I just finished doing Los Angeles today Times crossword. Later I will do the New York Times crossword. I do it online. I started doing crossword puzzles during Covid as a way to pass the time. But somehow I’ve become addicted, continuing to do them almost every day, long after our lives have returned to some semblance of normality.
My wife turned to puzzles during Covid. She started with some 500 piece puzzles, then moved on to 1000 piece puzzles. When she completed one, she stayed on the dining room table for a few weeks to show off her accomplishment. Unlike me though, once she was done with Covid she stopped doing the puzzles. She had better things to do.
He also spent more time playing the piano during Covid. I think he regrets not using more of the extra time that Covid gave him to really improve his piano skills, to achieve something constructive during Covid. However, now he has been going out more, spending less time at home and also less time at the piano.
I wonder what games people started playing during covid-19 and are they still playing them or have they stopped? I also wonder how many people have returned to a pre-Covid normal. Do you do all the things you were doing in 2019? The other weekend, my wife hosted a party. She and a group of neighbors (eight women in all) drank wine, ate cake and played Apples to Apples, a game in which people draw cards and a judge decides who has the best match. It’s a perfect party game that produces lots of laughs. I know this because I was upstairs in my office and had to put headphones on to hear the Netflix show I was watching.
We had played Apples to Apples a few times in the past. But never during Covid. Now people feel comfortable gathering indoors, without masks, to laugh and have a good time. At least the weather was warm, so B could keep the windows open.
I wonder what else people have been doing post-Covid, or not doing. AB and I like to dance. When we moved in 2017, we joined a local dance club that held social dances once a month at our community center. The club closed during Covid. Now he’s back with the Saturday night dances. But we haven’t been going. The idea of spending two or three hours on a crowded dance floor without a mask seems like a bridge too far.
I went back to my table tennis club for a while, when the Covid numbers were very low in our area. But I stopped when the numbers went up again. I have been thinking of going back again. But every time I think about sharing a room with 20 or 25 people who are running, sweating and breathing hard, I decide. . . well, maybe later.
We have traveled a few, mostly by car, not by train, bus or plane. I’m playing golf, because everything is outside. We have gone to the cinema a couple of times, the theater has not been full at all. We’ve been going to restaurants because it’s warm enough to sit outside.
I’m not sure what we’ll do now that the weather is getting colder. I don’t mind spending a couple of minutes in a store or at the post office without a mask. I cut my hair. You can’t wear a mask when you cut your hair. But I’m not sure if I’d enjoy being inside a restaurant, sitting there for an hour or more, breathing recirculated air through dozens of other people’s airways.
Many people are more informal about Covid than I am. They think: heck, we’re vaccinated, there are treatments now, it’s no worse than catching a cold, and besides the cases are down, we probably won’t get it anyway.
For us, the Covid is over. But it’s not over. Anyway . . . I better go to that New York Times crossword.
