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Title: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on March 22, 2020, 03:26:39 PM
What are you doing to keep busy or possibly learn something?

YouTube: Heron's Bonsai (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyZR5OfKC6sQ6fKHDzlruNw/featured) This guy will make you believe everyone can make bonsai! Overnight! :ohmy:

edX Courses: 4153 Courses (https://www.edx.org/course) Most are free to audit. :thumbup:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Highmac on March 23, 2020, 04:47:10 AM
From a columnist in one of our local papers:
Quote
Here are nine little words from a reader that may actually save us: Treat everybody you meet as though they are infected.

Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on March 23, 2020, 09:07:49 AM
Neil,
    I've been doing that for years!!! :blush: :p
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on March 23, 2020, 11:23:22 AM
How about this? TED-Ed@Home (https://ed.ted.com/daily_newsletter) :thumbup:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Frances144 on March 23, 2020, 12:38:18 PM
My day is full. It is always full. There are not enough daylight hours really.  I may not actually have a job (don't want one) but I feed and look after my croft, rescue any animal that needs me, plus make a felted sheep a day (to sell) plus am transcribing my Great Great Aunt's diaries (covering 1894 to 1961), which is fascinating.  I work until 21.00 every night having hopefully achieved all this and am nursing my wee dog 24/7 too.

I have help. I have my two lovely daughters who are wonderful, helpful and brilliant.  We laugh our way through the day.  Elder one rides and does the horses with me, younger one helps me check and feed the ponies.  She also cooks delicious Chinese food too (the real deal).

We lead an isolated life by choice so nothing much has changed to be honest.  Spring is on its way so hopefully the horse load will get lighter as they become more self-sufficient.

For r&r I watch Chinese fantasy series on Netflix and my Mandarin is coming along nicely now.

Stay safe everyone.
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on March 23, 2020, 03:12:19 PM
How about a parade?! :thumbup: :clap: :cheer: :confetti:

Just heard a a car tooting a horn; multiple short 'beeps'. Looked out the window and saw a car with balloons or crepe paper streamers on it driving down our street. Wait! There's another car... and another! Some of them also had decorations! :Thinking: This is strange because there are only 43 houses on the dead-end street, I live exactly half way between the ends and you rarely see more than two vehicles a minute!

The cars keep coming! The first one has already turned around at the end and there are still more coming from the entrance!

My wife couldn't take the suspense and went out (ignoring the shelter-in-place rules!) to see what all the commotion was about. She said several of the cars had names on them... and the name of the elementary school where the 'drivers' taught! That school is where any of our younger children would attend. Since the school, along with all others in the area is closed, the teachers simply wanted to make sure their pupils are not forgot!!

I just hope the kids weren't disturbed by all the noise and traffic!!! :rant: :teacher: :inspect: :tomato: :scram:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on March 25, 2020, 11:57:41 AM
We're participating in scavenger hunt for the neighborhood kids. They will not be in one group, probably accompanied by a parent, also. They will not come into the yard, much less inside the house. Items must be in the yard, on the porch or a window, visible from the street of course. I stuck a pitchfork into one of our flower beds and put a roll of blue painters tape in one of the front windows. The roll of tape is not very large but it should easily be visible with the white shutter closed behind it.

Obviously, the organizer is a mother with possibly bored, out-of-school kids! :yes: :toothgrin:

Home schooling tips (https://www.npr.org/2020/03/23/820228206/6-tips-for-homeschooling-during-coronavirus). I'm sending this link to some friends with home-bound kids.
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Frances144 on March 25, 2020, 01:06:28 PM
My nearest neighbour is 1/2 a mile away!  :whoosh:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on March 25, 2020, 04:02:23 PM
Make any of your "window items" really big! :laughhard:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on March 28, 2020, 10:00:56 AM
Speaking of windows:Can construction paper save us all? (https://dailymemphian.com/section/coronavirus/article/12299/calkins-in-a-time-of-pandemic-how-construction?utm_source=email_edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morning_2020-03-28)
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 02, 2020, 10:27:03 AM
Some reading:A family activity?:
    • New Yorker: Turned a Fashion House Into a Mask Factory (https://www.newyorker.com/culture/on-and-off-the-avenue/how-christian-siriano-turned-his-fashion-house-into-a-mask-factory?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20200401&utm_term=4496021&utm_campaign=the-new-normal&utm_id=1982930&orgid=467) Might not be able to use this pattern, maybe just make a scarf? :coolio:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 05, 2020, 09:44:28 AM
Another task we (I) often put off for another time; deleting very old emails. While I was "walking down memory lane", I came across an interesting 'conversation'.

Contest for the hour:
Who wrote the following snippet and the year (+/- 5)?
Quote
I think Graphic Converter has something similar, though I couldn't swear by
it, since my copy of GC is refusing to start up in Classic and I'm not going
to boot into 9.2.2 just to find out!

Well, back to the grindstone (actually have to go to my 6 year old's play
group...so it's more like "off to the zoo"!)
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 05, 2020, 05:11:32 PM
Time Consumer #13: Kill two birds with one job! Eggs and Meat (as long as you don't kill all of the birds).
Raise some chickens in your back yard! Some towns have laws against that... so use your front yard! :Devilish: Or give the inspectors a few eggs!

Biology lesson: You will need at least one rooster.

