in existing web pages, or created new web pages for them. The effort just seems too great.
Lest I complain too much, I have to say that my wife, Susan, has been affected much more negatively by the pandemic than I have. Even though she was 74 when the pandemic started, she had been teaching four adult fitness classes a week at our local community centre for the previous 14 years, and was one of the most popular teachers they had (as she was when she was teaching school). But on March 17, community centres throughout Vancouver closed. They did reopen a three or four months ago, but only for a week, when they returned to lockdown because of a spike in local Covid-19 cases. Susan is now considerably less fit — and less happy! — than she was in pre-Covid days. We are praying that the two vaccines that are now available, and are in use here in BC, will put paid to the pandemic, and that 2021 may be a much better year than 2020 has been.
Bob
3 Members
like this post.
Login to Like.
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
I retired in November but I have not had any issues with lack of motivation. There is much stamping I want to do but find now I have more time so I pace myself more. There is less of a rush.
I have been reading more after I discovered a series of pdf books issued by the US Marine Corp on U.S. Marines in the Vietnam War.
As for the pandemic, the restrictions do not feel like a burden and disappointed that we are where we are.
Login to Like
this post
Approvals
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
It's been one heck of a year here in Pennsylvania!
Early on I managed to keep a good attitude. I spent time in my hobbies, both stamps and my model car building. My wife and I went on a daily walk. I started to research and write about the historic sites within our town. I did a daily Facebook post to friends and family called
"Normalcy Photo of the Day". In July my daughter and her husband brought the three granddaughters to our home for a week's vacation. We had a great time in our pool and barbequing, all without leaving the house.
In early August a recruiter grabbed me for a short term consult in a vaccines facility, essential work that did not pause for the pandemic. Even though the fee was very shy of what I normally command, this wasn't a normal year and I just wanted to get out. I was feeling like a house cat.
So August through the first week of December, I felt near human again! I was getting up, driving to work and working with people. I felt useful and the days went by quickly.
That ended so I'm now back at home. It is encouraging that vaccines are being administered and I'm looking forward to a much better 2021. Right now I am having issues getting motivated so I have jumped into a few house projects. Necessity dictated that I replace the starter on my furnace, which was an easy repair. Our first floor half bath's sink was dripping and what should have been an easy replacement of a washer, turned into replacing not only the faucet but the whole vanity top! These things can snowball!
I also have been scanning all of my New Jersey covers. The early part of my collection was never scanned, but I started scanning covers as I acquired them some time back. Right now I'm up to "P" and trying to do as much as I can each sitting. My goal is to put them all on a website, of which I've owned the domain a few years without doing anything with it.
All in all, I'm just trying to get by. I'm hoping to get back to work soon in the new year. If anything, this free preview of retirement has taught me I won't retire well!
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant
26 Dec 2020
12:44:12pm
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
Bob a suggestion to your wife Susan, based on the experience of a yoga instructor daughter of a friend. Can she begin to teach adult fitness (boy, could I use such a class) using Zoom?
Our teacher friend was so successful shifting her business from in person class to on-line, that she will probably never go back to in-person. Got more classes, and more diverse offerings than ever before.
And she can even run it as a business, so I imagine that in a non-profit set up it may even be easier.
Just a suggestion We are all looking for something to move us out of the rot we are getting into. Our biggest activity pre-covid-19 was travel related, and I am about to launch here a virtual travel program .
rrr...
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
@BenFranklin1002 — I had to chuckle over your "replacing the washer" story. I'm sure we've all been there and done that.
Several years before I retired, the faucet in our shower/bath started leaking, so I bought some new washers and got to it. The corroded copper pipe broke.Then I had to break through the wall in the ensuite bathroom to get to the valve to shut the water off; I know, stupid design but not my design! Then a call to my plumber, who suggested a new faucet and new pipes. When he was finished, I had to drywall and paint the ensuite wall. Total bill — CAN $800 (US $621). Today, I usually call the pros, but the pandemic has made that problematic!
Bob
Login to Like
this post
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
@rrraphy — Thanks for the fitness suggestion. Susan has thought about that, but she has a love/hate relationship with technology (more hate than love), and doesn't want to get into the hassles of payment, insurance, etc. More significant is the fact that she enjoys the face-to-face contact with her students, many of whom have become good friends. She has done some instruction videos for her students during the pandemic, but just doesn't enjoy the process and feels little sense of satisfaction. Perhaps, with the vaccines that are now being used in BC, she can eventually get back into her fitness groove.
Bob
Login to Like
this post
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
@angore — I'm guessing that the Marine Corps books you mention are the Shulimson series, which go into incredible (and often boring!) detail. I have both ebook and hardback versions of volume 3, U.S. Marines in Vietnam — An Expanding War, which covers the period that I was there. The book provides a lot of useful information about the three operations I was involved in — Operation Double Eagle, Double Eagle II, and Utah, the battle in which my company took heavy casualties, including me. Even then, however, there is little in the book that matches what I recall. The "fog of war" clouds the view of both combatants and historians!
