OT: So what has everybody been doing during the pandemic? Still working? Other stuff?

[Rubi]

Since I'm retired my life hasn't changed too much, other than wearing a face mask in public. I've been getting out a fair bit and doing the photography thing...

Click on the thumbnails and you will see the full size image.

Red-tailed Hawk photographed south of High River.

Red-tailed Hawk photographed south of High River.

Swainson's Hawk photographed just east of Okotoks

Click to read more...

 

[Rubi]

American White Pelican photographed at Frank Lake

American White Pelicans photographed in Calgary

Great Blue Herons photographed in Calgary

 

[InfinityIggy]

Since I'm retired my life hasn't changed too much, other than wearing a face mask in public. I've been getting out a fair bit and doing the photography thing...

Click on the thumbnails and you will see the full size image.

Red-tailed Hawk photographed south of High River.
View attachment 353868
Red-tailed Hawk photographed south of High River.
View attachment 353869
Swainson's Hawk photographed just east of Okotoks
View attachment 353870

As the kids say, these are dope AF.

 

[CraigsList]

@Rubi those are some great photos. That's a great hobby to have! Definitely a good time to go and get those pics during this pandemic.

For me, I've been working at home for my university and finishing up school. This was my last semester of classes, now I can move on to getting my last internship and then entering the work force with my bachelor's degree in finance. My wife and I are pretty excited for the new chapter that lies ahead of us.

We are moving back to Arizona, unfortunately one of the states that does not follow COVID rules very well. With that being said I am sure that we will be safe as long as we abide by the rules.

 

[Rubi]

@Rubi those are some great photos. That's a great hobby to have! Definitely a good time to go and get those pics during this pandemic.

For me, I've been working at home for my university and finishing up school. This was my last semester of classes, now I can move on to getting my last internship and then entering the work force with my bachelor's degree in finance. My wife and I are pretty excited for the new chapter that lies ahead of us.

We are moving back to Arizona, unfortunately one of the states that does not follow COVID rules very well. With that being said I am sure that we will be safe as long as we abide by the rules.

Good luck with your future endeavors. Whereabouts will you be living in Arizona? My wife grew up in Pheonix although she has no desire whatsoever to move back. She says at her age she just can't handle the heat, especially in the summer.

 

[Rubi]

As the kids say, these are dope AF.

Thanks.. my dream is to be able to photograph a Flames game. Although I know that will never happen... unless I'm willing to settle for iPhone pics.

 

[CraigsList]

Good luck with your future endeavors. Whereabouts will you be living in Arizona? My wife grew up in Pheonix although she has no desire whatsoever to move back. She says at her age she just can't handle the heat, especially in the summer.

It's a place called Queen Creek, it's west of Chandler and Gilbert, south of Mesa.

 

[Boomstick]

I work in the auto industry here in Ontario, Canada. Assembly line worker. Been full time 27 years. 30 and out for me, I can't wait to retire.
4500 employees, we got locked down mid March. March 20th around there I believe. Laid off until our first day back June 1st.
I thought that was too soon to go back. Too many people. We get temperature scanned and complete an online survey every day which is new for us. Masks are mandatory. Currently doing 10.5 hour shifts in conditions that are 10-15 degrees hotter inside than it is outside. No type of air conditioning at all. I'm in the paint shop where the paint ovens are always blasting.
There's no types of heat relief or anything like that. You just work and suffer in the heat. It gets pretty unbearable at times.
I'm in coveralls, safety boots, and now masks which I don't oppose. I'd prefer the safety of masks. I have a high seniority job, there's only one other person on my line that i work with and she's about 10 feet away from me. A lot of our plant is people shoulder to shoulder and I'm glad those days are behind me. I wouldn't want to work that close to anybody in the covid days.
We have a contract coming up in September. Rumors are coming out that we don't have any product planned for beyond 2023, so rumors are swirling that our plant will be closed. I'm supposed to retire May 2023, or if they offer a buyout I'm definitely going to consider it if they top up my pension and give me a bonus to leave. My commute is 80km to work 80 km home, so it's a long day. I'm exhausted.
Since I'm in Ontario, EST most Flames late games for me start at 10 pm or later, so on day shift I'm always in bed, my wake up time is 3:45 am for a 6 am start. Usually in bed no later than 8 pm. Or If I'm on afternoon shift I'll just listen to the game on my headphones. Basically can only watch weekend games. I used to be on the midnight shift for 7 straight years and I could watch the first period at home before leaving for work.
Anyways, we're back to the grind, building tons of cars and with the economy in a crisis, I have no idea what we're going to do with all of these $40k-$70k cars that we're building. Maybe stock piling for a strike or for another wave of the pandemic in the fall. I honestly have no idea.
I do feel safe at work some days, other days I don't.
It's 4:30 am, time to hit the road. Have a great day gang, stay safe and stay cool.
Cheers.

