Your CoVid Summer

[Aphroditiac]

Tell me about your summer! The summer of no traveling, no concerts, and really, not much fun.

What did you guys do to try and enjoy yourselves?

As for me, I spent much of my summer up at the little cottage belonging to my family. Small, rustic, but if ya gotta be socially distant, I would rather do it in a canoe than bingeing on Netflix.

Because my place of work is still closed and shuttered thanks to the 'Rona, I have spent the summer living at the pleasure of Mr. Justin Trudeau. So, essentially, a kept woman. That's a glamorous way of saying that I am on the dole, er, CERB.

I'm more tanned than I have been since my teens. I developed a great technique for covert skinny dipping. I was bitten three times by wasps, and had horrible reactions to those. I re-learned how to crochet, and re-remembered that I don't really like it much. I've read about ten novels. I tried to cultivate vegetables in planter pots. The tomatoes did poorly, and the zucchini blossomed and blossomed, but only with male flowers. Thus, no zucchini bread baking right now.

Talk to me peeps. Whaddya do?

 

[butters]

mostly? i sweated. and bitched about the heat

digging and weeding and watering, harvesting, canning, cooking, freezing
and got chigger bites

but! i enjoyed almost all of the above and began messing with watercolours again (not for decades) and drawing horses... still a work in progress. used to draw them all the damned time as a kid, with real-life animals to work from. now it's from memory and imagination, plus i'm watching a little show jumping on 'tube.

oh! and we changed the living room around a few days ago... SO much brighter and airier feel to it with one sofa removed and the huge dark floor-to-almost-ceiling cabinet moved from where it dominated the room and cut off so much light/space to its opposite corner flat to the wall where it doesn't. stuck a bookcase in the top half, filled it with books and hey presto! i can walk into the room and not feel oppressed by it!

 

[rockcasbah]

My business has benefitted from covid and the economic collapse.

March was down about 50%, but every month since is up 20-40% over 2019.

I also raised my prices and most of my suppliers were free of charge for April-August, so my costs are down and margins, profits and cash position are all up.

Less work for more money. My favorite formula.

Spent my 2020 travel and restaurant money on home improvements/home entertainment, bought a newer convertible, a newer motorcycle, and have had a relaxed, worry free summer with a small group of family and friends, mostly.

I'm liking the slower pace of things generally.

I live in a covid-free zone, but that could change with the return of university students and kids back in school. We shall see.

The girl-watching's been poor this summer. I was following a young thing in flip flops, hair down, yoga pants and a tight thin tank top, no undies last week at the grocery store and realized the public skin numbers are way down this year.

 

[Aphroditiac]

Around here, all the lumber yards and hardware shops are scratching around for product, because it seems just about everyone had home improvements and renos on their Covid to-do list! I think that the new deck quota went up exponentially!

Sounds like all in all, a pretty good summer.

I try to never bitch about the heat, because I live where 8 months of the year it's too fucking cold.

mostly? i sweated. and bitched about the heat

digging and weeding and watering, harvesting, canning, cooking, freezing
and got chigger bites

but! i enjoyed almost all of the above and began messing with watercolours again (not for decades) and drawing horses... still a work in progress. used to draw them all the damned time as a kid, with real-life animals to work from. now it's from memory and imagination, plus i'm watching a little show jumping on 'tube.

oh! and we changed the living room around a few days ago... SO much brighter and airier feel to it with one sofa removed and the huge dark floor-to-almost-ceiling cabinet moved from where it dominated the room and cut off so much light/space to its opposite corner flat to the wall where it doesn't. stuck a bookcase in the top half, filled it with books and hey presto! i can walk into the room and not feel oppressed by it!

 

[LLCox]

I miss the movie theaters and the restaurants. That is all. I loved how the roads were not crowded during the shut down. I love how the gas prices are way down. It's not all bad.

 

[Aphroditiac]

I see that Covid hasn't changed you one iota.

I actually enjoy the more relaxed vibe, and of course, not having to graft at my shite job, but then feel guilty for it, because I know people who are struggling, both financially and psychologically.

Our covid numbers have been fairly low here. I was super vigilant in the beginning, sanitizing everything, lysol wiping my groceries, but I have laid off on that now.

I'm thinking about designing a haute couture style dress sewn entirely from discarded masks and gloves. Sure to be a hit for the fall runway shows.

My business has benefitted from covid and the economic collapse.

March was down about 50%, but every month since is up 20-40% over 2019.

I also raised my prices and most of my suppliers were free of charge for April-August, so my costs are down and margins, profits and cash position are all up.

Less work for more money. My favorite formula.

Spent my 2020 travel and restaurant money on home improvements/home entertainment, bought a newer convertible, a newer motorcycle, and have had a relaxed, worry free summer with a small group of family and friends, mostly.

I'm liking the slower pace of things generally.

I live in a covid-free zone, but that could change with the return of university students and kids back in school. We shall see.

The girl-watching's been poor this summer. I was following a young thing in flip flops, hair down, yoga pants and a tight thin tank top, no undies last week at the grocery store and realized the public skin numbers are way down this year.

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Tell me about your summer! The summer of no traveling, no concerts, and really, not much fun.

What did you guys do to try and enjoy yourselves?

As for me, I spent much of my summer up at the little cottage belonging to my family. Small, rustic, but if ya gotta be socially distant, I would rather do it in a canoe than bingeing on Netflix.

Because my place of work is still closed and shuttered thanks to the 'Rona, I have spent the summer living at the pleasure of Mr. Justin Trudeau. So, essentially, a kept woman. That's a glamorous way of saying that I am on the dole, er, CERB.

I'm more tanned than I have been since my teens. I developed a great technique for covert skinny dipping. I was bitten three times by wasps, and had horrible reactions to those. I re-learned how to crochet, and re-remembered that I don't really like it much. I've read about ten novels. I tried to cultivate vegetables in planter pots. The tomatoes did poorly, and the zucchini blossomed and blossomed, but only with male flowers. Thus, no zucchini bread baking right now.

Talk to me peeps. Whaddya do?

Hey Aphro!

Well, you know where I live, so...to say this particular summer has been a challenge is putting it lightly.

However, I can't say that it's been no fun at all. In fact, without dismissing the impact of Covid here and in America in general, I would say the fun was still around as long as you were able to adapt, flow and be more open. The one main thing I didn't do that I would've done during a summer is hang out at my spots and gab with pals. So the social aspect was shifted to a lot of communication through tech.

I didn't stay indoors all the time, either. If there was good weather, I was out and about either during mornings or evenings. Did lots of leg powerin' and expanded my local range. I've been in this particular area for over ten years, but just walking around, eschewing subway riding and seeing how far you can go gave me new things to see. Plenty of park visits. There are numerous microparks here I never knew about until I just basically walked by them. Hit up some venues that I hadn't been to before, gave them some biz for take out, custom orders, stuff like that.

When indoors and not working remotely, it was mainly Marie Kondo-ing things around the apartment. Getting rid of STUFF. Buying better STUFF to replace the older STUFF. It is amazing how much STUFF you can accrue over time. I'm still cleaning STUFF to this day. My office in the city is being deep cleaned, so we were told to take out all our STUFF and I took all that STUFF back here, which means more STUFF for me to sort out. That classic George Carlin routine was dead on!

 

[silver gurl]

It has been the summer of nothing. Not much to do and no place to go, as Quebec was banned from going east or south. No rentals available for a get away. Campgrounds completely booked the day they re-opened.
Sold the RV within a day.

I did a vegetable and flower garden.
Got some ice cream.
Did some shopping.

It was hot and humid, with 5 heatwaves. People were cranky. But I am not ready for winter, especially if there is another lockdown.

I received my CERB but I have been extremely busy with some independent contracting work the past 5 weeks. My real job comes back next month. My CERB is saved for a rainy day.

So overall, I give this summer a thumbs down. It sucked.

 

[thør]

I've pretty much worked all summer. Some work was on paying projects and some was on potential future projects. Due to COVID, I've got myself a little desk in the corner of my woodshop at home. I do occasionally pop into the office to sign things, bark a few orders, look at the old paper files, or retrieve a reference from our library.

I have done a lot of bicycling. I've assisted with the maintenance of the home gardens. I've built a few things. Drank a bit of wine and beer. Made some killer BBQ and grilled foods.

I abhor crowds and with the covid situation, moreso. And the trailheads have all been packed with humans this year. I just don't need being around them. I'm hoping that people will get back to working more and the trailheads will thin out.

I'm hoping to go to the cabin in a couple weeks. i haven't been since early March.

 

[CarlyAnn]

I've worked tons of OT in the ER at a major hospital in Boston. Nightshift work is awesome; you see things that your friends hardly believe when you tell them about your shift.

I had to be reminded when it was the last week of August.

Next year will be better, RIGHT?

 

[thør]

I've worked tons of OT in the ER at a major hospital in Boston. Nightshift work is awesome; you see things that your friends hardly believe when you tell them about your shift.

I had to be reminded when it was the last week of August.

Next year will be better, RIGHT?

It's September......

Not necessarily.

 

[doowdniw]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with tomato plants that did little this year. 8 plants/1 tomato. I've watered, fertilized, thumped all to no avail. Hoping for a fall crop, but not holding my breath. On the plus side, the peppers are really starting to pop.

 

[Ziggins]

I spent more time looking out my bedroom window, where trees block my view of the sky. I have been thinking of moving furniture so I can sit where there is more sky view.

 

[thør]

I'm glad I'm not the only one with tomato plants that did little this year. 8 plants/1 tomato. I've watered, fertilized, thumped all to no avail. Hoping for a fall crop, but not holding my breath. On the plus side, the peppers are really starting to pop.

We have lots of tomatoes from the 8 plants in the greenhouse. Every other day, the house smells like roasting tomatoes.

