Anyone else dreading this year's fall/winter? What do you have in store to stay healthy and sane this year?

I would rather live in a warmer climate. I was a downhill skier for years and loved it and I do miss skiing. I am pretty busy with my mom but I cook and bake a lot in the fall and winter. Watch classic movies at night and listen to soothing music. I love reading a good novel. We stay in the house most of the winter months. I plan on catching up with organizing and cleaning the upstairs hallway and bedrooms. I would love to start my diet again, hard in the summer with ice cream treats. Want to start back on my healthy diet and exercise program. We used to belong to a nice health club, my mother would exercise on the bike and I would do laps in the pool, but with Covid it is out of the question. I miss the sunshine and warm weather in the winter and can't wait until spring already.

Maybe at about Thanksgiving time in the U.S., we could all just take a shot of whiskey together, and swear we will never mention the year 2020 again, not ever.
And never mention the things that happened to us, leaving out how we feel about it.

Renaming the year 2020 1/2.

Dear "Martz06,"

Yes, this year's fall/winter season will be more difficult especially for those who live in colder climates. We happen to live in a warm climate year round so it's a little easier to do some things.

We try to do a lot of walking around places that have a manmade lake or pond so we are getting exercise as well as fresh air. We like to listen to soft, instrumental music that doesn't have commercials that break the mood. We don't watch the news - we just try to read the headlines so we at least know what's going on but, don't want to be immersed in it.

My husband and I like to take short little trips on Sundays and since we like coffee, we try to find a different coffeehouse drive-thru and try something different. Actually, my husband has been trying different teas and smoothies and then we go find a park to sit on a bench. When we get home, I make some snacks and we rent a movie. We haven't been going to restaurants like we used to so we will occasionally get some takeout for a break.

It's the exercise that is most beneficial for depression and it has to be something you like to do or you may do it once or twice and then give up. We also started to play charades which ends up making us laugh at each other.

Wishing you good health and a "sane" fall and winter season!

I'm going to just cross my fingers and pray a lot.

SAD = Seasonal Affective Disorder
😳

It is a real thing!

Whatever one decides to do, be sure to dress up. One can never be too rich, or too dressed up.

So funny G!
I can no longer get down on my knees, at all.

LOL

I live in the same region and we are just coming out of the season that keeps us pent up indoors, unless we are using the pool.

For the next 6 months we will be playing outdoors.

Martz, have you thought about painting the interior of the house? The new paints are low VOC, the fumes, and we painted and did not have to open anything up.

Maybe declutter and rearrange the furniture to give the place a face lift?

Can you foster animals?

Do you sew? Nice throws are always needed in animal shelters and the foster care system for children.

Mostly I think finding something that gives us purpose is so very important to our well being, whatever that looks like for you.

Also check into those sunlight lamps that are helpful for SAD.

Great big warm hug! You can do this!

Don't be so sure you can't do laps in the pool. Chlorine kills covid-19. But I agree that the rest of the health club might have issues, and I definitely wouldn't bring your mother there!

My city has fabulous community recreation centers. They opened up on an extremely limited basis back in June, and I've been swimming laps since then. Special care is taken for social distancing, and surfaces are cleaned between sessions. Sign-ups are online, as capacity is limited. I feel very safe, and I am very much a virus vigilante!

Look to see what your local library system is doing. For a lot of places the library now is the community center, with all sorts of free on line or socially distanced activities, like book club, Zumba, cooking & cocktail classes, makeup tutorials

All the big food & liquor companies have free webinars too. Some are Zoom or WebEx or MicroSoftTeams interactive but you don’t have to participate. You can just lurk.

if you need to chat with folks, there’s Quarantine Chat which matches you for random phone calls with others. You can just Google it to sign up. I’ve been on Quarantine Chat for months now and it’s great. Reddit also has chat rooms, although Redditors tend to go no holds barred profanity laced.

Sign up to be on a Next Door, the neighborhood app. It’s a great place to find help for smaller projects (like digging holes for plants) or for selling or jettisoning stuff from your house. Plus keep up with safety, road closures, lost pets. You can be on more than 1 Next Door group but need a different email & a valid second street address. So if your dealing with an elder you can sign up for it for their address as well. It’s a bit cumbersome for having a second home Next Door account as you have to sign out to go from 1 to the other, but doable.

also, if your interested, in February is the big bird count. BBBC - Big Backyard Bird Count. But now till then lots of places have smaller counts to track migration. There’s also the annual Christmas Bird Count. If new to “bird”, now is a great time to start as the trees are changing so you can see birds & nesting easier.

And please do get your flu shot.

Thanks CTT, I would definitely give it some thought. You gave me some positive things to think about and I am grateful. We all need to do something but still stay safe. Most of family all were tested and negative. I loved doing my laps and mom did so well with her exercises and it was good to get out. Everyone loved her there.

