What will you never take for granted again?

[gouch]

Being kind of an antisocial person all this social distance stuff has been a breath of fresh air. One thing I will not take for granted though, is having a place to live and call my own.

 

[Wild Bill]

Health, social interaction. Nobody is bringing donuts to the office anymore for birthdays which stinks. I haven't had a tap beer since probably September. I have friends that own a restaurant and I can't wait until I feel better about going in and giving them my business. Until then I guess I'll order out.
I won't miss pending covid tests that put hunting trips in limbo. Had a couple of those.

 

[pre6422hornet]

That my grandpa, who was a 50 year machinist who taught me how to use my hands and think through a problem before jumping all in, lived two miles away for 32 years of my life. Talking to him, playing cards with him, or just sitting at their kitchen table having a cup of coffee and talking baseball or fishing. Miss that tremendously. Been 8 years since I have been able to pick up the phone and say " Hey Gramps!". Glad I got to spend 39 years with him.

 

[JEL]

Agreed. I have a couple of coworkers who recently lost parent(s) to COVID within the last few weeks.

Yep. My mom is 82 and we are really struggling with the balance of keeping her safe from Covid and keeping her mentally healthy. Social isolation can be just as harmful as the virus in some.

 

[MarvB]

I also feel for the kids, have a nephew whose quite a football player- lost his season, playoffs, prob a chance a better scholarship, his prom, graduation, even socializing with his friends ... all the things I never would have given a second thought to at his age as they were all choices I could make not those taken away. Different times no doubt!

 

[Hunting Wife]

The simple pleasures of just going to do something. I’m an introvert and don’t need a ton of social interaction. I’ve lived a couple states away from most of my family for all of my adult life so not seeing them isn’t much of a change. But I do like variety and doing something or going somewhere new to keep mentally stimulated. Making your own fun gets pretty stale after a while.

 

[TOGIE]

overall we've been pretty lucky, can't complain about much.

i hate the monotony of life these days. taking a shower is now a way to break up the day a little.... sheesh

my wife is a daddy's girl and her dad is super high risk with a trachea condition. definitely won't take for granted anymore how we always used to be able to just drop in and hang out with them whenever and wherever we wanted

 

[blackdawg]

Education for the kids seems to be the big deal I have taken for granted. I think the kids are missing out on some very important lessons by only attending school part time or not at all. They are missing out on social interaction and little life lessons that just can't be had virtually! Not sure how this will bite them in the buttocks later in life but I fear they will get a big kick in the pants one day. Personally, this virus has probably been a blessing. I got caught up in the rat race trying to keep up with the Jones'es a bit to much. I think the reset button has been finally punched and the things that really matter in life are back at the forefront. An ol buzzard on this forum has been crowing about running out of time before running out of money for a while, I feel my ship's course is now set to sail on the right course moving forward to the horizon now!

 

[Caseknife]

Common sense and the intelligence of the human species. People are still in denial of the severity of this pandemic, hosting parties like everything is normal, traveling when it can be postponed, etc. Haven't hugged my 91 year old mother, who has had COPD 40 years before it was COPD, for over a year.

 

[Doublecluck]

Phone calls, you might never talk to the person on the other end again. People died from this virus without ever catching it.

A place to live, worrying about the economic impacts on my business we figured we would sell and use the equity to pay off debt and get something in the country. Ended up spending 23 days in a 5th wheel with 5 kids and two dogs after we sold our first dream home to buy our next dream home and it appraised 30k under contract 6 days before closing.

Sitting on the porch and watching your kids play with the neighbor kids.

 

[OntarioHunter]

I am retired and never been much of a social butterfly so the pandemic has not been as difficult a transition for me as it has for many of you. I was still able to get in my usual schedule of hunting though missed the second trip to Africa (which is obviously not part of the "usual schedule"). Thanks to the coronavirus my perception of the folks "back home" in Montana has changed dramatically. I will miss what it once was. The people have changed more than the land ... and the land has changed a lot. This pandemic opened my eyes. Wish it hadn't.

