Convid19 social-distancing positives

I would like to hear of any maybe surprising positive effects the corona virus lockdown has brought forth in your lives. What positive things have you noticed or used this time for?
Positives for me: Less Traffic.
Another - I’ve spent more time training my Jack Russell terrorist. He’s still a Jerk-Russell but he’s getting there! I’ve been eating a little more junk food then usual so I’m thinking of working out. Haven’t done it yet but I’m sure thinkin about it! :slight_smile: On the creative side I’ve been inspired to fix up my backyard and make a better oasis out of it. So planning…looking forward to much needed get-together’s with friends and family by summer. Anyway, I’d love to hear the “positives” that you’ve experienced! :slight_smile:

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Some people finally started washing hands… And keeping distance. Hope it sticks as general rule in post-covid world.

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I finally finished painting all the trim in our house. I’ve been putting that project off ever since we moved two years ago. And lots more time with my family, with schools being closed.

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Great minds think alike lol. Finished putting up crown moulding and painting my living and dining room.

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We’ve got a particularly vulnerable couple next door to us, didn’t really know them before, but I’ve managed to convince them it’s not safe to leave the house right now. I’ve been doing all of their shopping and odd jobs and we’ve spent most of this weekend rebuilding and painting a fence of theirs that broke a long time ago. I can barely move right now, I’ve got aches on my aches. It’s been really nice, I don’t think we would have got to know them so well if it wasn’t for all of this.

Other than that… the garden. I love my garden. Got all my seeds planted in the greenhouse.
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And playing with nail varnish (I’m always playing with my nails :smile:)
NailsSilvery

I usually bicker constantly with one of my kids but we’ve been forced to play nice. He’s actually quite nice after all. :smile: We’ve been doing lots of things we haven’t done since the kids were small and we’re enjoying being together.

I hope everyone is making the best of a difficult situation.

Stay safe everyone!

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AvramChe,Hope your right on the hand washing. Never liked when anyone hovers to close like at a grocery store…so I’m with you on that.

ALDaisy1, painting is a good idea. I recently picked up an old park bench tossed out curbside - it’ll look great with some fresh paint.

AbleBrands
I love your greenhouse garden. Home grown tomatoes are the best…and one of the few plants I have luck with besides spaghetti squash (or any squash)…and mint. I need to plant soon.

Look at your nails! Very stylish. They put mine to shame so ain’t nobody see’in’em :slight_smile:

I hear you on the kids thing, my family dynamic has changed a bit - my (millennial) daughter and I, seem to butt heads a lot probably because we are so much alike. She Now worries about me - so if we’re out buying essentials, she takes over at the check stand sending me to the car. Something I’m not used to but it’s sweet and she knows my risk so she’s probably right - I listen to her and go out.

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YOUR GARDEN IS BEAUTIFUL- I HAVE SERIOUS GREEN THUMB (AND NAIL) ENVY
But seriously that is such a cute little setup!! :sob::two_hearts::two_hearts::two_hearts:

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Oh I love this thread! Firstly, I have had the best sleep I’ve had in years. I have a solid 6 hours every night plus an additional 90 minute afternoon siesta every single day. This will be hard to give up when our life returns to normal.

I’ve also been able to spend more time with my husband and kids. I’ve become the main speech therapist for my little boy, who has Down Syndrome. It is really satisfying to see his speech come along even though he is missing out on school.

And lastly, I’ve been able to spend time on my other passion - genealogy. I haven’t entered many SH contests lately due to the stuff I have been uncovering through my own DNA test. :joy:

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Love genealogy myself @Odonata Found any skeletons in your family closet yet? I’ve uncovered so many I could make my own disneyland ride!

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Oh wow yes! I found out my great grandfather is not the person recorded and is actually from a family whose roots are from the suburb I now live in! What about you @AbleBrands?

I started genealogy to try and find my real father. Whilst I haven’t yet found him, I have connected with a few 4th cousins on his side who are helping me in my search. These people I have never met and live in Canada. I am learning that the world is a beautiful place and that strangers can be incredibly kind. :heart:

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How exciting!! Keep working at it. Similar situation, my mother-in-law (in her 80s) didn’t know who her father was and I’ve been working on her DNA for about 4 years. I’ve managed to work out who her 4 great grandparents are on his side, and even though I have my suspicions as to who her father is we still need a closer DNA match to prove it.

My father in law also didn’t know who his grandfather was. He was obviously French (we’ve learned that much) but the Ancestry craze doesn’t seem to have caught on in France yet so he doesn’t have many matches to work on. We’ll get it eventually.

I only did my own recently (last year), I’m adopted (I know who my birth parents are) so I wasn’t really interested in my birth family history. I only did it because there was an offer on. I found a half brother! that unfortunately died in a motorbike accident 30 years ago :frowning: I also have too many second/third cousins that point to another person that lived very close my birth family :smiley:

Yes, I agree on the kindness of strangers, I’ve had so much help (and given it too). It’s a fun and very addictive hobby!

