Positive ideas for resisting cabin fever

[iamlost]

Not everyone is, as me, an introvert thrilled at any excuse to haul up the drawbridge and repel outside distractions and visitors.
Reminder: Quarantine FTW! is insensitive and not at all pc. Check.

For many of you as the walls close in, as extended family time has you climbing said walls perhaps some positive suggestions of alternatives to reenacting Munich’s The Scream...

Just as it’s not work that upsets the lazy man but the thought he has to work so too may come the time that it’s not being isolated in quarantine rather that quarantine requires isolation (hear that jail door crash shut! echoing down to the jibbering primitive brain...

Take a deep shuddering breath and know that Google has a solution. Of course.

Have you encountered Googles Arts and Culture [artsandculture.google.com] subdomain?

Take a few hours or even days to enjoy the collections [artsandculture.google.com] of thousands of museums.
Note: while quite usable on mobile displayed on a TV screen while you sit back and look up details/questions on the mobile with drinks and snacks at hand...

[lucy24]

Someone recently emailed me a list of classical-music performances that will be live-streamed from assorted venues in the coming weeks. The list was introduced with a parenthetical

And, you can always pull out your instruments at home, gather friends and play six feet apart.

Now, personally, I’d be inclined to limit this to string and percussion ensembles. Leave the wind instruments at home, especially the dribbly ones like French horns. (Bagpipes obviously don’t count, since those already require a distance of at least half a mile from the nearest human.)

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Hey, I'm a Scot, what's this? Some sort of bagpipe phobia?

We are not locked down yet in the UK. Today I went for an 8.5 mile walk on a quiet country road. Only problem is I couldn't finish it off in the pub but if you are allowed out walking is a great way to pass the time ... and keep yourself fit.

[NickMNS]

Today I went for an 8.5 mile walk on a quiet country road.

I've been following my normal running schedule, the only thing is that given the lack of things to do, many people are out walking and running, so now there's pedestrian traffic.

In a futile attempt to keep the kids off the screens, I've been playing chess with them. When it's me against one its generally ok, but when they play each other it usually ends in a brawl. Basically any activity between the two of them ends in a brawl.

[lucy24]

My next-door neighbor just stopped by to tell me the county is instituting a Shelter In Place order, like the ones further south--which he idiotically thinks means we're no longer allowed to do laundry (ON SITE). Sometimes it's no use trying to reason with people. Interestingly, on my last non-grocery shopping trip, one of the things I bought was a new dish-drying rack. I figured that in times of illness, anything conducing to basic hygiene is a high-priority purchase.

When Italy shut down, one of the categories of exempt business was newsstands. Now, personally I can't remember the last time I even saw a physical newsstand, but their reasoning is solid.

[iamlost]

Correction: Munch’s Scream. Not Munich’s. Whomever Munich might be or however eloquent it’s scream may be. Not them.

I blame: (1) spell check; (2) my existential editor...
Note to self: accurate attribution is critical, especially in regard to munchies.

[tbear]

Damn it, iamlost.......
I'm passing the time correcting spelling/gramatical errors, to pass the time, and you're spoiling it for me..... ;)

[blend27]

-- Positive ideas for resisting cabin fever --

I declare that Today is the first day of Spring in US, universally! I made my first day of Spring a week ago. Your Garden needs You too, like there is no tomorrow in some cases.

No need for a mask(unless...), just gloves. Get dirty my friends!

Don't forget to wash your hands... after all...

[NickMNS]

I declare that Today is the first day of Spring in US,

Your declaration comes a day late. Yesterday was the first day of spring. But don't feel bad this years is special, the last time this happened was 124 years ago.

-- Positive ideas for resisting cabin fever --
Go figure out why that is.

Your Garden needs You too,.... No need for a mask(unless...), just gloves.

I need a hazmat suit to go into my garden. The snow and ice are still melting and it is total mess of muck. Specially today, its teaming and supposed to reach 15 degrees,(then down to -10 tonight (C)).

[lucy24]

Oh! That reminds me. Earlier in the year I bought a fistful of anemone bulbs and stuck them in the ground. I should wander outside and see if they’ve sprouted. I know something has, but it may have been last year’s bulbs, meaning that there will be green stuff but probably no flowers. On my back porch I still have an amaryllis from years ago--I know it was years ago because I got it from my mother, who died in 2014--that refuses to give up. Just the same big green leaf, unchanged for years.

Earth always seems clean to me. It probably shouldn’t, since the place I planted the bulbs is very near the place our maintenance guys unloaded some leftover sand. As you can imagine, my cat has avidly adopted it.

:: detour to search engine ::

There exists a Feline Coronavirus but it isn’t “our” coronavirus. You can tell because the articles go back to 2012 or so. WHO [who.int] and CDC [cdc.gov] both seem to be saying “probably not, but play it safe”. But, once again, the risk of a new infection doesn’t eliminate all the old, existing infections, aka “If you’re born to be hanged, you’ll never be drowned.”

Huh. I don’t think I ever knew .int was a TLD. Is it one of the new ones or has it been around forever?

Yesterday was the first day of spring.

My calendar says it’s today. But it would depend on your time zone, wouldn’t it? Astronomical events such as equinoxes or phases of the moon don’t happen on calendar dates, they happen at some precise moment.

[not2easy]

11:49 PM (EDT) or 03:50 UTC on March 19
It happened without much public notice, though it was the earliest occurrence in 124 years.

