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Thread: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

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    Default (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals


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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Thanks for the link.

    Am writing entries about stay at home experiences in my regular journal.
    Bob

    Making the world a more peaceful place, one fine art print and one handwritten letter at a time.

    Paper cuts through the noise – Richard Moross, MOO CEO

    Indiana Jones used a notebook in the map room, not an app.

    www.bobsoltys.net/fountainpens

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Quote Originally Posted by BlkWhiteFilmPix View Post
    Thanks for the link.

    Am writing entries about stay at home experiences in my regular journal.
    Me too.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Quote Originally Posted by catbert View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by BlkWhiteFilmPix View Post
    Thanks for the link.

    Am writing entries about stay at home experiences in my regular journal.
    Me too.
    I don't think that I dare, I have found the entire experience to be darkly depressing with life boiled dry to its bare essentials, no friends to see and just a great deal of anxiety.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Mine, for now, wouldn't change much from day to day.

    It's hot and humid all the time. During the day it saps energy. At night sleep does not come easily. Aside from the conditions there are many denizens here that enjoy evening serenading. It's never really quiet at night. Whatever sleep does come doesn't last long. Life here wants to get up pretty early and wants to make a song and dance of it, pulling you rudely from an unrefreshing oblivion. Only in the fullness of day does the clamour lessen in any considerable way. The heat sapping the ardour of even the local inhabitants. Good discipline is required to overcome the daily listlessness and engage with the tasks to hand. Rarely a breeze rises, offering a little respite, but only rarely. The water in nearby rivers and small lakes is often over 80F, so no relief there either.

    So, days spent battling languor, evenings and mornings trying avoid the endless parade of things that want to eat some part of me, and nights trying to sleep against a background cacophony of courting critters. I'm semi used to it, this is not my first rodeo, and occasionally something new happens - an unfamiliar bird for example. Small surprises, but welcome for all that.

    They say that tomorrow will bring rain. Here that simply means a difference in the level of water in an already wet air. It will be mildly refreshing, no more.
    Last edited by Dave; April 24th, 2020 at 04:07 PM.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Quote Originally Posted by Dave View Post
    Mine, for now, wouldn't change much from day to day.

    It's hot and humid all the time. During the day it saps energy. At night sleep does not come easily. Aside from the conditions there are many denizens here that enjoy evening serenading. It's never really quiet at night. Whatever sleep does come doesn't last long. Life here wants to get up pretty early and wants to make a song and dance of it, pulling you rudely from an unrefreshing oblivion. Only in the fullness of day does the clamour lessen in any considerable way. The heat sapping the ardour of even the local inhabitants. Good discipline is required to overcome the daily listlessness and engage with the tasks to hand. Rarely a breeze rises, offering a little respite, but only rarely. The water in nearby rivers and small lakes is often over 80F, so no relief there either.

    So, days spent battling languor, evenings and mornings trying avoid the endless parade of things that want to eat some part of me, and nights trying sleep against a background cacophony of courting critters. I'm semi used to it, this is not my first rodeo, and occasionally something new happens - an unfamiliar bird for example. Small surprises, but welcome for all that.

    They say that tomorrow will bring rain. Here that simply means a difference in the level of water in an already wet air. It will be mildly refreshing, no more.
    Just that could make a great short story.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Indeed.

    Also I'm beginning to suspect you're not frolicking with penguins in Antarctica, Dave...

    No journal for me - no doubt it'll be amply covered by plenty of others. Had I had the spare time and energy to have journaled the last year, it might have been interesting to see how much of my life hasn't changed under lockdown, but it would be a deadly dull read.
    In the words of Paul Simon, you can call me Al.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    If I saw a penguin I'd be mightily surprised, and probably taking a suspicious look at any wild mushrooms that may have crept into the last meal.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    What a well-described post, Dave. I can almost feel the mosquito bites (I am a mosquito magnet).

    Beautifully written
    _____________
    To Miasto

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Quote Originally Posted by ethernautrix View Post
    ............ (I am a mosquito magnet).........
    Ah, my sympathies from a fellow mozzie magnet. I’m generally fine here at home in the U.K. but venture anywhere overseas and I get eaten alive. The last time I was in Australia I managed to get bitten many times just sitting outside for 20 minutes eating my lunch. That was in the middle of the Central Business District in Sydney! And my mozzie bites always swell up painfully into unsightly red wheals. or become infected.😢 I don’t go anywhere without antihistamine tablets!

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Quote Originally Posted by Johnny_S View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by catbert View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by BlkWhiteFilmPix View Post
    Thanks for the link.

    Am writing entries about stay at home experiences in my regular journal.
    Me too.
    I don't think that I dare, I have found the entire experience to be darkly depressing with life boiled dry to its bare essentials, no friends to see and just a great deal of anxiety.
    Writing and drawing around my anxieties helps put them in perspective. This is not in any way to minimize your experience, which may not be susceptible to such an approach.

