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Are Others Having the Same Experience?

Smiling Sam

I don't want to belittle the seriousness of the COVID-19 world, but I thought that I'd communicate something that I'm seeing and see if others are experiencing similar things.

When the world is in a normal place my wife and I tend to travel somewhere every couple of months whether it is to visit family, take a short trip (from Tucson) to Las Vegas, or go on a more involved trip like a Tauck tour. Now that travel has been curtailed and local stores have been closed I'm seeing a trend that I don't like so much ( ). Instead of preparing for our next outing, I find my wife spending those hours replacing lamps, artwork, etc. around the house. I know she believes it is time to freshen the look of our house, but I could have easily lived with those lamps, pieces of art, etc. for many more years and used the money for travel (whenever it resumes).

My question is, are other households experiencing similar changes in behavior (spending habits)?

Again, this is meant for the purpose of levity, not to belittle the seriousness of the current events in the world.

PS - I know, Happy Wife, Happy Life!

Comments

British

Sam, this is so interesting and agree should be taken on a light note. I am usually on top of everything in the house, like to think I’m the perfect housewife. I’ve been doing all kinds of extra things. Yes sprucing up here and there. Purchased a new outdoor lamp, just opened the door and there were my new sheets. Picking out a new faucet for the kitchen and figuring out whether we are allowed to find a plumber..... I don’t want Mr. B doing this one, it’s a tricky space to reach. I’ve spent so much time in my garden and even land behind that doesn’t even belong to us, but the township, yep, woke up this morning with pain in my right side from all the raking yesterday. Getting up later, still doing our morning walk and even walked the Audubon Loop trail near our home this morning, about five miles. Quickly showered and had a Zoom lunch with my friends, talked for 90 minutes. Just about to start reading, I hardly ever have time for that during normal life.
Took our African artwork to Michaels to be framed before we went on our ill fated Borneo trip and now it’s stuck in a closed store and I already paid for it... So can’t Switch hte art round yet😀
And finally, noticed our June tour has Finally been cancelled.....hoping for a refund and then have to start battle with the airline....Yes, know if we had booked flights with Tauck, we would not have to deal with that.
More importantly, we and all those we love are safe and healthy. Hope everyone is out there too! Me think no trips for at least a year, me thinks no vaccine for at least 18 months!

Smiling Sam

British - I think house 'Honey Dos' are getting a lot more attention these days. As you, my June trip to Iceland just got cancelled. I'm hoping that my Egypt: Jewel of the Nile tour in October still opens, but less likely each day.

Stay healthy!

cvc

LOL - I bought a new lamp that just arrived yesterday!! But am still saving some money for future trips.

JohnS

Smiling Sam, I believe you have a lot of company with what you are experiencing. We were supposed to be at the airport later this afternoon for our flight on Air France (SEA-CDG-NAP) to start our Classic Italy Small group tour. The airport right now is like a ghost town. We won’t be there.
This year was going to be a fairly busy travel year for us with Italy and another undetermined Tauck tour for early fall as well as two non Tauck European trips that are still scheduled but highly doubtful. We were going to interspace these with a few short trips over the mountains to Columbia Valley for some wine tasting, down to Willamette Valley for more wine tasting, a few days in the San Juan Islands, maybe a trip to Vancouver BC. Etc. Right now for the forceable future it’s sitting around the house for us. So far the Mrs. has not started taking down art and changing lamps but that might change as we get more bored.

Sealord

“Honeydoes will kill more than the corona virus.”

travel maven

LOL. This is so funny. I think we all have alot of time on our hands these days. My boyfriend is working on a bunch of projects around the house. The hard part for me is everything is shut down and I have had to cancel many events and weekend trips that we had planned. There was something going on just about every month and now there is nothing. I don't even want to plan anything anymore because of all the uncertainty. Once this all comes to an end, hopefully soon, I feel like our local outings will be more spontaneous for awhile. Once I am made whole again with all the refunds from my cancelled river cruise, just waiting on the Air Line refund, I hope to eventually re-book the trip, but probably not until late 2021 or 2022. In the meantime, I try to do some walking, read books and photograph subjects near the house, like my dog, birds and my neighbor's cows. The cows are quite entertaining to watch, who knew?? We also dug out the wii game console but I pulled a muscle in my leg participating in the Bowling Game. I am no longer participating in the games until I have time to heal for a few days. My friends have a good laugh over that one.

