Safer-at-Home | Mixed Metaphors

Sep 06 2021

Posts

Pandemic Staycation Redux: Safer-at-Home

Staycation: A vacation spent at home or near home, doing enjoyable activities or visiting local attractions. — Dictionary.com

Labor Day weekend has historically been the beginning of my annual Staycation, usually 7-10 days which I take off of work and remain close to home. It’s also what I can afford to do as I make choices with my discretionary income and travel often falls off the list. It sounds a little mundane, yet it serves me. This time is a vacation from my routines and allows me to practice spontaneity and rather than check off things on my to-do list — which I regularly make for the week ahead — instead I make a “to-do only if I want to list,” which I add and subtract to as I wish. Yes, I’m a little OCD. Continue reading →

Tagged COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Labor Day, Memories, Pandemic, Pod Squad, Post-Pandemic, Pre-Pandemic, Safer-at-Home, Seasons, Staycation

Dec 31 2020

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: The End Is Here!

“There are certain life lessons that you can only learn in the struggle.” ― Idowu Koyenikan

“You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending.” ― C.S. Lewis

It’s the eve of New Year’s Eve as I write and take a look back at 2020 and look ahead to 2021, wondering what the new year will bring.

There’s a blanket of fresh snow outside. Yesterday, I went grocery shopping to ensure I was prepared to be snowed in as I shelter-in-place between the holidays and before I return to work next week at my part-time-job. I only venture out for work and essential services, including a New Year’s Eve dentist appointment and a haircut next week. I have a mammogram scheduled the day before my January birthday. During 2020, we had to assess the risk vs. benefit in every venture outside our homes. Continue reading →

Tagged 2020, 2021, COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Glass Half-Full, New Year, New Year's Eve, Pandemic, Racine, Relationships, Safer-at-Home, Stories, Wisconsin Historical Society Journal Project, Year-End-Musings

Aug 02 2020

1 Comment

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Letter to Loved Ones

“Either write something worth reading, or do something worth writing.” — Benjamin Franklin

“The goal isn’t to live forever, it’s to create something that will.” — Chuck Pahlaniuk

First some background. As my Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! readers know, I’m a writer and blogger. Friends and family, from firsthand experience, are also aware I’m a storyteller. I’m 70-years-old, yet consider myself young at heart and continue to be a student of life. I’m a work in progress, and perfectly flawed. I live alone and on the continuum of introvert/extrovert, I fall in between. I’m an ambivert.

I’ve been socially distancing and sheltering-in-place to some degree since my previous job ended at the end of February and has continued due to the coronavirus pandemic. Since May, I began working part-time at a job as an LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate that is more an avocation than vocation. I’m grateful. Continue reading →

Tagged Ambivert, Blogging, COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Grief, Journals, Legacy, Letter to Loved Ones, Loss, Love, Memoir, Mixed Metaphors, Pandemic, Recovery, Relationships, Safer-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, Wisconsin Historical Society Journal Project

Jul 18 2020

3 Comments

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Quarantine Bubble Edition

Definition: Quarantine Bubble – “A quarantine bubble is a group of individuals or families whose members have been safely quarantining and who can now start hanging out with other observant groups, so long as the families observe safety guidelines and agree to be exclusive.”

The social trend is called by many names as people seek safe, in-person interactions outside of the home in response to the isolation of coronavirus lockdowns — quarantine bubbles, pandemic pods, COVID-19 bubbles, or quaranteams.

Melissa Hawkins, Director, Public Health Scholars Program Health Studies at American University in Washington D.C. writes, “When done carefully, the research shows that quarantine bubbles can effectively limit the risk of contracting SARS-CoV-2 while allowing people to have much needed social interactions with their friends and family.” Continue reading →

Tagged Coronacoaster, COVID-19, COVID-19 Bubbles, COVID-19 Journal, Dispatch from the Hideout, Facemasks, Lockdown, Lockdown Lingo, Pandemic, Pandemic Pods, Physical Isolation, Pod Squad, Quaranteams, Quarantine Bubble, Safer-at-Home, Social Distancing

Jul 04 2020

Posts

A Solitary Life: Living Independently

“What matters in life is not what happens to you but what you remember and how you remember it.” ― Gabriel García Márquez

“Memory is the diary that we all carry about with us.” — Oscar Wilde

Today is the 4th of July, the Independence Day Holiday. Yesterday, I began reflecting on the meaning of the day, which celebrates the independence of a nation following a revolution and the freedom of its people from an oppressive government. Of dire concern — we are living through what may be judged as another oppressive government — our own — as our elected leaders dismantle democracy and favor the corporate aristocracy and dominant white culture. We are not truly free and independent until we are all free and equal under the law. Continue reading →

Tagged AA, Blogging, Childhood Memories, COVID-19, Family, Fireworks, Fourth of July, Friends, Holidays, Home, Journals, Memoir, Memories, Parades, Racine, Recovery, Relationships, Reminiscence, Safer-at-Home, Solitary Life, The Orphan Holidays, Wisconsin

May 11 2020

1 Comment

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Skin Hunger

“Touch is the first language we speak.” — Stephen Gaskin

“Touch has a memory.” — John Keats

As I continue to chronicle my COVID-19 journey in this seventh in a series of dispatches from the hideout, I’m faced with identifying my fundamental needs as I socially distance. I’m reminded by op-ed pieces that more precisely — we’re physically distancing — that we can still reach out and interact with each other virtually — or at a safe distance of six feet in small groups of people.

Though I’ve started to work at my new job at an LGBTQ+ community center, it remains closed to the public which it serves. A small group of staff, including part-time advocates like myself, provide services and plan for an uncertain future, aka, the new normal. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work and to collaborate with others again, especially since I’ve spent, for the most part, the past almost 10 weeks, physically alone. Continue reading →

Tagged COVID-19, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Home, Pandemic, Quaranteaming, Quarantine, Safer-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, Single, Skin Hunger, Social Distancing, Spring Fever, Touch, Wisconsin

Apr 29 2020

2 Comments

Posts

Dispatch from the Hideout: Back to Life

“It’s back to normal, but it’s a different normal. It’s not the same as it was before, but people are getting back to work. Life goes on. ― Eric Young

“If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” ― Maya Angelou

On May 1^st it’s back to life, a return to some degree of normal, however, it will certainly be different, a new normal. I return to work and begin a new job as an LGBTQ+ AODA Advocate. I’m grateful. Continue reading →

Tagged Back to Life, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Death, Dispatch from the Hideout, Family, Friends, Home, Memoir, Pandemic, Personal Narratives, Safer-at-Home, Shelter-in-Place, The New Normal

Mixed Metaphors

Mixed Metaphors, Oh My! – A place where words, this writer, and readers play together.

Tag Archives: Safer-at-Home

Pandemic Staycation Redux: Safer-at-Home

Dispatch from the Hideout: The End Is Here!

Dispatch from the Hideout: Letter to Loved Ones

A Solitary Life: Living Independently

Dispatch from the Hideout: Back to Life