    Quote Originally Posted by migo984 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by ethernautrix View Post
    ............ (I am a mosquito magnet).........
    Ah, my sympathies from a fellow mozzie magnet. I’m generally fine here at home in the U.K. but venture anywhere overseas and I get eaten alive. The last time I was in Australia I managed to get bitten many times just sitting outside for 20 minutes eating my lunch. That was in the middle of the Central Business District in Sydney! And my mozzie bites always swell up painfully into unsightly red wheals. or become infected.😢 I don’t go anywhere without antihistamine tablets!
    I used to be a mosquito magnet, now not so much. Have presumably soured and/or become less tender and juicy over time.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    @ Dave - You have a beautiful beginning for a quarantine journal.

    I have started a specific journal for quarantine. I don't express my thoughts in it, or my living, because my life didn't change with quarantine. I use this journal to write all the solidary actions people around me do, towards carers (and all those who continue working for us to eat, be in security, and all). I also write all those actions around the country, I read in the internet, and see on television.

    To lighten up the journal, I write down all those actions neighbors (I live in the country side, no neighbors) do all over France - Italy - Spain and Portugal , such as: balcony gym all together - quizz in the evening, for all the building - in difficult neighborhoods, some young people have organised books deliveries, for the elderly, with the help of some libraries' directors - some do concerts for their street, others play plays together, but from eachothers windows, etc, etc.

    I want to remember all these good actions, and funny events, not only the counting of the dead - I shall not forget them, anyhow.
    Last edited by fountainpagan; April 24th, 2020 at 01:55 PM.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    I tried to write daily in the journal I have for that purpose, but couldn't muster the whatever.
    so for now (after losing a coupla few weeks) I'm emailing myself the events of the day in the eveningtimes. better than nothing.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    That's a great idea, maneuver! You could write as if describing your day to a treasured friend or confidant. In fact, maybe start with (channelling Winston Churchill) "Dear Clemmie," or something similar, to encourage separation of thoughts from self? I'm pencilling in this idea for later exploration.


    And having mentioned pencilling, all my jottings in my moleskine-type journal are now in pencil. Bit like Hemingway. Maybe it's a sign!

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Quote Originally Posted by Dave View Post
    Mine, for now, wouldn't change much from day to day.

    It's hot and humid all the time. During the day it saps energy. At night sleep does not come easily. Aside from the conditions there are many denizens here that enjoy evening serenading. It's never really quiet at night. Whatever sleep does come doesn't last long. Life here wants to get up pretty early and wants to make a song and dance of it, pulling you rudely from an unrefreshing oblivion. Only in the fullness of day does the clamour lessen in any considerable way. The heat sapping the ardour of even the local inhabitants. Good discipline is required to overcome the daily listlessness and engage with the tasks to hand. Rarely a breeze rises, offering a little respite, but only rarely. The water in nearby rivers and small lakes is often over 80F, so no relief there either.

    So, days spent battling languor, evenings and mornings trying avoid the endless parade of things that want to eat some part of me, and nights trying to sleep against a background cacophony of courting critters. I'm semi used to it, this is not my first rodeo, and occasionally something new happens - an unfamiliar bird for example. Small surprises, but welcome for all that.

    They say that tomorrow will bring rain. Here that simply means a difference in the level of water in an already wet air. It will be mildly refreshing, no more.
    Do you live down here in South Louisiana? (Sounds too familiar.)
    Lady Onogaro

    "Be yourself--everybody else is already taken." --Oscar Wilde

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    No, ma'am. I can't say exactly where I am but some here will have figured out that it's a long way south east of the Pelican State.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    Quote Originally Posted by fountainpagan View Post
    I want to remember all these good actions, and funny events, not only the counting of the dead - I shall not forget them, anyhow.
    I saw a lovely Twitter post yesterday from someone who lost his grandfather to covid19 and said "Do a good thing, a small act of kindness, to remember him".

    So I've spent the day stitching masks for my little French commune so the littlest kids can go back to school.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    The Pelikan State would be Lower Saxony, am I right? :-)

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    The Pelican State is the official nickname for Louisiana.

    Today I nearly jumped out my skin. A tamarin used my head as part of a pathway from one tree to another. I was wearing a bush hat, and it all happened in a flash. You know how it is when you get totally absorbed in some small task? Well the heat here encourages that slow and reflective absorption. That's when the incident happened. Tamarins are small monkeys, so the impact was not great but sufficient to jerk me out of my contemplative state. The perils of not paying attention. No doubt I may have released a small yelp before laughing. Luckily my assistant did not witness this moment of hysteria, or I'd never hear the end of it.

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    Default Re: (article) Why we should all be keeping coronavirus journals

    What up? Back at camp, bit of a trek downstream for some medical supplies - small injuries (cuts, scrapes) can get infected real easy here, so it pays to keep good stocks (all that Eagle Scout training did not go amiss!). Still no word on bugging out. Reading/watching pandemic reports on the newsfeeds; it all seems so very far away (and I feel a bit guilty for saying that even though it's an honest sentiment).

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