Month: April 2024

Community improvement

Taylor BurianLeave a comment

How would you improve your community?

This is a tough question…

On one hand I can approach this less seriously and throw around (potentially) lofty ideas regardless of feasibility, and on the other I could do what I usually do and analyze the hell out of it while only sharing a small amount of my thoughts.

I’ll just stick with the “lofty idea” one.

Lofty idea: more public events/classes for teens and adults, like the fun ones through the library system. Space/class sizes would still be limited but if there were more of them then people wouldn’t have to miss out too often because the classes/events wouldn’t be “one and done” on an annual basis (because it already feels like they don’t exist.)

Meeting people and making friends as an adult is already a challenge, and modern dating can be even more of a challenge, especially when it feels like the only thing to do out here is go to the bars. (I live in an area where there are, on average, more bars than churches by a fair amount.) So, why not introduce more ways to be social without breaking the bank AND finding people who might have common interests? Or even just having activities for date nights that aren’t just going out to dinner and maybe a movie? How about an hour long class on archery? Or a two hour stained glass session?

A community is only as strong as the bonds we forge together in a personal way, face to face. Not digitally where everyone can hide behind a keyboard and avoid reality. (I say all this knowing full well how introverted I typically am and avoiding social outings with strangers.)

My life post pandemic

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Daily writing prompt
How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?
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I’ve talked about it before multiple times but only really as brief mentions for other topics.

The way I adapted to live during and after the pandemic.

During the pandemic, I ordered a LOT of food through DoorDash and Grubhub. An embarrassing amount, considering I was basically confined to the house and could have cooked my meals anytime I wanted. Afterwards, when restrictions lifted and I was going back into the office nearly everyday, I try to avoid that and remind myself of just how much money I could be saving by not using those apps, but I still do use them on occasion. It’s nice to be able to have something delivered to the office (on very rare occasions) when I know I’m going to have a busy day full of meetings. It’s also nice to use those apps purely for reference too! I can pull them up, see nearly every restaurant near me, and check what hours and menus are for each. Then I can either order for pick up or remind myself I’m not really THAT hungry to warrant ordering out. The cost of convenience is not really worth it anymore.

Technology and the home work setup changed during and after the pandemic in a way I never really thought I would feel okay with accepting. I need my separate spaces for work and home. During the pandemic this sucked because I basically lived in my bedroom for 20+ hours a day. Work, eat, play, sleep. At the time, I built a room divider to help separate my bedroom into sleeping area and gaming/working area. (It’s just a 4×8 sheet of wood cut to a 4×7 shape with a cube storage shelf screwed onto it for stability and organization.) After the pandemic was more or less ended, I moved my computer setup back into the basement along with the room divider so that I could kind of shut it off from the rest of the basement for some privacy and to serve as a backdrop for when I was streaming.

Before the pandemic hit and everything shut down, I used to go to Walmart and other late night stores all the time. 2:00AM and can’t sleep? Walk around Walmart and do some light shopping. Although technically I did that a lot anyway because I enjoyed the peace and quiet of shopping when nobody else was around. Now I can’t really do that, unless I wanted to spend time at gas stations that are open 24/7. I’ve had to adapt to the idea that I’ll just have to be quick and methodical about my grocery shopping excursions and plan them as best I can at times of the day when the crowds are lightest. That usually means early mornings are an hour or two before close.

I’m sure there are probably some other ways I’ve adapted to life post-pandemic but if I can’t think of them off the top of my head they probably aren’t as broad or significant as the things I mentioned above. Oh well, life changes all the time and I’m sure I’ll have to adapt to new things again in the near future.

The current morning ritual

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Daily writing prompt
What are your morning rituals? What does the first hour of your day look like?
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My morning ritual depends on Weekday versus Weekend but they’re still fairly similar and simple.

Monday through Friday, as long as I have work, I get up around 7am. I take my morning meds, brush my teeth, shave, shower, all that bathroom stuff, and then get dressed for work. Then I’m off! I live relatively close to work so I don’t typically worry about morning rush hour traffic. If I happen to be working from home I like to stretch out the morning routine a little bit, but only in so much as I can log in by 8am, check emails and see what meetings I have for the day, and do my morning routine in between those kinds of tasks.

Saturday and Sunday are similar in that I wake up around the same time to take my morning meds, which only takes a minute or so if I have my water bottle filled, and then I go back to sleep for a couple hours (typically because I stayed up late playing games or reading.) When I wake up for the day I go about the rest of the morning routine. That’s just about it. Nothing special. No “ritual”, just the standard types of things people do in the morning.