PS: Don't expect to sleep late in the mornings. Roosters get up very early.
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: kimmer on April 05, 2020, 09:27:20 PM
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 06, 2020, 11:12:21 AM
City slickers!!! :doh: :wallbash: :coolio: :dntknw:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: kimmer on April 06, 2020, 01:55:10 PM
Quote from: Xairbusdriver on April 06, 2020, 11:12:21 AM
City slickers!!! :doh: :wallbash: :coolio: :dntknw:
You want to raise livestock, live in the country not in the city. ;)
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Paddy on April 06, 2020, 03:05:40 PM
Quote from: Xairbusdriver on April 05, 2020, 09:44:28 AM
Another task we (I) often put off for another time; deleting very old emails. While I was "walking down memory lane", I came across an interesting 'conversation'.

Contest for the hour:
Who wrote the following snippet and the year (+/- 5)?
Quote
I think Graphic Converter has something similar, though I couldn't swear by
it, since my copy of GC is refusing to start up in Classic and I'm not going
to boot into 9.2.2 just to find out!

Well, back to the grindstone (actually have to go to my 6 year old's play
group...so it's more like "off to the zoo"!)

Yeah...that would be moi. And that 6-year-old is now 24!!! February 19, 2002 that was - we were living in North Andover, MA at the time. And yes, I still have the email. (I do keep emails that in an another time would have been letters - they're a great record)
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 06, 2020, 07:05:07 PM
You WEN!!! You or nou intitald to a yeer of spel chequing frum mie.
Ann inestimental valyou!!!
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 09, 2020, 04:06:51 PM
We had another parade on our street! The great thing is that our neighborhood is 43 houses on a very long dead-end, so any parade coming IN also makes one going OUT! Two for the price of one! :thumbup: :cheer:
The parade of ~10 cars held some of the kids my GD works with. One of the Mother's asked if she could drive by with her children so they could say/yell "Hello". My GD was surprised to see not just one car, but a parade!
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 10, 2020, 09:25:50 AM
I'm not a sports fan. I couldn't even tell what the current "ball" should be "in play" right now (I'm thinking it is small, round and hard and involves odd, geometrically shaped large fields?). But I read this this sports writer quite often. Here is a story about what most of us have probably been thinking about!
My teenage son cut my hair and . . . (https://dailymemphian.com/section/metro/article/12728/calkins-my-teenage-son-cut-my-hair-and?utm_source=email_edition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=morning_2020-04-10)
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 17, 2020, 09:29:20 PM
Since this is a world wide pandemic, it might be interesting to see how other cultures are affected. Here is how an Australian family handled a canceled a long flight... to nowhere!
Australian family recreate 15-hour holiday flight (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/apr/16/coronavirus-vacation-australian-family-recreate-15-hour-holiday-flight-in-living-room?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20200417&utm_term=4526829&utm_campaign=the-new-normal&utm_id=1982930&orgid=467)
One problem for Australians is that nearly every flight is a long one! These kids will now have a much easier time facing that situation. Everyone is homeschooling!

I decided I couldn't put off spraying the flower garden weeds. I hope to have a nice crop of flowering weeds soon! :doh:

And I enjoyed trimming three Sweet Bay Magnolias in the back yard. Especially when the kids next door started climbing the fence and asking lots of questions. They started giving me math questions! Their Mom says that's because she's been helping the 6 and 4 yo work on addition and subtraction without pencil and paper. :thumbup:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: jchuzi on April 18, 2020, 06:35:37 AM
Someone sent my wife the following quip:

Before this crisis, I had to leave the dog alone for much of each day. After seven days of isolation, I understand why he chewed the furniture.
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: kimmer on April 18, 2020, 10:48:39 AM
LOL @ the quip, jchuzi.  :toothgrin:

Today I'm going to bake a loaf of peanut butter bread.  :drool:

https://youtu.be/_qL0aVIyyws
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 18, 2020, 12:46:37 PM
Well duh!!! :fool: Everybody knows everything is better with peanut butter in/on it! :yes: :yum:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: kimmer on April 18, 2020, 10:31:25 PM
Need a video to watch? Pluto Living is what you need. Warning: don't drink any liquids while watching. ;)

https://youtu.be/VJxBd9XAVus
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: jchuzi on April 19, 2020, 06:22:07 AM
I have to hand it to the hucksters; they are very imaginative. I wonder if a similar product has been invented for "professional ladies"?... :toothgrin:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on April 22, 2020, 09:35:58 AM
Guess the minimum age for a drivers license in the US! The 'sign' is a giant version of a TN Drivers License, awaiting a picture of the new recipient! :clap:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on June 04, 2020, 11:28:17 AM
Had intended to spray some Round-Up on the grass (weeds) growing between the asphalt street and the concrete curbing. Just the part in front of our house, not entire street nor even the other side of the street! I decided to wait a while to see if our neighborhood would fit in the forecast "40% chance of thunderstorms". Help often comes to those who wait. :blush: I see on my weather web site the following:
                           Max Rain Rate: 2.13 in/hr at 9:21 am
    Calculated Sky Conditions: Torrential Rain

Theoretically, Round-Up needs only 30 minutes before it can be rained on... The weeds have another 24 hours before I attack them. "I'll be back!!!" :rant:
Title: Re: Suggested time consumers while socially distanced
Post by: Xairbusdriver on June 08, 2020, 07:44:59 PM
Not getting enough traveling during the pandemic? Here's what a travel photog is doing to compensate (https://mymodernmet.com/indoor-nature-photography-erin-sullivan/?utm_source=npr_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=20200608&utm_term=4615006&utm_campaign=the-new-normal&utm_id=1982930&orgid=467)! Think different! Eat your way around the world? :yum: