Very much a first world problem, but...

[Soph0571]

When you live a single occupancy household, during a national lockdown, and the highlight of your week is standing in shitty, sleet snow powered by a bitter wind, for over an hour to access you local favourite emporium on a Sunday, to do a weekly grocery shop, and see actual human beings (rather than on screen) for the first time in 7 days...



Fun times 👀

[ret5hd]

1. Preach it!

Is travel your local emporium uphill both ways? Mine is.

[Rorey]

2. I have to admit I'm getting tired of being stoic about this pandemic

I also live in a single person household.

I'm kind of worried about how I'm going to behave when this is over. Will I be constantly paranoid?

Will it ever really be over?

[Walleye]

3. I live alone too. I have also been worried about those things

We ever get over the compulsive handwashing?Will we be able to talk from a normal distance ever again? I already don’t know how to eat in polite company anymore

[Rorey]

6. I'm worried about driving out of town

I haven't gone outside of my city limits for many months, and hardly ever venture to the other side of town.

I desperately want to see my two year old granddaughter for just a yard visit, but I've gotten to the point where the idea of the 100 mile drive induces panic.

I do feel extremely fortunate that I live in a house with a yard so I can get outside and still feel secure. My heart goes out to apartment dwellers who don't have that opportunity.

[Walleye]

8. Well I do have a nice grounds to walk around on in my apartment complexI am a little worried about g

And I am in walking distance of drugstore and a nice grocery store, everyone wears masks. Don’t really have any anti-maskers in my neighborhood.
I have done my best to say in the same half mile radius. My older brother lives 100 miles away am I younger brother lives 10 miles away I haven’t seen either of them for over a year. And my cousin’s wife died in December and I hadn’t seen either of them since Christmas before last. I am a little worried about getting back into what little social life I actually had. I’m glad I’m not the only one concerned about these things.

[Soph0571]

10. I live in a flat in the centre of the city

No outside space. It is fine in the summer cause you can go sit in the garden square... not so much when it is snowing

[T_i_B]

16. One thing I've been saying for a while...

... is that this Pandemic is going to have a big effect on where people want to live. People are going to want houses with gardens and space to work from home. Which in turn will drive people away from the middle of cities and out into the suburbs.

This is going to have a number of effects such as making town centre regeneration more difficult as more people shun flats and city living, driving up demand for housing elsewhere.

[Soph0571]

17. Yeah I know your Kung Fu makes sense

But I love zone 1 living, it sucks at the moment, but things will return. Hyde Park will become my garden again and as I can't drive the subs or country living would be a nightmare!!! And to be really shallow, I love Bond Street... LOL.

[T_i_B]

22. Oh I love city living myself

Grew up in a city, always preferred living near the centre of town, but when I last moved I decided to go for the outer suburbs over a flat in a trendy part of Sheffield.

With how things have panned out I'm happy with that choice but very concerned about the future of said trendy area of Sheffield as an area that's almost all apartments and isn't actually very pretty is now at risk of having all the benefits of gentrification reversed thanks to the pandemic.

[Irish_Dem]

18. I've started getting anxious about short driving trips.

Before the quarantine, I'd think nothing of driving all over the place.

[Irish_Dem]

19. I know, I am not going to give up masks easily.

I think I am going to be paranoid for awhile.

[jimlup]

4. Right there with you!

Finally, I get a shot in the arm on Wednesday. I'm a teacher and I'm scheduled to get the vaccine. My school is in hybrid schedule right now so I have weeks in school and weeks like this one which are totally remote.

I hope this is drawing to a close!

[Rorey]

7. Teachers

I'm in the next group to get a vaccine where I live, and as desperate as I am to get it, I do wish that all of the teachers would be a priority over me. They should be a priority over a healthy woman who is out of the work force and has the ability to stay home.

Teachers are in that same group I'm in, but I think they should get it first. JMO

[jimlup]

15. I'm holding my breath that I actually get it on Wednesday

In my county they have prioritized teachers over 50 into what they call 1b which is why I am eligible. It has been difficult to get it though. Many weeks of delay as the get enough vaccine to move into 1b.