 

[Rubi]

I went to the Okotoks U18 Dawgs vs Calgary Bucks game this afternoon at Seaman Stadium in Okotoks. It sure was nice to get out and watch some sports. Fyi, if anyone is intersted, the Bucks play their next game on Saturday at the Foothills Stadium (beside McMahon Stadium in the NE).

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

We are moving back to Arizona, unfortunately one of the states that does not follow COVID rules very well. With that being said I am sure that we will be safe as long as we abide by the rules.

My dad is a snowbird, so he's been keeping in touch with his neighbor back in Surprise. He said it's nowhere near as bad as they make it sound in the media, so now he's convinced the media really is actually trying to make Trump look bad and he might not be the basket case he's been portrayed as

About a month ago I started helping some friends with random house projects (ie: tent trailer renos, some painting, pouring concrete, car repairs, etc). After spending the first few months of the pandemic cooped up at home, I jumped at the chance to just go out and do something constructive and feel creative again. One thing lead to another and I ended up buying my own camper that we're in the middle of renoing now.

 

[Kahvi]

Worked from home from March till end of May, on holiday in June and now it's been 3 weeks working from home again. We have opened up quite a lot here, and people are out there enjoying the summer, so I'm guessing the second wave will come in few months. If I was living at my summer cottage everything would be fine as there's some much I can do outside, but at home it's been mostly books, movies, Netflix, and beer

 

[Kahvi]

If I only had a place to do woodworking, everything would be just fine

 

[Fig]

You know how there's things in your home that need addressing and you usually just kick the can down the road?

I'm still kinda ignoring some of them and I bought an inexpensive charcoal BBQ recently so I can play with fire outdoors under the guise of "cooking".

 

[tmurfin]

My job offered to keep me on with some minimal guaranteed hours, but when I sat down and did the math there was no way I could afford childcare while being on call practically 24/7, so I turned them down and was temp laid off from the end of March until 3 weeks ago, spent a ton of quality time with my daughter which was amazing, helped my dad build a deck and do some home renos and basically did a ton of fishing and quadding, my atv got more km’s on her this summer than it had in the past 5 years.

Now back to the grind, things are opening up and the oilfield is moving in my parts again, having a paycheque is nice and all but I was getting real used to that pogey life

 

[Kahvi]

If anything, this pandemic made me realize I dont want to live in a city. Now that working from home is seen as a normal thing, I've started planning to get my own place somewhere in the countryside. I need to save some money before going to banks for loan, so it's gonna take a while before any of this realizes. But having a clear goal where to go helps a lot

 

[Anglesmith]

If anything, this pandemic made me realize I dont want to live in a city. Now that working from home is seen as a normal thing, I've started planning to get my own place somewhere in the countryside. I need to save some money before going to banks for loan, so it's gonna take a while before any of this realizes. But having a clear goal where to go helps a lot

My wife has been way happier working from home, and more productive too. We're wondering if her company will be ok with this being a regular thing even after the pandemic.

I had to teach online in the spring and may need to again in the fall. My summer is unaffected. Overall, we've been lucky.

