So how is everyone doing, really?

I am not loving isolation/distancing. It's the right thing to do, but that doesn't make it any easier. I've cried more than once over the past week. Even more than the rock, I miss my partners--the wordless trust, the quiet support, and the kind of relationship where you can be a little scared and still feel safe. Especially with all the uncertainty and change, it feels hard to not be able to have those kinds of human connection.

What about you all?

(And yes, given that this is MP, I'm aware this thread has the potential to go very poorly, but hey, might as well take one of the risks we still have left! ;) )

It’s been hard so far. I was sick last weekend. Not sure what it was, a mild bug consisting of slight fever and sore throat. In the current climate, my boss wanted me tested, but, even though he is an MD, he couldn’t get a test. So I was told to treat it as-if-it-were and quarantine at home for two weeks. I’m feeling just fine now, nobody else in the family is sick, it’s been 8 days since I’ve had symptoms.

Meanwhile, my niece’s roommate at Cornell WAS actually tested, after she got flu-like symptoms and was positive. The girl is doing fine. Unfortunately, my nieces entire family spent time with this girl just before she developed symptoms, and, since it took 5 days to find out, they had spent these 5 days with my parents.

Both my parents and sister have medical conditions that would make getting sick bad. They are now all quarantined, too. Waiting to see if anyone gets sick. 

Lena chita wrote: It’s been hard so far. I was sick last weekend. Not sure what it was, a mild bug consisting of slight fever and sore throat. In the current climate, my boss wanted me tested, but, even though he is an MD, he couldn’t get a test. So I was told to treat it as-if-it-were and quarantine at home for two weeks. I’m feeling just fine now, nobody else in the family is sick, it’s been 8 days since I’ve had symptoms.

Meanwhile, my niece’s roommate at Cornell WAS actually tested, after she got flu-like symptoms and was positive. The girl is doing fine. Unfortunately, my nieces entire family spent time with this girl just before she developed symptoms, and, since it took 5 days to find out, they had spent these 5 days with my parents.

Both my parents and sister have medical conditions that would make getting sick bad. They are now all quarantined, too. Waiting to see if anyone gets sick. 

That sounds really hard--I hope you and your family stay healthy and are ok.

I've also been in self-quarantine for the past 9 days because I was in close contact with someone who got a fever and cough (but also couldn't be tested). It's been harder than I expected it to be, even though I'm fortunate not to have anyone physically close to me who is at-risk to worry about, and fortunate to be able to work from home.

Time stretches on in weird ways. It's hard not to fixate on the uncertainty about the future. The fact that all your contact with friends/family is virtual means that even socializing doesn't get you away from social media distractions. Right now I'm trying to cope with the realization that even when my voluntary self-quarantine ends, things won't be all that different for a while. I'm excited to be able to do my own grocery shopping, though, and maybe bike to the wooded area 5 miles away from me instead of just taking short walks around my neighborhood.

Etha Williams wrote:

That sounds really hard--I hope you and your family stay healthy and are ok!

I've also been in self-quarantine for the past 9 days because I was in close contact with someone who got a fever and cough (but also couldn't be tested). It's been harder than I expected it to. Time stretches on in weird ways. It's hard not to fixate on the uncertainty about the future. The fact that all your contact with friends/family is virtual means that even socializing doesn't get you away from social media distractions. Right now I'm trying to cope with the realization that even when my voluntary self-quarantine ends, things won't be all that different for a while. I'm excited to be able to do my own grocery shopping, though, and maybe bike to the wooded area 5 miles away from me instead of just taking short walks around my neighborhood.

Yes, it is definitely harder than I expected. I am able to work from home, at least in the short term. Once my 2-week quarantine is over, I do need to show up at work occasionally, even though we had mothballed all nonessential projects. 

But even with work, yard work, and hangboard,,the restlessness is way worse than I thought it could ever be after just 10 days...

Well, sorry you ladies are having such a tough time but good on ya for doing the right thing.

Personally, my days off are fine. Not as interactive as I'd like but I've got enough house projects and a van rebuild going that I'm kept busy. We are lucky enough to have a great little spot to keep to ourselves in SW WA.

I'm dreading my work weeks to come. I had 2 patients who were ruling out for COVID, 1 was pretty unlikely, 1 seemed likely. So every time I get an itch on my throat I try not to psych myself out too much. I'm lucky that my work will only likely ramp up as far as financial security so I can't complain too much.

