There’s a lot of bad news and angst in the world right now. Looking back at the last several months  though, I’ve done a ton of things I never would have made time for if I had stayed in my usual routines. Have you taken advantage of a global pandemic to make your life better or more interesting lately?

Here’s my list: In the last 3 months, I have...

-Tried cooking sous vide (absolutely amazing steaks!)
-Eaten a lot of home-made yogurt and cream cheese
-Tried selling stuff on new-to-me e-commerce platforms other than Amazon, and paid off a credit card with the side-business’ proceeds
-experimented with weighted sling pouches
-taken high-speed videos to measure the rotational velocity of a tennis ball exiting several types of slings
-watched my youngest son take his first steps
-learned how to hand-stitch leather (and paracord eyelets)
-invented a few electronic gadgets
-dusted off my 3D printer to make face masks.
-refurbished four different 3D printers for my next-door neighbor
-learned a little bit of Spanish
-spent a lot of time playing the Nintendo Wii with my 5 y.o.
-written 3 chapters of a book.

Aside from the accelerating us towards the complete collapse of our economy I actually quite enjoyed the shutdown. I would see many whole families walking down the street. People would go to the parks and enjoy the sunshine and frankly everything was much more peaceful. And I know I’m not the only one that felt that way. If only we could recapture some of that without all the people struggling to get by.

Unlike you I did not become more productive. Actually I became less so since I am not in school now which is a great feeling.

Nothing changed for me. I work kn a grocery store, all i got was overtime for a couple weeks. I got a good  amount saved. Thats about it.

@RM, I went through a prepper phase almost a decade ago, and when Covid-19 hit, I was really glad I still had a decent stock of shelf stable foods to fall back on when the grocery store shelves were nearly empty. I definitely plan to refresh my supplies again.

@Morphy, I don’t think I can say I was more productive... just differently productive. I didn’t mention the piles of laundry and dishes or the yard that all need to be worked on

Rat Man wrote on Jun 3^rd, 2020 at 4:06pm:


Years ago my wife and I had a good amount of food storage. Then I unexpectedly lost my job around the time the great recession was kicking in and we ended up dipping into it. And hey it kept us fed for free so it did what it was made for. And also showed us where our gaps were in food storage should we have a longer stint on it. It’s a great idea man. Also: powdered cheese, broccoli and potato soup mix by the bucketful. That’s my secret for food storage success. Lol

I turned into a slug.

pretty much business as usual.

I've done a lot more queuing to get into shops - but that's pretty much it.

I guess if you have a normal job, things are a lot different.

This crisis has killed my sedentary lifestyle and ever since it started I've been outdoors a lot more than ever.
Learning new things about outdoor life and primitive technology, every week or so I learn new things I previously didn't tbink I could do.
Also have started slinging more actively than in recent years, no longer letting other things disrupt my hobby.
I stopped following the news and been happier than ever!

I gave up on the things that I felt forced to do. And I started doing what I always really wanted to do.
I eliminated alot of the  'surrogate' activities from my life.

We can sometimes be so tied into artificial responsibilities. And it just kept piling up for me.
Throughout the years the urge grew stronger to just dump it.
This crisis was the catalyst. Now I can focus on the things that really matter.