[vordmeister]

4 days ago I thought I had a job and a social life. You are likely to go through an anger phase for the first few days - keep busy! I've been making stuff and my mind has been elsewhere so I've been doing it very badly. Better than doing nothing.

Anger is very motivating. I've been arranging plans to keep myself busy. One to one social contact still seems allowable so I'm getting trades in to fix up the house. Some trades have no work. Separate them on different days should be no worse than living with someone.

Sounds selfish but without that, alone and with depression tendancies where the fix was work and social contact, I can see only one other path.

Take care of friends, support trans people (they aren't your biggest problem right now), and most importantly keep busy!

Forgot to say - a recession is absulutely the best time to work on a new business.

[lucy24]

11:49 PM (EDT) or 03:50 UTC on March 19

Just before midnight on the 19th EDT would be early in the morning on the 20th UTC. So my calendar presumably uses UTC dates. (And Google uses Pacific time for me.)

:: detour for closer look ::

Yeah, and it lists an awful lot of Australian holidays. That would be even deeper into the 20th. But, funnily, it means that the easternmost bits of Canada (Atlantic time and whatever the heck they use in Newfoundland) have their equinox on a different calendar date. Confusing.

[NickMNS]

Confusing.

Yes, all this confusion just to prevent Christmas from occurring in summer. Oh wait, Christmas does take place in summer for those in the southern hemisphere. Well 50% isn't too bad.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Just to compound things all bars and restaurants in the UK are closing at midnight tonight.

[NickMNS]

I would like to add one important cabin fever buster:
Call your friends.

Take time to reach out, specially to those that are the most isolated. Talking with someone will brighten their day and knowing your friends are ok will likely brighten yours too.

[lucy24]

all bars and restaurants in the UK are closing at midnight tonight

You mean, closing Until Further Notice? I hope you appreciate that many of us have no idea what time they would normally close. In the US, 2 AM is pretty common for bars, but that kind of thing is set by the states.

Anyway “midnight tonight” made me think irrelevantly about Swedish roads. Remember when they changed over to driving on the right to match all the surrounding countries? I’ve always had a picturesque fantasy in which they inaugurated the change with the new year, turning over at precisely midnight on new year's eve.*

just to prevent Christmas from occurring in summer

I was just reading that the Hallmark Channel is dumping a lot of its Christmas movies. In March.

(At this point I went searching for the Christmas Down Under smiley, but couldn't find it on my favorite smiley site, darn it all.)


* In real life they did it in an extremely efficient, well-planned, all-around Swedish way. But my version is more fun.

[blend27]

@NickMNS

#if I say it is in my garden = that is what happening, I am THE BABA here, no curve around it!

Blooming to start that is.

Then: Last years seeds that dropped off = honey at Spring Time!

It is all going to be available to our beloved neighbors.

-- But my version is more fun. --
++

[tangor]

Positive ideas for resisting cabin fever (thread title):

A deck of cards. A good book when tired of that. Food and drink, perhaps a cookbook to try something new. Any persons quarantined with you as in speak to each other! Paint a wall, or four. Write a novel. Drag out the guitar and amuse oneself. Go through the last 500 images in the digital camera and catalog. Polish shoes (if they need polishing). Work in the garden. If you don't have one, make one. Go fishing by yourself, or with fewer than 10 people. Arrange your book shelves. Mop the floor. Call your mother. Call your mother-in-law. Call your congressperson. Call E.T.

Stay sane.

Wash your hands.

[lucy24]

I rode my bike today. Leaving the house I had to turn southward, for fear that if I turned north I would go on autopilot and find myself at the library, which closed a week ago (before the Shelter In Place order). I rode all the way to the bottom of the street, way beyond the shopping area and major cross street where I would usually stop or turn, until the street ended and I turned homeward. This was when I discovered there had been a slight north wind all along. Oh, well. If it had been a strong north wind I would have noticed earlier.

Back home, I consulted the map and found that the endpoint was just a hair under 2 miles from home. That's a respectable distance for me. Not really any further than the grocery store, but there wasn't the usual intermission where I spend half an hour leaning on a shopping cart.

I kinda think that if I had turned east and gone a couple blocks further, I could have found my way into a corner of our pocket-sized old-growth sequoia park. But I understand there are bears in there, so I’m good, thank you.

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

"You mean, closing Until Further Notice? I hope you appreciate that many of us have no idea what time they would normally close. In the US, 2 AM is pretty common for bars, but that kind of thing is set by the states. "

Yes, until further notice.

[JS_Harris]

I'm closed in with my rather attractive significant other, why would I resist?

I jest.

My advice is get to know yourself. If you need constant outside stimulation to feel "OK" you've grown accustomed to being validated by others, but only what you feel about yourself really matters imo. Hint: You're not locked indoors, you just need to fly solo for a bit. Take that adventure. Take the rowboat out onto the pond and enjoy the excuse to fish by your lonesome, or to sit and read an entire book under a tree in one sitting. Whatever you enjoy, do it alone, you don't often get the excuse you have now to do so.

If you're sitting at home, online, re-checking your social profiles over and over... boy are you missing out. Plan an adventure with yourself, do something, you'll have more interesting stuff to tell others when you return.

I'm thankful I don't see as many selfie pictures of restaurant food posted online these days! Those never really made the person posting them more interesting imo. I got a huge laugh out of my friend posting "I'm going to do this" as he attempted a muffler change himself. He ended up attaching the old muffler back onto the car somehow and thought he was done, lol. oops.

edit: Oh and for god's sake please don't read all of those 17 things to do lists, do you instead!