Before the Plague, DH and I were looking forward to getting a new car and taking a vacation back to MA. We got the new car (well, 2 years old, but only 27,000 miles on it and looks brand-new) but now the entire world is closed because of the Plague.

I was so looking forward to seeing the Alcott House (I have been a big fan of Louisa May Alcott and her younger sister May for decades), the Emerson House and whatever else back there is worth touring.

We've been doing this mask-and-shelter drill for nearly a year now. There are covidiots everywhere who refuse to wear masks, and over 400,000 Americans have died of this stuff.

Is there ANYTHING to look forward to, any more, in the non-religious sense? I am SO bummed out with this stuff.

I am burned out by the plague, Catnip, and I'm sure many others are as well.

It sucks.

It is what it is. It isn't what it ain't.

I rather think that I and the other INFJs of the world are having a pretty good time.

It's no help to you, but it's pretty much always the case that when some feast, others famish, and then we all doo-see-doo, swing your partner, alley-man left, then do it again...

Yes, I agree with you!

All I really do is go see a musical in a theater again. Its been the longest year of my life not seeing a show.

I wanted to go to MA as well last year for the Mayflower celebration. Such a bummer.

Hang in there, catnip. (And just ignore poster The Sounds of Silence.)
COVID fatigue is real, and hits all of us to one degree or another.

I do think that we’ll continue masking for a while yet. For us, another year or so. We double mask and wear face shields. Too many people unmasked so we have to watch out for ourselves. With vaccinations rolling out, things will hopefully get better sooner rather than later. But then there are all those new variants. It will eventually improve. When it does, what I will do first is hug my son.

Hopefully you’ll be able to safely take your trip next year.

TG

I am INTJ which is superior to being INFJ, EOD. :)

I am lucky to be happiest by myself in my garden, doing my art, and working (which I can do in a giant building with us all twenty feet apart and still masked, how lucky). But I get it. If there were a disease that forced us to stay in public I would go out of my mind. The worst for me would be a crowded theater or a full restaurant. Don't even say the plane word. So glad to have reason not to travel. Malls are Outer Darkness.

People are so bored they are now walking up our canyon street just to get out of the house and the park they usually walk in is closed and I resent them. That's my street dammit. Get off.

Can't wait for things to get back to normal so people are easier to avoid.

Seriously catnip. This is a long haul and it is rough. You have plenty of company. When I got my first vaccination I felt some odd feeling for the first time in forever. Confused me as I almost cried, but turned out it was hope. That was a nice day and there were even a lot of people there. A lot. Humanity at its best for a change.

Hang in there. You'll be back out milling around with all those horrible people soon enough.

I’m beyond sick of the plague. I’m so tired of being alone I could scream and like D&D I’m an INTJ. My extrovert of a SIL is going to be a candidate for the funny farm soon.

As for Orchard House I was just telling a friend in MA I’m dying to come see her and make another visit.

I too am dying for live theater. I have so many rescheduled plays 1/2 of the 2020 season and so far 1/2 of 2021.

I think the hardest part was a cancer scare last fall. No one to hold my hand and tell me it was going to be fine. Turned out it was but August to December were some of the longest months of my life.

I’m like you, catnip; my husband and I like to go on road trips and see Yellowstone, and places in southern Utah.
I miss going to Coldstone and getting some ice cream.
We’ve gained a new appreciation for our backyard and the wild birds that come to our bird feeders.
I’m glad to spend more time with hubby and our fur baby.
Still though, I’m tired of having to to stay away from kids and grandkids...texting is great and so is FaceTime, but face to face is what we’re eagerly waiting for.
Like the poster of the kitty cat, we’re “ hanging in there”.

Thank you for mentioning seeing kids and grandkids. I have not hugged my two granddaughters in OVER A YEAR, and they live right here in town. Their dad is has them every other weekend, but he will not take a chance on bringing them over to our house because DH and I are in our 70s, with moderately nasty to severe underlying conditions, and he does not want to take the risk.

Vaccine rollouts seem to be moving along at a glacial pace in our area, too, which is discouraging. We keep seeing these marvelous numbers of how many thousands of people have been vaccinated, but we registered, as instructed, and haven't heard a syllable.

I'm going to have to take the Myers-Briggs again. I have taken it in the past, but I have forgotten how I was classified. I hope they aren't expensive.

I love you guys!!

Yet another INTJ here. My favorite friends are the ones who cancel.

Me Too. I'm burned out by the plague also. Fortunately I love to garden and work on my house so I have plenty to do. I also love to go for long walks and look at old houses, of which there are plenty in my city. I can walk for 2 hours and at that point I don't want to have to turn around and head home again because a long walk is so much fun!

I'm trying to see the positives. Although we all need to recognize that we have a new monster in the world: Xi

Yes, I think we are all weary of it. It's been a year now. Plus, the vaccine rollout is slow.