If you're interested in the war in general, and enjoy fiction, you can't do better than Saigon by Anthony Grey. Utter's Battalion, by Alex Lee, is an excellent review of the Marines' early fighting in the war. If you'd like some other reading suggestions, PM me.
Bob
Login to Like
this post
Retired Ap. Book Mod, Pres Golden Gate Stamp Club, Hi Tech Consultant
26 Dec 2020
02:05:24pm
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
Bob, with Zoom and a small group you are in touch with each person on your screen and can watch them even more closely than in person (provided you are not on an iphone size screen). If there is any money involved, Paypal works.
My wife does volunteer work for neighborhood court (a restorative justice project), and finds it a better tool than in person court, as you can see the faces more closely etc...etc.. (plus no parking issue).
I have a basic subscription to Zoom (about $12/month)and have found it invaluable for keeping in touch with no time limit. Susan can try Zoom with just a couple of friends on a free (40 min limit) Zoom access and decide if it works for her.
Technology...naahhh it was really simple enough to allow an old Alzheimer struck and rapidly fading friend to join (although we did have to remind him daily of where the mike activation switch was hidden, and had to phone him on meeting time for him to connect).
rrr...
Login to Like
this post
Approvals
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
Hi Bob... The sink story goes like this... The one faucet was dripping. I'm thinking a half hour job to take off the faucet cartridge and replace the washer. I open it up and a washer unlike any I've ever seen before pops out. I make the trip to Home Depot and then Lowes... nobody there has ever seen this style washer either. They suggest a plumbing supply house..
I go over the faucet looking for any hint of it's manufacturer... nothing! I'm figuring that it's probably a 1994 faucet from the original construction. Our house was built by Toll Brothers, a well known builder of high end houses that cuts every corner they can. So they probably got a real deal on these no name faucets, and I cannot complain if this unit is 26 years old.
So one day I take my lunch hour from work and head to the local plumbing supply house. They really tried, counter guys who didn't want to be stumped. But again no washer! I decide to buy a new faucet and new supply tubes since those were shabby too. Good thing because I wound up cutting one off.
I get my tools and prepare the replace the faucet. I get under the vanity and up in the no man's land of the underside of the vanity top, in the narrow space between the wall and the back of the sink bowl I see everything up there is copper and Statue of Liberty green.. completely corroded in place. And I'm not going to be forcing these fittings up in that space. And at that point I've already put a nick in the top of my bald head. I decide the vanity top shows some wear in the sink. If I have to take it off to get at the faucet fittings, I might as well replace it. So off to the stores again...
I find the top I like at Home Depot. Only it's the one style that's out of stock. The helpful guy tells me it's in stock at the store on the other side of town. Okay, so I head there. I find the correct sink unit and they have two of them in stock... only way up high. I start looking for help. I see a woman sitting at a desk in the bath and kitchen department. She says she'll call someone. I go back to the aisle to wait. I check all my email and notice I've been waiting 15 minutes. I go back to her and she's surprised nobody came to help. She calls again as I stand there.. she says the guy is cutting pipe for a customer and will come when he's done. I wait another 15 minutes.
A random Home Depot employee walks down the aisle headed for the employee break room. He says hello and I accost him. He agrees to help. He goes off in search of the electric lift thingie. He's gone a good ten minutes when he comes back with the lift. It takes two minutes to retrieve the item and put it on my cart.
I realize I need to get the two supply tubes so I go a few aisles over. I see the pipe cutting machine and there's three young guys lounging. One of them says that somebody needs to go help the guy in the vanity top aisle. Another one says, "No the woman called to say nevermind." Guy one says, "See! If you wait long enough they just go away!" I see sparks and I lay into this guy big time.... I make sure to advise him that if the customers go away there won't be any job for them lazy clowns! I then check out and find a manager to report this entire incident. He doesn't seem to want to hear it, just nods like he's heard this story dozens of times.
Back at the ranch the next day I replace the sink, faucet and supply tubes. The back splash is a separate piece and the side splash isn't available in the store, you need to order that online. It's $35 and free shipping is a $45 minimum. I see that shipping is $20 so it will be cheaper to find some $10 item to add to the order. I went through that with the TV wall mount I ordered from Walmart.. it was literally cheaper to get two of them than to buy one and pay for the shipping!
So now the sink is replaced and water working. There is a gap on the rear and side of bare wall up to the wallpaper. It will be that way for the 30 days Home Depot estimates for delivery of this side splash piece. That gets me to thinking again... maybe it would be easier and cheaper to find a nice tile to finish the gaps... My wife comes in to inspect and I share this with her... her response, "She never liked that wall paper....." NO! I'll order the side splash before this entire thing goes off the rails into a full bath renovation!
1 Member
likes this post.
Login to Like.
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
For me it seems like life hit the "pause" button - so many things are stalled. I think that lack of forward progress contributes to the feelings that Ralph mentioned.
Login to Like
this post
re: Covid-19, The Holiday season and Motivation
Tom, re home repairs, I can relate! 44 years in what is now an 81-year-old house.
Tom
Login to Like
this post