What I Did During the Pandemic

In mid-June, the Bay Area came off our COVID restrictions. We were the first to have lock down orders, so it’s been a long duration of pandemic gloom and doom. I’m not complaining, Husband and I were very fortunate and got off easy compared to the millions (and millions) who contracted the virus — including some family and friends.

But there it was, almost a year and half to read, write in this blog, go for long walks, tackle those house chores, and did I say read? A year and half to be productive, to be creative. You may have already figured this out by the lack of Book Barmy activity — but I have to fess up – I was neither productive or creative.

What did I do during the Pandemic ? Practically nothing.

At first, we nervously stayed tuned to CNN. Then we started distracting ourselves with Netflix and Amazon channels and binge watching some great shows (Shitt’s Creek – Line of Duty – Bosch just to name a few).

We limited our binge watching to evenings. We did shake it off with some walks and planting several successive vegetable gardens…but even so, we both took laziness to whole new level.

I avoided total boredom with my involvement with two (count ’em two) city government hearings, which turned out to be a great distraction but also caused much stress. You see, I had to read each and every government or legal document three times. First, to figure out what I didn’t understand (which was always alot). Then research what I didn’t understand. Read the document again to see if it was any clearer, and then a analysis to figure out arguments.

So at the end of those days, I didn’t want to think at all. When it came to a contest between my bookshelves and television — I’m ashamed to say, the television won out.

I did do some erratic, inconsistent reading, picking up and putting down books — my stack of partially read books mocks me as evidence

However, last week I woke up feeling like a cloud had been lifted and it hit me (OK I’m a bit slow) that we were leaving our days of pandemic gloom and boredom behind us.

Husband and I have been going for long walks, exploring different neighborhoods. We’ve planned some local trips. We cleaned out the freezer and somewhat organized our garden/work room. We had friends over for an impromptu dinner and went to have drinks with others in their garden. We have other social events coming up, but we’re going slowly – small steps on the social front.

But most relevant for Book Barmy readers, on one of my walks, I randomly picked a book from a little free library and read it in two sittings. Also, I made great strides on a publisher’s proof on my Kindle, and have finally worked my way through my backlog of NY Time’s Book Reviews. The stack of books above is still mocking me, but again small steps.

It’s a cliche, but I feel it’s a new day and I will tentatively state that I’m back (not back to normal, but close) and in the upcoming weeks, there will be much for you to enjoy here at Book Barmy. So please don’t leave – stay tuned.

p.s. sorry for all the GIF’s – I went a bit crazy.