I would recommend going up to Massachusetts in the fall. Go via western Massachusetts and see the leaves in full color. It's a sight to behold.

The vaccine rollout is slow. Yup.

There was a graph in the science section of the NYT last night that showed a pretty impressive steady climb in the administration of the doses now that there is actually a plan in place and some organization behind it. They are picking up traction quickly now. Putting emphasis on a pandemic is starting to work. Who knew? Well, besides most every body but the ones who mattered.

Interestingly this was at the end of the article:

"In 2017 the United Nations Children's Fund recruited 190,000 vaccinators to give polio vaccines to 116 million children in one week. In the same year, Nigeria injected measles vaccine into almost 5 million children in a week."

I really don't think *we* should be calling *them* Third World any more. I think it takes more than being world class shoppers and golfers to be a true First World country.

There was also a round of smallpox vaccinations in NYC back in the 1950s if I recall correctly. they vaccinated I believe 6 million people in a couple of weeks when a visitor from Brazil brought a case of smallpox to the area.

The big difference in all those earlier cases compared to covid is that there were ample supplies of vaccine available.

The holdup now is not lack of people to put shots in arms. It is lack of availability of the material for the shot.


I'm tired of feeling locked up too, but I am old enough that the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel is just weeks away. I will survive another month of this (knock on wood).

Besides, compared to trying to be a teacher, or bus driver, or restaurant server, or flight attendant, or ER medical worker, and the list goes on and on, being stuck at home and delaying vacation is not the worst thing in the world.

Hard still to get a definitive story with all this. The graph in the paper actually showed vaccine production was out pacing the injections. Don't know how accurate that is. Not sure what another set of data would show. I hope its true and I hope the vaccinations catch up.

I was told that the use of RNA was what made so much vaccine production possible because my little mind couldn't comprehend how they cold possibly make that much that fast.

Like you, I'm fine. Just want it to be better for so many who don't have the more ideal situation that I seem to have.

The article I referenced was actually about how burned out the Doctors are getting and about the measures they are taking to cope and hang in there. If they and all the others you just mentioned can keep going somehow, then my little problems don't "amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

I find myself getting a bit burned out about every couple months, and that lasts a few days. Feeling it a bit this week, mainly just tired of the year long routine with very little variation and with winter weather, we're indoors most of the time these days.

But on the bright side, my wife and I qualify for vaccines as caregivers to her 97 year old mom who lives with us. After not having any appointments for a while, they finally got more doses and opened up scheduling appointments, so we get our first shot tomorrow morning.

It has pretty much turned me into a recluse. I'm a loner anyway and this has fed that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/03/2021 01:44PM by Lethbridge Reprobate.

I live in an area that there aren't as many cases or deaths (Cache Valley or the Box Elder area of Utah), but many of my neighbors have had the virus. I even went over to my next door neighbors (with 6 children) to drop something off when I was told they were in quarantine.

I get up every morning hoping there is good news or that it went away, the numbers have dropped, etc. And I'm always disappointed. I have hope with the vaccine. I should be eligible in the next month as I have diabetes and I'm 63. I do get out and go places including movies (almost nobody there, so I don't see it as scary as going to Walmart). Sometimes we're the only 2 in the theater. We're going to go to a burger place tonight. But it all feels strange even if we go out. It feels oppressive.

Even without the pandemic, there have been a lot of other things I've had to deal with in all this. Everything seems to have an added cloud over it.

I miss the theatre and concerts and the movies, but they'll be back when this is over. I can find plenty of things do indoors our outdoors.

Wearing a mask and/or social distancing are small inconveniences compared to a global viral pandemic that threatens the entire human race.

Well, it sure changes things
But I can't change that.

I bought a vehicle and began a trip when WAM! Pandemic hits!! Ruined everything. Then, initially, we all stayed put but I had to eventually get back, and finally did, but virtually NOTHING has changed and so has EVERYTHING.

I wasn't able to see anything or stop anywhere on the way back. BEAUTIFUL country, but closed, until further notice, which may never come...

Then there's the 'law'
and civility, and BS

Laws forcing businesses to close, people to stop dancing, to fight or argue for no reason, to go hungry or without, to suffer loneliness, busted for exercising their constitutional rights, basic tension toward others in general, for no real reason at all.

Yeah, I wish we could turn the page... but we probably all need to get on the same page first, and turn it together.

I'm 78, with several compromising physical conditions, and still haven't gotten the vaccine. I have an appointment for February 27, and am wondering if I will survive long enough to get enough immunity. I wonder if there will be vaccine available at the very end of that week, and month. I wonder if I will be able to obtain the necessary second dose. I live in Salt Lake City.

Utah put teachers ahead of elderly high risk people. Old people in care facilities came after that, and now the I'm not a teacher, but am around toddlers every day, using all the precautions possible. I live in the same house with my grandchildren. I and haven't hugged my other grandchildren, or held them in my lap to read to them, or played games with them for a year.

