We thought we would be gearing up for some more travel about now. Tickets were bought, reservations made, for a tour of Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Slovenia, all by way of Italy. Coronavirus in Italy and surrounding countries has made that a very bad idea!
So, instead, we are at home and in isolation, maintaining our “social distance” from everyone — friends, neighbors, and even family. We greatly miss our playtime with two-year-old granddaughter Clara that each of us has enjoyed for about a half a day each week. But on the plus side, we get more opportunities to see more distant grandkids, Harper, Corbin, and Malcolm, via FaceTime now that their parents are working from home and have need of occasional distractions for the kids.
We’re a full week past the official “first day of spring,” but today is the first day it has really felt like spring. Yes, we’ve had a few warm days scattered through March already. But this morning, when we got up, I noticed the birds were singing more loudly. And, today is the first day we can truly say that the ice is off the pond behind our house. The sun is shining, at least for awhile (rain is forecast for later, and for all day tomorrow).
Our days generally begin sometime between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Despite being retired for almost three years, I’ve not yet mastered sleeping in. We can’t go to the gym, as was our daily habit prior to the pandemic, but I still dress in my sweats to begin the day. After making coffee and some toast, I use my iPad to catch up on mail, Facebook, and several newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
By 8 a.m. or a little after, I’m ready for some exercise. I’ve pulled the old NordicTrack ski machine out of storage and set it up in the basement. I can work up a sweat while watching half of an episode of Star Trek. Mary doesn’t share my interest in sci-fi, so I can use this time to watch these without bothering her by wearing headphones while on the machine. After that, I hit the shower, then dress. We are maintaining the same wardrobe as if we weren’t in isolation, so usually jeans and a shirt with a sweater or sweatshirt.
The computer boots up while I’m in the shower, and I get the ham radio going. Right now, my satellite capability is offline until weather permits getting on the roof to address an antenna issue (it should be soon!), so I’m limited to the shortwaves. We’re at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, so those frequency bands aren’t in great shape, but I keep the radio on much of the day anyway. On the computer, I go through a list of blogs, social media, and other news sources that I skim through daily. These include news from Iowa and from Nottingham, radio and electronics posts, etc.
I have two ongoing projects. One is practicing a bit of Spanish each day with a couple free lessons from a site called Duolingo. I doubt that I’ll become conversant in Spanish with this, but I’m recalling forgotten vocabulary from my high school Spanish classes. I also spend about 15 minutes copying Morse Code from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) website. I’ve got my code speed back up to where it was the last time I had to take an FCC test (about a half century ago), and I hope to eventually get beyond that.
Afternoons include reading. Even though the public libraries are closed, we have some unread books in the house. And, we can still get library ebooks to download to our iPads. Mary prefers reading off her pad, I tolerate it. Ink on dead trees is still my preference. Other afternoon projects have included sorting through junk in the basement, moving furniture to do deep cleaning around the house, tinkering with electronic projects at the workbench, and doing my bit on editing a couple of amateur radio organization newsletters.
We try to get out and walk everyday, weather permitting. Today’s weather should permit more than one walk. There are more people out walking in the neighborhood these days than we’ve ever seen! But Minnesotans are good about maintaining social distance. We wave and say hello, even to those we don’t know, but stay at least 6 feet apart from everyone.
Dinner in the evening is our main meal. Mary does the cooking, but I wash dishes and clean up the kitchen after her. We generally watch the evening newscasts during this time, hoping they aren’t pre-empted by the propaganda ramblings disguised as Presidential briefings. We also generally speak to my parents by phone at this time of day. Their entire senior living facility is on lock down, and we couldn’t visit them, even if we were in Des Moines.
Evenings around dusk are the best times for shortwave radio work, especially on the lower frequency bands. I’m trying to increase the number of countries I’ve confirmed contacts with on the lower frequencies, in pursuit of an ARRL award certificate. Then there’s more reading, and we usually stream a couple hours of a TV series or a movie from Amazon Prime or some other source. Bedtime is earlier than I would generally prefer, so sometimes I read after Mary has gone to bed. More often, I go to bed, too, and listen to her sleep.
So that’s our daily routine during quarantine. Honestly, it’s not a whole lot different than our normal life in retirement. But it will be nice when we can get out more often, go to church, enjoy a meal in a restaurant, get a haircut, and generally interact with people once again .
So, instead, we are at home and in isolation, maintaining our “social distance” from everyone — friends, neighbors, and even family. We greatly miss our playtime with two-year-old granddaughter Clara that each of us has enjoyed for about a half a day each week. But on the plus side, we get more opportunities to see more distant grandkids, Harper, Corbin, and Malcolm, via FaceTime now that their parents are working from home and have need of occasional distractions for the kids.
We’re a full week past the official “first day of spring,” but today is the first day it has really felt like spring. Yes, we’ve had a few warm days scattered through March already. But this morning, when we got up, I noticed the birds were singing more loudly. And, today is the first day we can truly say that the ice is off the pond behind our house. The sun is shining, at least for awhile (rain is forecast for later, and for all day tomorrow).
Our days generally begin sometime between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Despite being retired for almost three years, I’ve not yet mastered sleeping in. We can’t go to the gym, as was our daily habit prior to the pandemic, but I still dress in my sweats to begin the day. After making coffee and some toast, I use my iPad to catch up on mail, Facebook, and several newspapers: New York Times, Washington Post, and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
By 8 a.m. or a little after, I’m ready for some exercise. I’ve pulled the old NordicTrack ski machine out of storage and set it up in the basement. I can work up a sweat while watching half of an episode of Star Trek. Mary doesn’t share my interest in sci-fi, so I can use this time to watch these without bothering her by wearing headphones while on the machine. After that, I hit the shower, then dress. We are maintaining the same wardrobe as if we weren’t in isolation, so usually jeans and a shirt with a sweater or sweatshirt.
The computer boots up while I’m in the shower, and I get the ham radio going. Right now, my satellite capability is offline until weather permits getting on the roof to address an antenna issue (it should be soon!), so I’m limited to the shortwaves. We’re at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, so those frequency bands aren’t in great shape, but I keep the radio on much of the day anyway. On the computer, I go through a list of blogs, social media, and other news sources that I skim through daily. These include news from Iowa and from Nottingham, radio and electronics posts, etc.
I have two ongoing projects. One is practicing a bit of Spanish each day with a couple free lessons from a site called Duolingo. I doubt that I’ll become conversant in Spanish with this, but I’m recalling forgotten vocabulary from my high school Spanish classes. I also spend about 15 minutes copying Morse Code from the American Radio Relay League (ARRL) website. I’ve got my code speed back up to where it was the last time I had to take an FCC test (about a half century ago), and I hope to eventually get beyond that.
Afternoons include reading. Even though the public libraries are closed, we have some unread books in the house. And, we can still get library ebooks to download to our iPads. Mary prefers reading off her pad, I tolerate it. Ink on dead trees is still my preference. Other afternoon projects have included sorting through junk in the basement, moving furniture to do deep cleaning around the house, tinkering with electronic projects at the workbench, and doing my bit on editing a couple of amateur radio organization newsletters.
We try to get out and walk everyday, weather permitting. Today’s weather should permit more than one walk. There are more people out walking in the neighborhood these days than we’ve ever seen! But Minnesotans are good about maintaining social distance. We wave and say hello, even to those we don’t know, but stay at least 6 feet apart from everyone.
Dinner in the evening is our main meal. Mary does the cooking, but I wash dishes and clean up the kitchen after her. We generally watch the evening newscasts during this time, hoping they aren’t pre-empted by the propaganda ramblings disguised as Presidential briefings. We also generally speak to my parents by phone at this time of day. Their entire senior living facility is on lock down, and we couldn’t visit them, even if we were in Des Moines.
Evenings around dusk are the best times for shortwave radio work, especially on the lower frequency bands. I’m trying to increase the number of countries I’ve confirmed contacts with on the lower frequencies, in pursuit of an ARRL award certificate. Then there’s more reading, and we usually stream a couple hours of a TV series or a movie from Amazon Prime or some other source. Bedtime is earlier than I would generally prefer, so sometimes I read after Mary has gone to bed. More often, I go to bed, too, and listen to her sleep.
So that’s our daily routine during quarantine. Honestly, it’s not a whole lot different than our normal life in retirement. But it will be nice when we can get out more often, go to church, enjoy a meal in a restaurant, get a haircut, and generally interact with people once again .