Smiling Sam

JohnS - Sounds like you live in Seattle. Both my wife and I were both born and grew up in Seattle. I was raised on Beacon Hill, while my wife was raised on Queen Anne Hill. We moved to Tucson in 1999 for business (been retired for 2+ years). We lived in various places in and around Seattle through the years (Renton, Kent, Ballard, Wedgewood, and Mukilteo). Many moons ago we did one of your "trips over the mountain". We called it our "Dam" vacation because we took the North Cascades highway stopping at Ross Dam on the Skagit river and then once on the other side of the mountains we stopped at Grand Coulee Dam. The things that we miss about Seattle are family most, followed by all the water (sound, river, and lakes - not the rain), and the "real green". In Tucson, green isn't really green, it is kind of a dusty green. That said, being our age the Tucson weather and warmth beats Seattle in all ways except for the closeness of family. I never golf in the rain in Tucson. If it rains you just wait until the next day. In Seattle, with that philosophy you could have months between rounds of golf.

Enough deja vu.

Let's hope we get past the virus soon.

JohnS

Smiling Sam - we are in the Seattle area (Renton). Been here since 1991. Rain does not keep anyone here inside very long. Only being on lockdown does that. Not very familiar with Tucson however both my wife and I are graduates of NAU in Flagstaff. Spent a good deal of time in Phoenix on business and my wife's parents living there. Phoenix is way too hot for me however.

Smiling Sam

JohnS - Phoenix is 5-10 degrees, on average, warmer than Tucson. Renton - Work for Boeing, on the 737 800 Max?

BKMD

On another note, here's what it looks like on my balcony today (Denver). Normally, this would be my cue to run up to the mountains for a ski day, but they're all closed. And I biked in shorts all last week!

Smiling Sam

BKMD - Think shoe shoes! 😎

AlanS

I flew over you guys quite often. I was based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and over the years was assigned to a number of EA-6B Prowler squadrons. The weather was nicer on Whidbey- in the winter the weather hit the Olympics and was pushed up and over Puget Sound and Whidbey before dumping the rain and snow on the Cascades. People in Seattle don't tan, they rust. Lynnwood Mall, Northgate, South Center, Space Needle, Science Center, Pike Place Market, Terry Ave Freight Yard. If we drove south to Seattle we would take the Clinton-Mulkiteo ferry and go right by the Paine Field Boeing hangars- in those days they were filled with 747's being painted in many different airline livery. In the summer, when the skies were blue forever, we flew breathtaking high speed low level training routes- one started in Goldendale just north of the Columbia River and flew north right past Mt Adams, through the Cascades past Mt. Rainier, over Snoqualmie Pass, over Glacier Peak and ended up just short of Mt. Baker before we turned south and westward down Skagit Valley to Mt. Vernon and Whidbey. If you want to go along for a ride with a cockpit dash mounted GoPro, just Google VR-1355 there are a number of videos on YouTube. Some called it the million dollar route!

JohnS

Your making this place sound like it might be a great tourist attraction. Maybe Tauck should have a tour to this area. Wait a second, I think they already have a Tauck Tour to this area.

British

Yes and we took that tour several years ago!

Smiling Sam

AlanS - Were you flying pre or post Mt St. Helens eruption? Summer in Seattle is July 4th to Labor Day. Of course if it had that weather year round it would have LA population, not just LA traffic.

AlanS

JohnS
9:11PM

You're making this place sound like it might be a great tourist attraction. Maybe Tauck should have a tour to this area. Wait a second, I think they already have a Tauck Tour to this area.

You really need to watch one of the videos- unless you get airsick watching Top Gun or roller coaster movies. One of the better ones is at this link . It is the full 34 min. route flown in what I believe is an EF-18G Growler electronic warfare jet- the follow-on to the EA-6B. It may look like he is flying slow, but most likely doing around 400 kts (460 mph) and at times only 100 - 200 ft. above the tree tops.

Smiling Sam

AlanS - I watched the video. Pretty neat. I didn’t get the feel for how fast they were going. The scenery once they got north of I90 was much better than south until they turned back south again. That video was definitely post eruption.

Claudia Sails

I have to confess to some online shopping. Some for necessities to avoid a trip to town, some to support small businesses, and some to take advantage of prices. I'm trying to get unfinished sewing projects done but have had to order supplies. Did order rainbow carrot and grape tomato seeds to get started - my deck looked like BKMDs on Monday but now all melted. Trying to get some to do list items done like cleaning/organizing. A small sewing group I belong to do an email round once a week of what we've gotten done.

Just trying not to turn into a slug. Mr Sails doesn't appear to have the same worry.

It's so weird being in this limbo state unable to make future plans. Even an RV trip this year is in doubt with many camp grounds closed and we need a repair to the solar panel but not sure when we can get in for service.

AlanS

Smiling Sam
10:42PM

AlanS - I watched the video. Pretty neat. I didn’t get the feel for how fast they were going. The scenery once they got north of I90 was much better than south until they turned back south again. That video was definitely post eruption.