In January, the elderly couple next door to us both died, my friend who is a doctor has covid and is in the hospital right now, with blood clots in his lungs. His wife is hanging on, but her family thinks she needs to be in the hospital, too. A friend died of Covid while visiting his family back East. Our anti-masker neighbors' entire family had Covid, from Christmas together, and recovered. A young girl across the street got Covid at a New Year's party. My best friend just tested positive today, and she is 77 with asthma.

As Brother of Jerry said,

>>"being stuck at home and delaying vacation is not the worst thing in the world."<<

My home is a great place to be. I agree that it would be worse to be stuck in a crowd, or trapped on a cruise ship or hotel, or stacked up in the corridor or an overcrowded hospital or parking garage on a ventilator. Every day, I thank God for my house and the grocery store and the calls from my family.

What bothers me is living in FEAR for months on end. Someday, if I do get a decent vaccination (not 1/2 without the second dose, not a vaccine that is too weak for old people, not a vaccine that is ineffective agains the new variants, not a vaccine that was not stored properly, etc.). I hope to live without that horrible dread.

I don't care if I have to wear a mask the rest of my life.
I don't care if we have to be tested before we can hug each other.
I don't care if I never go to another movie or play or ballet.
I don't care if I have to eat my own cooking forever.

I will do anything to get rid of my fear and worry about me and my loved ones, and to stop mourning 450,000 lives of fellow Americans! God help us.

I'm a single school teacher, and I live alone. I just received my first dose of vaccine. But once the students come back into school buildings, which will be soon, I likely won't be able to see my elderly family members again until the summer. The vaccine protects me, but I can still transmit the virus. And schools are very germy places. So I will have no family to talk to in person, or hug, or visit.

The CDC says that schools can be safe (well, safer than the community spread, which is atrocious in some places,) IF mitigation strategies are in place and everything goes according to plan. When you are dealing with young children, or adolescents, not everything goes according to plan. So we will be keeping our fingers crossed.

I desperately want my elderly family members to get the vaccine, and am doing my best to help them get on various lists. But no luck so far. There just isn't enough vaccine.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/09/2021 08:26AM by summer.

2 thoughts for these Covid blues:

"I don't think I get enough credit for the fact that I do all of this unmedicated."

"I'm not one to brag, but I made it out of bed."

Thanks for the laughs. Spot on!

Thought of you last night, catnip, when I was reading a review and the author made a point about having a refuge like most of us are in now as not being the ideal. Instead he saw himself as more like a galaxy with a need to orbit which is what none of us are getting now. Orbiting as a critical human need. Spinning in place isn't quite the same thing, is it!

Hope you get to explore your own Milky Way soon.

I am a single widdower and the whole thing has played hell with my social life. NO BROADS NO BOOZE NO BOOTY NO NUTTIN"

I'm disturbed by your need to mention "no broads" and "no booty" separately.

DH and I spent a lot of last year walking around the town, growing a lot of veggies and flowers, reading a lot, writing papers, playing music, playing board games, solving puzzles, ordering online, etc. And we've even managed to lose weight.


And yeah, it's frustrating.

We've spent hours sanitizing all our grocery deliveries as we bring them in. We've let mail sit for days before we opened it. We have neither gone to restaurants nor ordered from them. We haven't gone to outdoor events sponsored by groups we belong to, even with social distancing. We've actively avoided any parks that were overrun with people. We've dodged across streets to avoid dogwalkers, joggers, bicyclists, children, etc. who weren't masked. We can't walk around now for all the snow, but the first day that it's cleared and warm enough - which might be tomorrow - we'll be out walking again.

We isolated for two weeks each time before we visited our respective aging mothers (as did they), and we also isolated for two weeks afterwards, every time.


We are fortunate. We're still healthy. We have been able to avoid, avoid, avoid. And we've made great efforts to stay that way.

That's why when I see people unmasked, when I watch TV reports of people who don't have the self-control to sacrifice for the greater good, when I see people who just don't give a f*$% about other people and it's all about them - that's when I'm most frustrated by the pandemic.


Otherwise, like I've said before, the privations for me personally aren't much harder than on my mission. But I know I'm fortunate, and I feel sad for those for whom this pandemic is causing real suffering.

Tyson

I am!

There’s so much traveling I still want to do. And I miss dining out and going on day trips... and concerts. I have tickets for a Keb Mo show that was supposed to happen in November 2020 and may go on in September. My husband and I have lost several relatives to non COVID causes. He lost his dad in November and couldn’t be at the funeral.

And I am tired of how mean and divisive are, especially online. Here in Germany, people are pretty respectful. Thank God for that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2021 02:45PM by knotheadusc.

Ugh.

No more MET OPERA presentations in local theaters :(

Last One I saw was Porgy & Bess in Pt. Townsend, it was OTW!