 

[Islander55]

We started the pandemic by having a cruise to Tahiti cancelled. Took the enhanced credit and that might not have been wise choice but one can hope. Being retired there were no work issues. Daughter needed serious surgery which was a bit scarier than normal with the virus but all went well. We were able to travel from AZ to TN without issue to help out. The US is still arguing over masks, the death count and still have no plan to fight the pandemic. I stand corrected. Pence did say he was praying for a miracle so I guess that is our plan. If anyone finds a spare miracle, please send it our way otherwise I suspect next summer may be much like this summer. Other than missing some social interaction and having to cook more, I can't really complain. Especially with all of the hardships and problems that so many are having to deal with.

 

[doowdniw]

We have lots of tomatoes from the 8 plants in the greenhouse. Every other day, the house smells like roasting tomatoes.

On the plus side, I'll be swimming in the pool through October. I think the heat is what shut down the tomatoes. I was late (May) putting them out. Should have gone out mid-March. But I didn't germinate the seeds until March, so I was behind schedule the entire time. It was a science experiment - I was germinating seeds from grocery store produce.

 

[Conager]

The population nose-dives each summer so I usually have more time on my hands. Due partly to the hysteria, and partly to at risk employees needing to isolate, several providers were short-staffed and I was busier than usual through about the second week of August. Interestingly, I heard few anecdotes of anyone that did work getting sick. A lot of people, myself included, think we were exposed at clinics and hospitals before it was known to be a concern. We can't all be right, but lots of us had the flu or a hacking cough early, like February. My former relief, Damon is mildy an at-risk person. He's not in his best shape and lost his father of a heart attack about three years ago at 53. He felt poorly when I did. He never got tested, but his young son was and had a mild case. His daughter and girlfriend were not infected.

It finally looks like summer so I have been making jerky, wrenching on the car, cobbling, organizing things, and I have rejoined Amazon to discover that they have expanded their product line to include more than the just books the sold when I patronized them previously. I might have a shopping problem.

The small one and I have been finding small diners that are open. AMC theaters were supposedly opening, but I haven't found a location that is. Thrift stores are open again, do we do that. Mostly I take her on errands since there is nowhere to go.

 

[pointless]

i smoked more weed and drank more booze.

and not even that much of either. just more than normal these days.

 

[thør]

On the plus side, I'll be swimming in the pool through October. I think the heat is what shut down the tomatoes. I was late (May) putting them out. Should have gone out mid-March. But I didn't germinate the seeds until March, so I was behind schedule the entire time. It was a science experiment - I was germinating seeds from grocery store produce.

I can buy tomatoes in the store for prolly a 1/10 of what we end up putting into them. They do taste better. We used to grow them outside in summer when we lived on the flatlands, but the greenhouse is a much better habitat for them on the hillside.

Pools are a maintenance headache in these parts.

 

[coati]

Well, the entire summer was definitely colored by COVID-19 and politics, but I stayed very active anyway.

My garden prospered despite the extreme heat and drought, so I pick vegetables every morning and evening. Was overwhelmed with zucchinis, again, so I trucked most of that to the local food bank. Ate. wholesaled, and gave away the rest. Decided not to do farmers' markets this year.

Many people need extra space during a pandemic, so I had plenty of construction contracts. One of those gigs involved driving to the Northwest with my tools to finish a job, so I got to do some camping in both directions. About half of the campgrounds in California were closed and most of the rest were full, but I had a good time in the ones that had space. Campers, for the most part, were very respectful of the necessary public health measures.

I stayed sexually active all summer, thanks in great part to my girlfriend's good nature and sexual appetite.

But, still, it felt like there was a dark pall hovering over all these experiences because of the chaos and conflict in America.

 

[Fermina_Daza]

I’ve not been IN the office since March but work has been crazy busy. Our schools start early too so we are about 5 weeks in already with outbreaks already shutting schools down again.

We decided to go ahead and rent a cabin in Michigan for fall break, do some hiking, some kayaking, hopefully forget for just one week about all the Covid and political nonsense. I think we kept waiting this summer for some sort of decline in cases so we could do some of our normal summer activities. We’ve held steady for almost three months now though at about 1k cases and 13 deaths a day.

 

[FataMorgana]

Decorating, stripping, sanding, waxing, clearing out, painting and re-vamping.

 

[rockcasbah]

I received my CERB but I have been extremely busy with some independent contracting work the past 5 weeks. My real job comes back next month. My CERB is saved for a rainy day.

TORONTO --Canadians can now report suspected fraudulent CERB recipients through the Canada Revenue Agency's official snitch line.

The service's “Leads Program” updated its website this week to include the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) and the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) funds to its list of reportable cheating activities.

“If you suspect a potential misuse of the COVID-19 emergency benefits and programs, the National Leads Centre is currently accepting leads on these programs,” the agency’s website now reads.

 

[MonaLittle]

I got married

It was a fab summer. Best ever. Make lemonade out of lemons

We biked, hiked, canoed, went kayaking, started to landscape our property
Redecorated, painted, upcycled, distressed furniture
Cooked a lot of new recipes, Ate, went out to shoot photography.
We FaceTimed my family. We FaceTimed his family.

Now the leaves are turning on the Aspens in the Mountains and we’ll do all of that all over again in different colors

 

[Sweet_Lara]

worked my ass off and took up drinking. lots of smiles and lots of stress. made a difference.