Best of luck with your digging, keep at it.

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I should add, that the way we really made some headway on my mother in law was I built the tree of a 3rd cousin match then added ‘DNA test’ as another child and attached her DNA to that. We had a load of DNA matches to some Ancestors in the late 1700s so I knew she was descended from them somehow. It was just a case of finding all of their children, and then all of their children and attaching her DNA in different places of the tree until I had more matches.

It’s worth trying that if you haven’t already.

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Thank you Able. :blush: It’s a wonderful way to put research skills into solving human jigsaw puzzles. My husband is adopted too so he’s my next genealogical project.

Sorry to hear about your half brother. It is something that I have accepted that in all this research, I am likely to come across for myself at some stage.

It’s great to hear another enjoying genealogy as much as I do. Most people look at me blankly when I list my hobbies :joy:. I love your garden by the way!

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Just a little inside SH humor… Will the next contest be from a beer company seeking a new name after a certain virus made it infamous??:blush:

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Multitasking has been out since the lockdown. Doing things in orderly manner, detecting what works and what doesn’t.
My online courses flowing, able to implement what have been learning. Discovering new opportunities.
Now in love with writing copies (copywriting)
I see direct marketing has the good stuff, stylishly creating an agency.
Stay safe everyone. The lockdown isn’t that serious in Nigeria. It doesn’t even seem we have covid19, because the recovery rate is much and too earl; may be 1 week after testing positive.
I care about our creative so much, I urge everyone to staysafe.
All squadhelp coordinators, please stay safe too. Use this medium to reach out to old and new clients. Support them if need be.
Idris

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You go girl!! Speech therapy is hard. I had problems with speech when I was a girl and worked hard at it. I still have problems every now and then.And for your boy to progress is astounding to your love for him! I hope he progresses more and more each day!

My passion is Genealogy too!! I started on my dad’s mom’s side because there wasn’t much info on them at all as they were from France and Wallonia (French Belgium). I’ve all but finished on that side as I’ve gone as far as I can with the records that are available, even as far back as the early 1600s. (handwriting is atrocious and spellings were different then) It’s so exciting! I’ve been able to help other people find records and extract the important info for them as well. It’s why I haven’t participated lately here.

@AbleBrands - do you know the towns in France that your father in law’s grandfather came from? I would be more than happy to search for you! If you want to DM me the name, I can take a look at the databases I have used in my quest.

I’m absolutely giddy to find kindred spirits here!

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Funny thing is…their sales are actually up. This virus has not hurt their brand at all. Their commercials still run on TV here in NYC. Corona Extra sales grew 5% in the U.S. in the latest four-week period, which ended Feb. 16 — nearly doubling the 52-week trend for the brand.

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That’s really sweet of you @LauraE but there is no name unfortunately, and his grandmother took it to the grave with her. Have loved researching the French family though, we’re not far away (20 minutes on a hopper plane) so we’ve been to the area many times and found old graves which helped on his mothers side. We’re back as far as the 1520s on that side :).

@LisaMac That’s just crazy! I suppose all of the instagrammers want them in their photos, or people have remembered that it exists, or want to try it. There is an expression in marketing… there is no such thing as bad marketing, as long as it gets your talked about.

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I saw this post yesterday and I had no idea what to say because this whole crisis has made me realize that I was already a hermit! I have worked from home for 20 years. And in our household, it is not unusual for one of us to be working on the weekends, evenings, too.

But there still are some positives. Since everything is restricted, our schedule on the weekends is much less stressful. Nowhere we have to go. So, we have set aside time every weekend to just sit on our deck and look at the gorgeous scenery that is our neighborhood. We go outside and howl at 8:00 at night and listen to it echo through our valley.

I rather love that nobody has expectations of us. No have-tos.

I also love Ancestry research but I have been doing that for years now. Side story not related to covid: my brother in law was adopted by my husband’s parents. I found my brother in law’s entire biological family, which he has connected with. He has 10 siblings he did not know about! I did that a while ago now, though.

@AbleBrands say hi to all of my french relatives. I am 100% french with incredible, deep roots in France and Canada. My family comes from here (back to the 1600s):
https://www.chateau-chapeau-cornu.fr/fr/

PS: If any of you who are French happen to run across amazonb1 on Ancestry.com as linked to your tree… that’s me!

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Thank you LauraE! That’s some very impressive research to be able to go back that far.

Yes it’s so nice to see that we all enjoy similar hobbies. Kindred spirits indeed :blush:

@Commulinks I envy the lovely scenery and fresh mountain air you have! We are isolated in a small apartment as a family of 4 in the middle of the city. We use those nature apps to meditate and imagine that we might be somewhere nice :joy:.

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