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What Do You Miss Most From Your Pre-Pandemic Life?

3. Handshakes: Nowadays, when you bump a friend even if you haven't seen them for ages, the new social convention is to keep back as if they have body odor or leprosy. This physical standoffishness is totally counterintuitive to my personality.

Human beings are wired to embrace one another. If social distancing goes on much longer....it could get interesting. The brain has an uncanny knack for rewiring itself to these types of changes.....and it rarely is for the better.
Thankfully I have a wife and 3 kids that I can embrace, but for single people with families not living close....I couldn't even imagine having zero touch.
 
Human beings are wired to embrace one another. If social distancing goes on much longer....it could get interesting. The brain has an uncanny knack for rewiring itself to these types of changes.....and it rarely is for the better.
Thankfully I have a wife and 3 kids that I can embrace, but for single people with families not living close....I couldn't even imagine having zero touch.
Truth. We're hardwired to do all of the stuff that social distancing is proscribing, hug, shake hands, mix and gather in crowds, etc., which is why things will go back to "normal" (with a few architectural changes in all-you-can-eat buffets) either as soon as this subsides, or even before it subsides should it last terribly long. Eventually, even if (hypothetically) it were permanent, it would just be the one million + one thing that can kill you when you leave home in the morning, like auto accidents, and we would adapt. Social distancing, on the other hand, would be impossible to adapt to, and can only be practiced by people with the understanding that it is short-term.

But like all pandemics, this one will run its course and life will go on. The so-called Spanish Flu of 1918-20 killed more people than the Great War, but by 1921 it was all but forgotten and in the US people were crowding into speakeasies and having the Roaring '20s. That flu was subsequently airbrushed from history... It's just how we are.
 
which is why things will go back to "normal" (with a few architectural changes in all-you-can-eat buffets)

Lol. The wife and I were just saying the other day that all you can eat buffets are probably dead in the water and not just until Covid goes away. Goodbye Sizzler.....🤢

The so-called Spanish Flu of 1918-20 killed more people than the Great War, but by 1921 it was all but forgotten and in the US people were crowding into speakeasies and having the Roaring '20s. That flu was subsequently airbrushed from history... It's just how we are.

I do wonder if 3 years is pushing it though. The brain rewires itself pretty quickly to adjust. I wasn't around in 1918, but I wonder how bad the toll of social distancing was? Did they social distance as much as they are asking us to do it today?
 
I wasn't around in 1918, but I wonder how bad the toll of social distancing was? Did they social distance as much as they are asking us to do it today?
That's a fascinating history, and it was handled in many of the half-assed ways it is being handled/not handled now. Just a few thoughts:

1) The world was much more agrarian 100 years ago, which made a huge difference.

2) The understanding of viruses wasn't nearly as sophisticated. There were masks, and different locales had different policies and attitudes toward shutting things down. Lots of events were canceled, but I don't think people spoke in terms of "6 feet" etc., and many events were not canceled. The responses varied widely from place to place, and even knowledge/interpretations of what was ocurring varied to a degree unthinkable in the age of cable TV and Twitter.

3) In 1918 the war effort in the belligerent nations was a higher priority than the flu, so information was very often censored so as to avoid stifling either factory production or morale (often under penalty of law, as with the Sedition Act in the US). The reason it's called the "Spanish Flu" is only because Spain was not a participant in WWI, thus pandemic news was uncensored and journalists around the world learned to look to Spanish newspapers to find out what was happening.

But once people stopped dropping dead in the street, peoples' behavior went back to normal more or less immediately.
 
I miss playing basketball on a weekly basis. (I think my 53-year-old body is glad for the break!)
I had to stop playing basketball at about 42, as my hips just couldn't handle the abuse. Years later, I still miss it, as it was a huge part of my life. Those first few years were really tough, as I had not realized how much of a release it was for me. I was wound tight and had this new orneriness--took me a while to link it to not playing hoops.
 
Within the last month, we had to put my dad in a nursing home, as he was having all sorts of delusions, wandering out in the middle of the night. We aren't allowed to visit him because of Covid. Only we can call him on the phone or video conference (the latter being tough to schedule). So I call him, but he is relatively toothless and refuses to wear dentures. It's so drastic from how tight my family has been over the years. We tried to take care of him, but we could not manage it long term. I miss our bantering. So it goes.

I miss my son playing with friends. He only "sees" them online while they game. But it's not the same. I worry about his social development.

I miss restaurant food. We haven't gotten any since March.

My parents have horrible stories about growing up in Germany during the war. My dad was sent to a farm town at some point, and all the women in his family (mother, aunts) died in a bombing. They had all sorts of hardships. If I get caught up in how much Covid sucks, I think about that. Or that there are kids right now in the world growing up amidst daily violence and awfulness. We don't have it so bad, but it still relatively sucks.
 
Last night I was sitting in front of my wooden stove and watching various live streams, and earlier streams from week passing, from around the globe. I watched LA, London, Hong Kong, Ukraine, Bangkok, Portland, London and a few others. Checked update on India border issues, and what Japans new primer is about to do with South China Sea and Taiwan. Also about food crisis building up in Africa, and its getting serious. And now wave 2 of virus is already arriving.