Books and some part-time work.

Exited FB today, shut down all systems until Christmas. To the extent that I did not close it entirely. Unfriended e v e r y o n e, blocked others. "Hide post", and "Hide Ads" was one at a time, until there are no posts left.

It was required for my sanity. I could no longer watch as even extended family lost their minds. How will I get this out of my mind? The last post(s) were a picture of a gift box of poop (ribbon too), suggesting you can send it to your enemies. Just the next day, a bowl of browned sausages, did not look appetizing, actually, there was not too much difference between the two photos. Apologies, I am still angry at the ignorance of many.

And, is this a freudian slip, or what? An elderly couple come down with Covid. Many send 'get-well' wishes. One said: "Hope your suffering is short-lived."
Really? Short-lived?

Peel me off the ceiling now, I am going to be okay. Everytime I might think I need FB, I will walk outside.

I’ve just survived the southern hemisphere winter stuck in a very isolated farmhouse, with Covid issues on top. I realise now that I did get quite depressed, and I don’t think it helped my back pain problem one little bit. I didn’t find many good options myself (isolation means there are few anyway), so I can’t give good advice – except to make the best plans you can before you get too depressed. Feeling low makes planning even harder. Good luck! Margaret

Send, Good idea. I tried Facebook. I lasted about 90 days.

I swim laps everyday, have been since the pool reopened in June.

Good ideas. There is a national org called Project Linus that make blankets for kids in care or who have been affected by trauma. Check online for a local chapter.

I signed up to volunteer with the Red Cross. I help out on blood drives by checking in donors. I have been trying to do one a week in different locations.

"Isthisrealyreal,"

If we didn't have an elderly, deaf dog who rules the roost, I would love to foster an animal especially one that has been injured or abused.

Also, I like your idea for those who can sew (I cannot) making throws to give to animal shelters or for foster children.

"Frances73,"

Good for you!

When we're helping others out it lifts their spirits as well as our own. :)

I started shaking the family tree a couple of years ago, and found that very interesting. On my Dad's side, up to over 4k people as I included aunts... uncles.... cousins.... cousins once, twice, up to 5x removed [whatever that means].... their kids.... their kids' kid.... yada, yada, yada. Found some in-laws and a couple of out-laws [oops].

So very fascinating. I am a member of Ancestry.com and that has given me so much material to work with. Plus I am a member of Newspapers.com which can fill up time if searching a common surname like Smith.... and where I found a far off relative arrested for bootlegging.

Something to think about. Good if you have a desk top computer to use :)

I live in the south. We don’t have much of a winter.

It would be interesting to actually have four seasons.

I don’t like the bitter cold. I think fall foliage is gorgeous, sort of like God took a paintbrush and painted all of the leaves! 🍁

Unfortunately, we don’t experience that in New Orleans so I’ve had to travel to New England to see the leaves changing.

Same for snow. ❄️ We get a few flurries once in a blue moon. It’s such a treat for us to see snow. I did get caught in a snow blizzard once on the way from Denver to Vail. Was kind of scary to drive in but it’s so beautiful to see.

In New Orleans it can be hot while selecting a Christmas tree! Instead of coming home and drinking hot cocoa, we come home and pour a tall glass of iced tea!

We only get about two weeks of spring before our long, hot, muggy summer!

So, I am not the person to be commenting on this topic!

I like variety. Variety is the spice of life. I will make jewelry one week, sew the next, work in the yard, go look in shops another time, catch up with friends, etc.

All the best...

I've never been on FB, never will be.  I've never seen any use for it other than as a data gathering and leveraging method for Marcus Aurelius Zuckerberg and his emperor type goals.

Grrrrr. Site won’t let you erase when posting in the wrong spot.

Freq,

I am doing our family tree. It’s fascinating! I’m up to 14 generations on my husband’s side, 8 generations on mine.

I love seeing the old census records. Oh, if our ancestors could come back and see the world today, it would be shocking for them.

Snow shoveling is great exercise. A long walk while the snow is first starting to fall. A good book, a good rum and Jimmy Buffett music.

I like to sew and quilt so for me, that works and keeps me busy and sane. There are a lot of good ideas here as well. So many things we can do to try to avoid winter/Covid depression. I take dogs to dog park almost every day even in cold weather. If it were not for the dogs, I might go days without going outside so it is good to have them. My kids don't live in my state so that will make holidays very difficult this year but I am working on emptying the house out and painting prior to moving next year.

Winter is my favorite season. It's a beautiful time of the year. It is also the darkest time of year, and that might depress some people. It doesn't bother me. The winter solstice (December 21) is the beginning of the return of the light, rebirth of the sun, so you have hope. Stay in the light as much as you can and keep your home bright.

I think that’s great! I don’t do Facebook, either.