What are they still doing now?

Yes, how are we keeping busy. It's been almost of year pandemically speaking. We are home. We are still keeping busy.

Actually Becky gets to go out and keep busy. She has been doing the shopping although a lot of it is done online for delivery or curbside pickup but it does take time. She also still has the significant good fortune to be able to get to her art studio almost everyday for a few hours where she has been working on several projects. Her studio is on Hertel Avenue need a couple of good grocery stores so she is able to drive by and ascertain whether the store is busy or not and she can stop by to pick up some things.

She also keeps herself busy making food. She loves cooking and enjoys creating new meals and going back to old favorites. We like having lots of leftovers too. We really hadn't needed to order out very much. We've only really had a meal delivered once and that was on our wedding anniversary. We see lots of neighbors constantly having meals delivered but Becky has mostly wanted to make our dinners herself. It's part of her keeping busy during this pandemic.

I mentioned Becky doing online shopping and another aspect of that for her has been her buying and selling on eBay and Etsy. She is very busy with that hobby and has mastered using the postal service effectively and safely. Then she spends the evening watching some television which usually begins with an old movie from TCM or the Criterion channel and then a baking show or maybe a mystery series that is usually European. At the end of the evening I usually join her to watch some classical or jazz music videos on YouTube and maybe a little comedy or an NPR Tiny Desk concert.

So what has continued to keep me busy? What am I still doing now? I'm still reading a lot but not as much as I had read in 2019 or earlier. I watched some TV shows but not near as many as in the previous couple of years since my retirement. I spent a lot of the summer in the backyard or on the front porch reading and listening to music.

I've spent a lot of time playing with my music collection. I've continued to reorganize my mixes into the 8 hour plus mega mixes and have been creating more of them. I spent over 50 years collecting music and now I get to listen and play as much as I want. Pandemically speaking that means more now than ever.

I do a lot of chores around the house like taking of all the laundry and lots of little projects. I'm reorganizing the third floor storage area and the vinyl album collection. Lots of work up there.

The largest use of my time the past year or so has been my writing exercise blog. I really spend several hours a day writing on a large variety of subjects. This ongoing project of writing essays in the blog will keep me busy for the rest of my life. I'm enjoying writing about the music I've been listening to, the books that I've read over my life, movies, TV shows, places I've been and things that I've done. Lots of memories. I want my grandchildren to know a little more about me than they would get from their own memories of me or what they might have heard from their parents.

I am considering a new project for this new year and that is exploring ancestry.com. I haven't completely decided yet and perhaps I'll get a trial account and start the process. We'll see.