Life in the lost year

[Tharmas]

Watched a pre-season baseball game the other night. The stands were empty but they played recorded crowd noises, keyed to the action (close call: crowd mummers – home run: crowd goes wild). Then they sent out the human interest reporter into the stands to see what she could turn up and she interviewed some giant bobble-head figures on the outfield terrace. So it was strange.

Then I watched an NBA scrimmage in the Florida “bubble” – no crowd and no noise, just the players grunting and the sneakers squeaking. Very strange, even eerie.

Such is life in 2020.

 

[rousseau]

I've been watching crowd-less soccer matches the past few weeks. It definitely feels like something's missing without fans attending the games.

I'll be interested to see what they do with the Ontario Hockey League this season - big money in ticket sales, but there isn't much of a TV market for the games.

 

[Politesse]

Watched a pre-season baseball game the other night. The stands were empty but they played recorded crowd noises, keyed to the action (close call: crowd mummers – home run: crowd goes wild). Then they sent out the human interest reporter into the stands to see what she could turn up and she interviewed some giant bobble-head figures on the outfield terrace. So it was strange.

Then I watched an NBA scrimmage in the Florida “bubble” – no crowd and no noise, just the players grunting and the sneakers squeaking. Very strange, even eerie.

Such is life in 2020.

I mean, that's what a practice game is like, yeah? It's more weird from an entertainment standpoint than a sporting standpoint I should thing. But I'm not expert on sport. Like Aristotle, I will leave it to those whose excellence is best fostered in that art.

 

[rousseau]

Watched a pre-season baseball game the other night. The stands were empty but they played recorded crowd noises, keyed to the action (close call: crowd mummers – home run: crowd goes wild). Then they sent out the human interest reporter into the stands to see what she could turn up and she interviewed some giant bobble-head figures on the outfield terrace. So it was strange.

Then I watched an NBA scrimmage in the Florida “bubble” – no crowd and no noise, just the players grunting and the sneakers squeaking. Very strange, even eerie.

Such is life in 2020.

I mean, that's what a practice game is like, yeah? It's more weird from an entertainment standpoint than a sporting standpoint I should thing. But I'm not expert on sport. Like Aristotle, I will leave it to those whose excellence is best fostered in that art.

I definitely noticed an impact on the quality of the games when things were starting out. The crowd is a big factor in motivating players. Many of the matches felt a bit deflated, exactly like an exhibition.

But the players did / will get used to it.

 

[Tharmas]

Watched a pre-season baseball game the other night. The stands were empty but they played recorded crowd noises, keyed to the action (close call: crowd mummers – home run: crowd goes wild). Then they sent out the human interest reporter into the stands to see what she could turn up and she interviewed some giant bobble-head figures on the outfield terrace. So it was strange.

Then I watched an NBA scrimmage in the Florida “bubble” – no crowd and no noise, just the players grunting and the sneakers squeaking. Very strange, even eerie.

Such is life in 2020.

I mean, that's what a practice game is like, yeah? It's more weird from an entertainment standpoint than a sporting standpoint I should thing. But I'm not expert on sport. Like Aristotle, I will leave it to those whose excellence is best fostered in that art.

I definitely noticed an impact on the quality of the games when things were starting out. The crowd is a big factor in motivating players. Many of the matches felt a bit deflated, exactly like an exhibition.

But the players did / will get used to it.

Watched another NBA scrimmage last night and I agree now - the players will get used to it. And so will I. I still miss attending live games though.

 

[Tharmas]

We don’t go to movies much, so drive-ins at Walmart won’t be a deal for us. Wearing masks while out shopping isn’t a big deal to me. I’ve been working at home for the last five years, so that’s not new.

I’m now ordering all my groceries for delivery, so that’s really different and takes some adaption. I’m cutting my own hair, which is a trip (fortunately I don’t have too much left to mess up).

What’s really changed in your life in the year of covid?

Oh, and I haven't bought gas since February, not that I miss it.

 

[Politesse]

Not so much, really. I do badly miss my classroom, though, and physical interactions with my students and colleagues. And coffeeshops. Definitely coffeeshops.