Good luck to you!

[Irish_Dem]

20. I am getting my first shot on Sat and I am holding my breath too.

Supposed to be very cold that day, I hope it is not cancelled.

I am sooooo excited and holding my breath at the same time.

I had to get up a 4am and kept trying to get on the medical website, it was not until 10am
that I was able to get on and schedule an appointment.

I am 1b too.

[Siwsan]

5. My big adventure, today, will be taking a short drive

I don't need anything from the shops, today, but the temperatures are beyond frigid and I'm afraid if I DON'T run the car, the battery will die. Again.

This will be the every other day routine, until the polar vortex exits the area. But at least I'll be getting out of the house. Oh well. It's better than having warmer temperatures and getting buried in snow.

[Rorey]

9. Be safe

Yeah, I think this winter thing is making everything so much worse.

I've been trying to get in the mode of walking every day because it gives me a mental boost and I need the exercise. Fortunately our weather hasn't been so bad that I can't do it, but the end of the week is going to be a challenge.

[Siwsan]

11. I get a bit paranoid about things like dead car batteries.

The car is, most likely, just fine because temperatures in the garage are MUCH warmer than outside, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. I didn't think it was that cold when I left it sitting in the driveway for 4 or 5 days. Apparently it was.

They are actually advising people to not go outside for ANY extended length of time. The sky is completely cloudless, today, and right now it's just 8 degrees with a slight breeze. The 'feels like' temperature is -10.

[Rorey]

13. 18 here right now

It'll warm up to around 60 later today. I'm chilled just thinking about your "feels like" temp. Brrrr.

I grew up in North Dakota, so I well remember how I couldn't let my car sit in the cold for too long without running it. I plugged it in to a tank heater when I was home, but when I had to be gone all day with my car in a parking lot, it was tricky. I still vividly recall, though it was decades ago, standing in a parking lot waiting for a tow truck, thinking I might just die. I had to stand outside of my car because the tow truck was actually in the parking lot, jumping another car, and I had to make sure it didn't leave.

[NCDem47]

12. Take a trip to Naples, Florida

Like going back in a time machine pre-COVID.

Florida grocery store bucks mask mandate:

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/video-shows-umasked-employees-shoppers-florida-grocery-store-n1256710

DUers are sick to death of this story. It's an oddball!

[Cosmo Blues]

14. I was a a bit of a germaphobe before this

One reason was the appalling hygiene habits of people, so it's kind of funny to watch them try to be amateur germaphobes. I live alone but I've never been all that thrilled with people, with the exception of women. I've always gone out early to get provisions, and walk my dog who passed away in December, and my car broke down last week. I would only complain about the weather among other Southern Californians my heart goes out to you Soph, and everyone experiencing much more hardship than I

[Irish_Dem]

21. Sorry you have to wait in such frigid weather.

I hope you are bundled up very well.

[muriel_volestrangler]

23. I'm surprised you've got long wait times for entering shops

I've had a couple of five minute waits in the past 3 months, and that's it. After the initial queues (when they didn't seem to be able to decide how many people they could have in at a time, mostly without masks then (but with suggested directions of movement inside, which have been dropped now), and I think there was a certain amount of panic buying mixed in), it's been fine for me (town rather than city; Chandler's Ford, in Hampshire).

[Soph0571]

24. Always a queue

Yesterday was particularly long. Normally I have to wait between 10-15 minutes. They are being as strict as first lock down about the amount of people in store, and I suppose people are doing bigger shops because of the weather so they are staying in store longer!

[T_i_B]

25. Intermittent queueing at my local supermarket

But it's not on the same scale as the first lockdown.

The place I've found to have worse queues is actually the farm shop in a neighbouring village! There's certain small shops where you fully expect queues.

And I have to admit that I haven't been to a town centre or an out of town retail park in a while.