 

[Kahvi]

My wife has been way happier working from home, and more productive too. We're wondering if her company will be ok with this being a regular thing even after the pandemic.

WFH has been a quite normal thing here in Finland for a long time, at least in the IT sector. Currently I work for a non-finnish company that used to have really strict policies when it comes to WFH. So before the pandemic we were working from home when needed and our country manager pretty much said FU to company policies with that, because you cant hire or keep people if WFH is not possible. It took a couple of weeks after the Covid hit the Europe before the head office realized that WFH is actually ok and you dont need to monitor your staff all the time even if they are not sitting at the office.

So I'm quite positive that companies realize the benefits of WFH and we will not return to the norm.

 

[tmurfin]

It’s crazy to think of all the wasted money spent on office spaces that really weren’t necessary. I always think back to my dads former employer, they moved buildings to a place with less office space and he volunteered to be the odd man out since he was never in the office and worked from his truck/hotel rooms/home for 95% of the time. The company insisted, since he was a manager, that he needed an office, despite his constant assurance he didn’t. So what they ended up doing was renting ONE single little office space in the middle of a mini-mall, nowhere near their shop, buying all the normal office stuff, furniture, photocopier, etc, SOLELY for him, he was there maybe 2-3 days a month just out of guilt basically for 2 years.

That worldwide company ended up selling the division for dirt cheap to a local competitor and has been fighting bankruptcy for years now.

 

[CraigsList]

My wife has been way happier working from home, and more productive too. We're wondering if her company will be ok with this being a regular thing even after the pandemic.

I had to teach online in the spring and may need to again in the fall. My summer is unaffected. Overall, we've been lucky.

I think a lot of companies may realize that many workers can work at home.

 

[Fig]

I used to teach Chemistry during my PhD, but now I do mostly Physics, Chemistry and Robotics in high school.

My research was in optics and instrumental techniques for materials research.

Hmm.... Is your real name Heisenberg?

 

[Rubi]

My wife has been working from home since mid March. She'll be going back to work at the office effective July 27 and she's looking forward to it. She was getting sick and tired of staying home all day Monday thru Friday.

 

[Tkachuky]

Been working from home since first week of March and my manager said it’s doubtful I get to go back this year. Fine with me as I have a 5 month old that it was a blessing in disguise To be able to work from home.

Living here in Minnesota for the most part people are very good about social distancing and being mindful of others. There are obviously some stupid people in the US with regards to the pandemic but it’s nowhere near as bad as the media makes it out to be. Not here in Minnesota anyways. Ps I’m not American so not trying to downplay the situation (/political rant)

 

[beakerboy]

I'm technically essential (engineer in a paper mill) but honestly can work remotely most of the time. I could probably work from home 75% of the time and did for the first month or so of the pandemic, but ended up going back in everyday after my boss implied that the management wanted everyone back in the mill. I basically hide in my office and avoid going out to the machines as much as possible.

But socially I go to work and come home. Here in Wisconsin, it has basically become a political issue of wearing a mask or not, wanting to open up bars and restaurants. My family isolated as much as possible while we could. Local rinks have begun opening up for private ice time and I've been asked to play a couple times but I just can't justify it as much as I want to.

I think I have the opposite opinion of Tkachuky where I think things are just as bad as the media makes it out to be. People at bars, young kids wandering around without masks. The attitude of so many of the younger crowd I know seems to be that they won't die so they are okay with getting sick. It's all about how things affect them instead of how it affects society.

My youngest is only 2 so she hadn't really begun socializing a lot with other kids yet and doesn't realize what she is missing. Right now, my stepkids are in Florida with their dad who doesn't believe in the pandemic, doesn't make them wear masks unless they go somewhere where they are mandatory, and is still taking them out on outings to touristy places. I'm getting anxious about what we do when they come home. I almost want to make them isolate in their rooms but that would never fly, so it will just be a nerve wracking couple of weeks.