Shutdown, Lockdown, Mass House Arrest, Self-Quarantine, Self Isolation, Social Distancing. All different terms to describe putting the world – or most of it – on hold. This post is not about the coronavirus itself or even the implications for the economy. I wrote at length about that in a previous post.
As a contrarian I often find myself at odds with conventional wisdom – or popular opinion. It makes for a very interesting if sometimes uncomfortable, life. The current shutdown is no exception. Increasingly, the facts do not justify the damage to the economy. Therefore, I have been asking questions and listening to alternate views from reputable sources.
I am not shutting myself off from the world and living in fear. I have been living my life as close to normal as possible during the 6 weeks of the shutdown.
Those of you who have read my story will appreciate that I have lived a different life to most. I have had many serious threats to my continued survival and a few days that could have been my last. Fortunately they weren’t but those experiences make it hard for me to worry much about a virus that is not as serious as the media or politicians would like us to believe.
Working From Home During the Shutdown.
I am more fortunate than many, I have been working from home for 10 years. My work is mainly online. Event organizers have cancelled two speaking engagements due to the shutdown. But as those were for religious events with low fees, the financial implications were minimal. I no longer visit my business partner in another town. Not out of any fear of catching the virus. Because the coffee shop which is the venue for our business meetings is closed. And I do not want to risk her being sold out by the local spies for receiving visitors if I were to visit her at home.
Living on a farm means I am used to being away from people and do not have to worry about getting too close to others. Now that it is light enough to walk in the early mornings, I can walk without meeting another person and rarely seeing a vehicle.
We have no children at home and three of our collective four live in different countries. My only son in Canada lives 60 km away so we do not see him or his children very often in normal times. Not much change in my routine there.
Apart from shopping at farm supply, tool, equipment and computer stores, I avoid visiting shops. I don’t need the shutdown to keep me away from supermarkets. Luckily for me Sue is still prepared to brave the insane queues and shop attendants dressed like characters out of a star wars movie to keep us in food, toilet paper and other essential supplies.
Why Am I so Busy?
Realising that the shutdown was going to cause a huge amount of disruption to our business and personal lives, my partner in our Tiny Home Geniuses website and I needed to look for new ideas. Kathleen and I started our Yakking Podcast YouTube video and Podbean audio channels at the end of February. We have had many interesting guests on the show and we are amazed at the show’s popularity.
It is great fun but finding two guests a week, scheduling, preparing, editing and publishing the shows takes quite a bit of time. I also find that Kathleen and I now need to video conference on Zoom most days instead of our weekly face-to-face meeting and phone calls.
My other writing work continues. I am re-formatting my 5 Steps To Thriving On Adversity book as an ebook and editing out a handful of typos that escaped detection in the final proofreading prior to publication of the actual book.
There is always accounting work for my own business, ongoing administration work for the now mothballed vegetable business my son and I started in 2016 in an unsuccessful attempt to help him and his family immigrate to Canada. Despite no church services, the church building and cemetery need frequent checking and minor maintenance tasks must be done.
Even though we are no longer farming, I have a tractor, lawn tractor, chain saws and other equipment that need servicing. Looking after the acre of lawn and garden takes time. With the probability of the shutdown causing a shortage of fresh vegetables later this year, we have made vegetable beds so that we can plant our own vegetables as soon as the weather warms up.
In the short window between the mud of the thaw and the working of the field, I pulled 8 big trees out of the bush and up to the yard. There is still a lot of wood to cut and split in preparation for next winter. As I write, it is unseasonaly cold with a maximum temperature of 4C or 38F. We are still burning wood.
Avoiding The Media Trap
I cancelled my satellite TV subscription about 8 years ago. I can only get 3 or 4 broadcast channels which I never watch. Netflix or Acorn have more series and movies than I could ever hope to watch even in a permanent state of shutdown. The kitchen radio is tuned to a local station that has very little national or international news. I get one newspaper a week because it has a good financial news section.
My mainstream media consumption is very limited. I do scan headlines from a wide spectrum of online sources and read some articles in depth, but I do not spend hours agonising over the hysterical reports about the out of control spread of the virus, overwhelmed hospitals and catastrophic death rates most of which are not happening on the ground. I am active on several social media platforms to promote business but spend little time on them.
That’s how I avoid the media trap.
Then I think of a few other things that I do and I realise why I am so busy.
And people who don’t know me look at my white beard and ask if I am enjoying retirement.
Retirement? What’s that?
How about you? Are you keeping busy?
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