But that's it, more things that are missing than things that have changed as such.

 

[rousseau]

What’s really changed in your life in the year of covid?

It's been a ride for us with the birth of our son right in the midst of it. We were about 6 - 8 weeks away from our due date when everything started shutting down, at the point when there was huge uncertainty about how things were going to play out in Canada. It was also in the back of our minds that the virus could peak, and hospitals could be flooded exactly when our son was being born.

So in the beginning we were pretty stressed out and doing a lot of contingency planning. Luckily we largely had all of our essentials for baby already.

But then ironically things didn't go too poorly in our city with the virus, and it started working to our advantage after his birth. Partner gained a month of maternity leave, I'm now working from home, we aren't getting bombarded with visitors for the baby, and we aren't at a big risk when we go out. So the major change as of late is just being a little home-stuck, but that would have been the case with a newborn anyway. And since his birth we haven't had time to think about the pandemic much.

 

[Toni]

Well, this was going to be a year of travel for me. Probably no big trips but lots of smaller ones. We cancelled one for June, and I had cancelled a small trip last October and even last May because of family things so that's a lot of lost chances to do things that I love and see people I love but only one of those was Covid related. Plus everything this summer that I had hoped to do.

My father in law died just before Covid took off and before things were starting to be shut down. We ended up canceling the memorial which was going to be held at the senior apartments where he lived. Will we do it there, when this is over? How many people there who were his friends will still remember him or care?

Daily? I miss being able to just casually do errands, visit with neighbors, heck, even drive up to visit my kids casually.

I miss the feeling of freedom. Now, everything feels very constrained.

I enjoy going to the movie theater so that's a loss. No chance to go to the local festivals or to the state fair.

All the things I had hoped to do are just....postponed indefinitely. As far as travel goes: assuming that the world opens up in 2021 and the US is no longer grounded, my assumption is that there will be so much pent up demand for travel that I will feel less inclined to go to places that are likely to be crowded.

My husband still teaches at the university and is the chair of his department so that's going to be pretty rough. Lots of adaptations and changes to be made and people to be mentored in that, hands to be held (figuratively because: COVID). Increased financial uncertainty for the department and university because of COVID but we, personally, should be ok financially. Near enough to the end of career that the retirement fund is looking decent.

On the plus side, we've spent more time together and have managed to not kill one another. In many ways it's been nice. We are especially grateful that we have held onto the house where we raised our kids. The extra space has been good and has allowed us to have a bit of separation when we need it. I am grateful that I do not have a houseful of teenagers right now. I don't think I could manage the cries of It's Not FAIR---but maybe they wouldn't be like that. They were all smart kids and thoughtful so probably it would not have been like a whole family grounded for months situation...

And we've gotten to move ahead on some projects which has been nice. We had a couple of things already in progress when COVID hit and have been fortunate that we were able to finish some off. It's a big old money pit of a house whose many design issues we have not been able to address until now. We're more than half way through our list and through the most expensive things (kitchen, bathroom) and now down to other much needed things like updating other electrical, painting and removal of some bad 70's decor and then finally: finishing floors.

All in all, I recognize that we are extremely fortunate. I had retired prior to the pandemic so I have been able to avoid being in the midst of things in our area as I would have otherwise been. We have a steady and secure income with good health insurance and benefits intact. We live in a fairly low incidence area. We're healthy and financially ok. Our kids are healthy and employed. I know how very, very fortunate we are. But I feel pretty constrained. And mostly, I feel as though I should be doing more to help in this situation, but really, the best way to help right now is to stay home, do my best to support local businesses, make the local donations I'm able to make and wait it out.

 

[Tharmas]

Oh yeah, travel. We had two trips planned to NY to see the grand kids, and a trip to the Balkans for fun. All for nought. Just relying on Facetime for the grand kids, and bought an iPod so we can see them more comfortably.

On the plus side the coffee roaster where I bought my beans is just too small and crowded a space for me to feel comfortable in, so I started using another independent roaster that has a drive-through. It turns out they have a house blend I really like.