Without Covid (and knowing where this came from but politely call it Covid) would not have started to build a wilderness base. Up to 70% self sufficient now, yesterday I ordered first solar panel.

Looks like civilisation is about to collapse.

So the question now, "What do you miss from your pre pandemic life", the answer is only women. That being said I wouldnt trade this for a harem with wine, grapes and women in the city. Even near a city. Good luck guys, elections, and second waves approaching.
 
Living in a world that is not slowly turning to shit...

Protestors in London yesterday by the 1000s protesting about wearing masks and having their liberties taken away.

While in Manchester the students are back at university and Manchester Halls of residence have locked down 1700 students in their student accommodation due to 170+ COVID 19 cases. The exits are guarded by police...

The current government failing in the track and trace system...and altogether a feeling anxiety across the nation.

All I want to do right now...is leave my job, stay at home and start to live off the land...I’ve had enough with capitalism, I’ve had enough of broken society and poison on social media and fake news and corrupt governments.

This is 2020 and we have gone back in time and the human race is slowly destroying itself..along with the planet.
 
My experience: I retired the last Friday of February 2020.
The following Monday I celebrated with another retiree at a local coffee shop.
Shortly after that the pandemic hit and we all went into total lockdown.
Since then I make one trip per week outside my place for groceries.

Despite living in a rural area we have experienced our share of shit-crazy:

1) Someone drove thru town disguised as a police officer (uniform and car) and
murdered 22 random people before he got blown away.

2) Then, last week someone burned down that coffee shop I last celebrated.

For such a small town in nowhere-land this is Kah-razy.

Aside from my music, one thing I did that brought a strange sort of peacefulness is re-read Margaret Atwood's The MaddAdamm trilogy. Here mankind is taken down to its knees by a pandemic. A wild read, yet two of its characters Ren and Toby leave you with hope and beauty. My first read was when I was given a grievance week off work when my mother passed away. It was during that difficult time, I read this series and felt a sense of peace and hope. YMMV.
 
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\3. Handshakes: Nowadays, when you bump a friend even if you haven't seen them for ages, the new social convention is to keep back as if they have body odor or leprosy. This physical standoffishness is totally counterintuitive to my personality.
I so get you.

I hug and (unfrench) kiss friends, because, since I don't meet them as often as I used to, I still haven't got the hang of doing otherwise. Sometimes they act a bit bewildered. I even have a word for that now: it's a coronakiss.
 
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I miss being well. I contracted Covid on 23 March and I'm still not better, suffering from fatigue, brain fog and my sense of smell still hasn't returned! I've enjoyed participating in this forum during this time, it has helped me.
I feel you man. My sister in law had it, real bad. I wish you best.
 
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Btw, I got type-1 diabetes last spring. T1D is rampant in my family, but I recently heard Covid-19 might be a catalyst for it. Somehow I might have been an unsuspecting asymptomatic carrier. So I may very well be down the insulin road because of C19. We'll never know, but just so, don't think I'm unaware of the risks. Yet I'd rather joke than moan about it -- that's in my character.

Not lecturing anyone here, of course. These are difficult times, and everyone copes as they can.
(And to the occasional skeptic: Yes, this might be overblown. Yet, here we all are.)
 
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I miss going to sunday service without distancing and wearing a mask. I feel hat churches have been hit extremely hard by this. No coming together, no singing, no chatting with tea/coffe afterwards.
Atm I am glad I can attend at all, the next lockdown is probably just around the corner.
 
Nowadays, when you bump a friend even if you haven't seen them for ages, the new social convention is to keep back as if they have body odor or leprosy.
That hasn't been my experience at all, even with introductions to meeting new people. I guess it varies place to place

Other than the interactions I mentioned earlier, I mostly miss not having to wear a mask. I get why, I just hate it. Seeing others with them on is creepy, and it's uncomfortable, fogs up the glasses, and generally just a pain.
 
The pandemic gave the chance to start to do a lot of survival stuff, from chickens to gardening, oil lanterns to basic solar. Fishing gear to sea salt preservation. Plants for blowpipe arrows also - now I learned you need to wax the crossbow. The project for tomorrow. Theres a lot of deer, but thats only if things would get real. Got that borrachero too, for self defense. It grew nicely in the garden.

So Im kinda thinking if things would get real. I mean real, not this light thing going on now. Been taking people across Himalayas and the modern folks loose it when they have to sleep one single night with clothes on. Or if theres no coffee in the morning. Things like that - they get mental breakdown.

Would be something to play for real. A few wars, some grid downs, emp attack, more riots, and Im watching that three gorges dam on Twitter if it breaks, and the waves pour in, they will sweep Wuhan lab too.

Or even a good meteorite.

Give us a meteorite and a Krakatau volcano explosion. Who will survive, like Battle Royale.

Remember when we only worried about Covid? Im ready when you are, Señor.
 
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Not much, Im pleased idiots can’t intimidate you face to face now, and to have the power to just go offline.

Also very happy about online shops, and digital work from home.

Actually, life has improved.
 
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