JohnDF's Christmas GAW

Count me in and thanks for the opportunity!

The thing I miss most during this pandemic is being able to see family whenever I want. My wife and I have our first child on the way so it's been especially hard not being able to drive and visit family.

Seeing family and a sense of normalcy is what I hope 2021 brings. It'd be great to not have to go into work worrying if someone is going to flash me their holster if I ask them to wear a mask... Again.
 
Generous giveaway, John. Nice knife and a great looking slip. Not an entry since I won won of yours earlier in the year and I would feel weird winning two in one one year, but I’ll share what I miss.

I’m lucky that my day to day work hasn’t changed much because I am outside and able to distance. Something I miss is being able to travel. It’s nice to see new places with the family and we were not able to do much of that this year. I also miss the kids not going to school. It’s been great spending more time with them, but their teachers do a much better job of teaching them than my wife and I can do. Also the kids learn better in person than through zoom.

The thing I’ve missed most is spending time with friends and family. My parents live 30 minutes away and we’ve gotten together a few times outside, but we haven’t spent as much quality time together as we would like to. It’s especially hard this week as my Dad is in the hospital for an emergency surgery and we can’t visit him. It’s not a great time for an old person to be I. A hospital and I can’t help but think about how we haven’t spent much time together lately.

I’m looking forward to getting vaccinated and everything getting back to normal so we can do the simple stuff like hang out with the ones we love. It’s nice to have some cheer and generosity on the Porch. Merry Christmas everyone.
 
Not an entry, John, but very cool GAW with a generous prize! :thumbsup::thumbsup::cool:

I've actually thought about this "what do I miss most?" question often over the past 9 months or so. Although the pandemic has probably caused more disruption to my teaching than to any other aspect of my life, I'm still trying to teach, but in ways I'm not used to and am not convinced are as effective as ways I used to teach. So in that sense I don't really miss teaching.

My top 3 "most missed" are basketball/fitness center workouts, in-person church, and browsing/hanging out in libraries.
I put them in that order based on the frequency with which I used to enjoy these activities. I played lunchtime basketball for an hour a couple of days a week and did some strength training at the fitness center another 2 or 3 days per week. I was involved in church-related activities at least a couple of times per week. I made it to the library only once every 2 or 3 weeks.

So I most miss basketball and other workouts at the gym. Many folks have mentioned missing human contact (hugs, handshakes, etc.), and although the camaraderie with my basketball buddies is a big part of what I miss, I have to say I don't miss the physical contact of overly enthusiastic competitors trying to take your head off on a lay-up or a rebound!

I'm not getting any younger, so I'm a little worried that I may NEVER be able to get back to basketball after the pandemic is over. I'm becoming a little pessimistic about when that is going to be. I heard on the news this morning that a million Americans have now received the COVID vaccine, in a 10-day period. If the US population is 300 million, at the vaccination rate so far, it will take 3000 days = 8.2 years to get everyone vaccinated!

- GT
 
I miss going to the hospital cafeteria :D. My wife is a nurse and her hospital has a really great cafeteria with excellent food that’s a bargain here in overpriced Bend, OR. Obviously they aren’t allowing visitors for something like eating a meal right now, but it would be nice to go visit my wife at work and have lunch with her again.

Once we were getting food there and when we went up to pay, one of the workers came up, swiped her card, and bought our lunch for us. She just said it was for “customer appreciation day”. So the people are pretty great too.
 
Congrats to Paul T. on winning that splendid knife and handmade slip! :thumbsup::thumbsup::cool:
Thanks for the generous GAW, John :):thumbsup::cool::); I really appreciated reading about what the pestilence has taken from the participants, and hope that we can all get back the things we're missing so much before too long.

- GT
 
JohnDF said:
Well, 5K Qs 5K Qs was "not an entry", so I'll keep drawing...
GT, please send me a message with your address, I'd like to send you something anyways.
Click to expand...
John, I tried to comply, but was told your mailbox is full.

- GT
 
I missed out on this one but the main thing that this pandemic has taken away from me is my curling league! I miss it immensely :( Last March my team made it to our league championship game and it was cancelled due to the outbreak. This year the curling club is still playing some leagues but in a very limited way. Our team decided not to play until next season. I've always had some sort of physical competition in my life to look forward to so these past 9+ months I've just been watching hours of games on YouTube while on the exercise bike LoL. Staying in shape for next fall ;):thumbsup:
 
Congratulations Paul:thumbsup: John, great GAW topic. Hopefully next year we don’t have to think about what we miss:)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top