The wide angle lens on the camera (probably a GoPro) really distorts the appearance of speed. Did you notice the wingman, another EF-18 shows up about the 16 min. mark and goes in an out of view for the remainder of the flight. It looks a lot different in Winter on the rare day we had clear skies. Snow and ice everywhere, but those high mountain lakes and ponds though frozen solid still often appeared deep blue. I've never gone though my log books to see how often I flew that route but at least a couple times per year. We had to ensure we were getting valid training. Each leg of the route is straight between designated turn points, but in reality you fly the terrain staying down low and behind ridges, to avoid radar detection and potential enemy sightings and missile sites. A pilot will roll wing up to help the plane descend more quickly when passing a ridge, though that makes it easier to see. If it is a really high ridge the pilot will roll inverted and pull- the aircraft moves up much more quickly than it goes down, so you roll inverted and pull back (on the sitck) as if you were going up, except you are going down! It wasn't Top Gun but was still a blast. Even though you are just sitting there on the ejection seat, you are tired by the end of the flight because you are pulling G's during hard turns and when pulling up. Your arms and head become really heavy.

British

Claudia, about your solar panel repair...many of those things are still able to be scheduled as it is classed as necessary. We have the A/c guy coming out to do the annual service and the guy who opens up our swim spa on Monday, we don’t usually have him come until mid May, thank goodness we can start our daily swims. We don’t need to get near to either of them, apart from hand over a check and to wipe a couple of door knobs. Any virus left on AC equipment will die before we need to touch it.
We have to wear masks in our state now too. We have bought four cloth masks, and I’ve made three. Wouldn’t you know I broke my sewing machine needle just after I started, had a spare but fiddled about for ages trying to get the new one in. I found three sets of old shoe laces to make them with, one set had my name written all along them, I bought years ago. So now I’m wearing masks just like I used to 50 years ago in the hospital before paper everything. Much more comfortable than elastic, which I gather is impossible to get. I am so pleased I still remember not to touch my mask at all while I am wearing it.
Unlike most people, we seem to be finding plenty to do. For me, I’m working on things almost to the point of exhaustion most days because with my personality, it’s the only way I can keep sane at a time like this. When I sit down for a break, I look at the travel forum and then carry on. We are getting up a little later right now, but as soon as it gets warmer we will have to rise earlier to get our outdoor exercise before it gets too hot. We are so very lucky to not have lost jobs or be sick....well so far, but who knows? We generally don’t eat out much, so we have not been impacted by restaurants. But travel, theatre, the show we were supposed to be in and all our friends in that, seeing family and friends, movies......oh dear, will I ever be able to hug anyone again?

Claudia Sails

British you're right about the solar panel. After I wrote the post i found our dealership was open on a limited basis for repairs. Will have to call and see if we can get the stream in. Now if only campgrounds could open.

I've made about 60 masks. Most donated but quite a few for family and friends. Actually had to take a break from it psychologically and work on some fun projects. The elastic shortage does make it harder. Shoe laces do work and I've seen videos making ties from t-shirt yarn. Next week I'll probably go back into production.

Smiling Sam

AlanS (aka Maverick) - I did notice the wingman (Iceman). A few times it looked like dog fight scenes. When cruising over some of the mountain lakes were you low enough that your jet wake created any wake/chop on the lake?

AlanS

Smiling Sam
10:26AM

AlanS (aka Maverick) - I did notice the wingman (Iceman). A few times it looked like dog fight scenes. When cruising over some of the mountain lakes were you low enough that your jet wake created any wake/chop on the lake?

I was more of a "Goose." since I was a right-seater, not a pilot. We never got that low! Really dangerous in mountainous terrain where there can be squirrely winds. The photos you see on the web of rooster tails are all Photo-shopped. Once on a two plane low level flight from NAS Fallon, NV we flew over an incredibly glassy Pyramid Lake (N.E. of Reno) and got REALLY low (less than 50'), low enough to see water surface disturbances under each aircraft.

Smiling Sam

AlanS - As Goose.

Sealord

Enjoyed the stories about Whidbey ... I was in the last class of pilots to train ‘there’ in the EK-A3. That was the predecessor of the EA-6B. The Captain Whidbey Inn (Penn Cove near Coupeville) is one of my favorite places to stay. My first carrier assignment was to the USS Oriskany CVA-34 ... callsign “Sealord”.

Smiling Sam

I was never in the military but throughout my career I help develop a lot of Navy weapon systems: Mk46 torpedo, Phalanx gun system, RAM (Rolling Airframe Missile), SM3 Missile Defense System to name a few (plus a few Army and Air Force systems as well). My biggest exposure to Whidbey was attending the Bob Houbregs (a UW Husky basketball legend long, long ago) basketball camp one summer in high school held at Camp Casey, also near Coupeville.

S35flyer

Smiling Sam, Tucson resident here. No we haven’t started spending money on other things, however I am finding that I spend a lot of time looking at car auctions. My weak spot is airplanes and classic cars. The only saving grace is our 3 car garage is full and I gave up my hangar at the airport.

jeff3RM

Smiling Sam, I have the same issues, hah.