 

[noharleyyet]

Of course the obvious, family and friends' health. As for guilty pleasures, impromptu road trips out of state, crowded restaurants, my gym, smokey blues bars.....the list is long.

 

[Marshian]

My vision. Of course unrelated to Covid, but I had a retina spontaneously detach and easily could have been blind in that eye. The other is still high risk. Made it through ok but I won’t take for granted a clear view of anything.

 

[duckhunt]

I’ll never take for granted having actual real-live students in my classroom—even the ones that dose my coffee with laxatives and put thumbtacks on my chair.

My sister used to teach college courses in California. A student gave her a brownie before class which was great because she was hungry. He didn't tell her it was a special brownie and she had to shut the class down early. She was so stoned that she ended up back home missing her coat and only wearing one shoe.

 

[DouglasR]

I’m not dying without it but I kinda miss indoor bouldering.

 

[cedahm]

The bigger impact for me has been my work. Not traveling to visit with my team and customers has been a huge change, and I miss that interaction. I’ve gone from flying 150-200k miles a year to not a single flight since Feb, and likely not until at least June of next year. We’re doing the best we can given the circumstances, but I do miss the global travel, great food and cultural experiences, and camaraderie with my team and customers.

Same here. I have bemoaned the short transoceanic trips and the general grind of weekly domestic travel a lot more in recent years as I age, but I have found that I miss it.

I have started traveling to one client/team the last month and change. Client has really solid safety procedures, has grown substantially whilst actually adding significant numbers of staff during the pandemic, and we get a Test on arrival every trip which has brought a little peace of mind.

 

[MTelkHuntress]

I'm also really introverted so I havent missed too much and it's been nice to spend more time outdoors because theres no alternatives in town. I do miss the gym though, I can slowly feel my arms turning into noodles.

I think the one thing I wont take for granted again is being able to visit loved ones in the hospital. When my grandma got Covid, she was in the hospital for a week and the natural reaction was to visit, but we couldnt. We called her more often and when she got out of the hospital, we were able to send food to her doorstep. We also sent her some better furniture since she couldn't sleep in her bed. It was nice to be able to do those things for her since we couldn't physically be there to help out.

 

[Shangobango]

Agreed. I have a couple of coworkers who recently lost parent(s) to COVID within the last few weeks.

I have one person on my crew who lost their dad in early November. I have another who had a liver transplant in June and tested positive for COVID early week before last. He was still in the hospital with pneumonia when I talked to his wife on Friday.

All that also makes me not take my own health for granted because in both those cases the virus was transmitted by a loved one to the person who checked a lot of the boxes on the list of risks for higher likelihood of complications. Getting it myself would be one thing, giving it to a high risk loved one is something I don't want to think about.

 

[Shangobango]

Yep. My mom is 82 and we are really struggling with the balance of keeping her safe from Covid and keeping her mentally healthy. Social isolation can be just as harmful as the virus in some.

Spot on.

 

[Europe]

unlike my sisters on the forum ( hunting wife and mtelkhuntress ) I am not introverted and thanks to my father who always said "tomorrow is promised to no-one , so live today to the fullest " I adopted Tim MaGraws song "live like you were dying" as mine.

But-- although I hear the words in Tim's song , my body is no longer able to respond and I miss skiing, drag racing, sailing, hunting, dancing, horseback riding, fishing, wine & cheese, and watching men, watch me------o.k. that last one stoped happening probably 40 years ago when I was 50

Take care of your body, your health, dont be a tough guy-go to the doctor, later in life you will be glad you did

In the spirit of this thread, my husband. We lived a very full life together but when he passed it left a large hole in my life and my heart, so If possible, I wish we had created even more memories than we did, as those memories are what I think about the most at this stage of my life.

The one thing I have noticed on this forum is that the forum has a lot of good--hands-on-- fathers and grandfathers. You will not regret the time you spend with your children and grandchildren---nor will they!