I've decided to cut down the use of the internet as of today. Just an hour in the morning and maybe an hour in the evening, I haven't decided yet. I don't think sitting around refreshing news pages and arguing with people n MP about this being a real situation is helping my mindset.

Stay strong everyone. We'll get through it.

B P wrote: I've decided to cut down the use of the internet as of today. Just an hour in the morning and maybe an hour in the evening, I haven't decided yet. I don't think sitting around refreshing news pages and arguing with people n MP about this being a real situation is helping my mindset.

Stay strong everyone. We'll get through it.

Yeah, I've been taking 1-3 hours each day where I put my laptop and phone in a drawer and go do something else (read, journal, walk/run). Not much, but it definitely helps.

Sounds like you are in health care? Thanks for everything you're doing and all the sacrifices you're making. I can only imagine it must be pretty tough sometimes.

Hi Etha. It's boring and stressful simultaneously. I should get away from my computer and phone. But, looking for some diversion, where in Somerville do you live? I lived there and nearby in a previous life.

Etha Williams wrote:

Yeah, I've been taking 1-3 hours each day where I put my laptop and phone in a drawer and go do something else (read, journal, walk/run). Not much, but it definitely helps.

Sounds like you are in health care? Thanks for everything you're doing and all the sacrifices you're making. I can only imagine it must be pretty tough sometimes.

Don’t thank me Etta, I’m selfishly promoting social distancing because I hate working overtime. 

wendy weiss wrote: Hi Etha. It's boring and stressful simultaneously. I should get away from my computer and phone. But, looking for some diversion, where in Somerville do you live? I lived there and nearby in a previous life.

Yeah, I definitely get boring and stressful! I live in the Porter/Davis area. Where in Somerville did you live?

Thanks for the book suggestion - I've been looking for some!

@Etha: Thanks for starting this thread. We will all climb again soon, even if it doesn't feel that way. In the meantime, here's to healing all the knocks we've been nursing and to watching lots of rad videos, as here:
https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/111348450/post-awesome-sport-climbing-videos-here
https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/116176802/post-awesome-trad-movies-here-2

Elbow bumps to all of you. :)

Etha Williams wrote:

Yeah, I definitely get boring and stressful! I live in the Porter/Davis area. Where in Somerville did you live?

Above a bar at the corner of Somerville Ave. and Lowell St. for 3 or 4 years in the early 70s. Before that, I lived on campus at Tufts. And for a short while on Mass Ave. in Cambridge. The last time I was in Somerville, 2008, the bar had been replaced by condos and the whole Porter/Davis area was so changed from my student days.  

Dana Bartlett wrote: All that is fine, but no social life is difficult - too much isolation is a bit disorienting, I find.  
Lord Moran was a surgeon, served in the British Army during World War I, on the front lines. He became fascinated with the soldiers' response to the intense stress of the daily bloodbath of trench warfare,  how they coped or did not, the limits of what people can tolerate.  His book about all this, The Anatomy of Courage, is good read.

Yeah, my experience has been similar. I never really realized how much I relied on seeing a small set of my close friends regularly until this! I've been FaceTiming and chatting with them a lot, which helps, but it's not really the same.

Thanks for the book rec! On a semi-relevant front, I've also been wanting to check out Sherwin B. Nuland's book How We Die, although I'm not sure whether it's the best choice for me right now. I feel like it could be either pretty helpful (lately I've honestly been having trouble focusing on distracting media that feel totally irrelevant to what's going on), or just too much right now. Currently, I'm reading Pynchon's Inherent Vice, which is somehow feeling perfect for where my focus and frame of mind is.

Jesse Marks wrote: Thanks for the book suggestion - I've been looking for some!

@Etha: Thanks for starting this thread. We will all climb again soon, even if it doesn't feel that way. In the meantime, here's to healing all the knocks we've been nursing and to watching lots of rad videos, as here:
https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/111348450/post-awesome-sport-climbing-videos-here
https://www.mountainproject.com/forum/topic/116176802/post-awesome-trad-movies-here-2

Elbow bumps to all of you. :)

Yeah, I love those threads!

Almost Alpine is a pretty fun mockumentary for anyone looking for that kind of thing. I've watched it probably 6 times and I still laugh every time.

Elbow bumps back :)

--

edit: First time reaching my post limit on MP...quarantine milestone, whooooo!

Anyway, Wendy and Dana - Somerville continues to change! There was a big development project planned to build student housing in Davis. it was going to force out the Burren and several neighboring businesses, including the yoga studio (where I work part-time), the market, and a couple restaurants (though I think they subsequently worked out a deal to let the Burren stay). Wonder what will be happening with that now....

The Burren wasn't there BITD. The Plough and Stars in Cambridge is the only Irish bar I remember.

Fantastic! We are headed to a beautiful temple in Kyoto today. Will hopefully eat more delicious street food and enjoy Japan. But, ask me tomorrow when we get back to the USA. Not excited about that.

I live in Bishop, and thought I was lucky, I can climb local I thought!  But as the reality of this all set in, I realized that wasn't the responsible thing to do.  I miss my friends, I worry about my job as an Occupational Therapist and about the health of our little town.  But I think I figured out how to Skype with patients so that could be my lifeline.  I cried a lot yesterday, but then woke up this morning and realized I need to do something to get out of this depression.  Our remote town has to conserve N95 masks by covering them with another mask so they can reuse them, which is not that great, but it's what the CDC is recommending in places with shortages.  If you want to make masks, there are directions here https://freesewing.org/blog/facemask-frenzy/   I recommend making the straps a little longer, maybe more like 40cm and I'm using the large size template so it can go over the N95s.

Good luck everyone and I really look forward to seeing everyone in the spring of recovery from this!

Monica Jones wrote:I cried a lot yesterday, but then woke up this morning and realized I need to do something to get out of this depression.  

Yeah, I think I'm in a similar place. An interesting facet of quarantine for me is that while the future uncertainty makes things emotionally very difficult, in terms of day-to-day routine you can have a kind of simplicity emerge (once/if things like remote working are figured out, anyway...). 

I'm finding that this makes it a little easier for me to make positive changes in my everyday life, because there are fewer pleasurable distractions (going out climbing, going to a bar, etc) and just less physical coming and going between places in general.

Monica, did you ever watch Apollo 13? I’m having a hard time Finding the clip but it’s inside flight control just before they come back through the atmosphere in the lunar landing module. There’s some Politician that says something about this being a disaster in the background and Gene,
The flight commander turns around and says “with all due respect sir I think this will be our finest hour.”
This is going to be our finest hour Monica. 

Thanks, for starting this thread, and thanks to everyone who has been so thoughtful in their replies.  I found it quite moving to  read of others' struggles and also successes; being kind of an old Luddite I tend to denigrate the value of on-line and virtual connection, so perhaps this will be my personal silver lining and area of growth!

I work with the 24 hour emergency psychiatric crisis team, so still coming in and seeing people.  The volume is actually lower than usual for a number of reasons--college students not here, people not wanting to leave home and venture out, lots of pressure to stay out of the emergency room, and a major contraction in services to refer people to.  I have some fear of contracting the virus, but I feel fine and don't know anyone who's particularly ill, so the fear isn't very immediate.  I think as climbers we're sort of used to walking on thin ice, and getting in frightening situations and hoping for the best, so this hasn't felt too scary, though I recognize things could change dramatically in the next few weeks.

Like others, I've certainly missed getting out and climbing, both the physical and social aspects.  It has brought up inner ethical debates about whether to go at all, or maybe under specific circumstances--obscure local crags at off times.  I know this topic has been debated on many threads on here, so no need to rehash the arguments, just that for me it has been an on-going and evolving internal debate about social responsibility versus wanting to enjoy my life as much as I can each day.  I know there's other things to do, but nothing that's nearly as much fun!

Thanks again for this, Salud!

Well, my father is still working at a hardware store, I'm being told (they live 2 hours drive away). I'm not too stocked on that. Feels weird that the kid worry about their parents - but I guess in a way it's karmic retribution for all the worrysome decisions I've myself made while I was under their custody.

Other than that, the last few week-end went something like this:

• We have plans for the week-end. They don't fall under stuff prohibited by public-health guidances/laws, but they're kinda on the border. We typically decide to do it with extra precaution, or alter plans slightly.
• The week goes by, and then what was fine the previous week-end is now forbidden.

And the cycle goes on every week, with ever more restricted plans.... We climbed this week-end at our local crag. I'm in quebec so it's barely climbable right now (snow's melting everywhere, wet, etc.). The crag is still deserted for now, but typically the week-end gets a little crowded as the summer moves in. I hope it'll stay quiet so I can still defend to myself climbing there. We still have the option of evenings during the week for short sessions, if things get bad. Unless of course complete lock down takes overs.

I'm half-worried it might be the only climbing I get before quite a while.

The upside is I'm running a lot more. Building up that cardio & VO2max so I have some leeway when covid comes!