5X5: #2 - Retirement vs. Physical Distancing

Over the past months some have asked me about how I find retirement. Those of us who are in the new employment category called "Stay at Home" (different from "Working from Home") are experiencing some changes in their lives--some of those are like my frequent retirement-based life, but some are radically different.

What's more-or-less the same: 
You wake up, realize you have minimal obligations, smile and roll over in bed.
Good morning, good morning!

Nobody bugs you, except on your landline if you bother to answer.  There's no business worth using the cellphone.

Still don't really need Linkedin.

Nobody writes to you in the mail, except a few who still have some lingering hope of getting money out of you. That number is steadily decreasing--is the Post office leaving junk mail to "season"?  I guess that's OK, but like many things now, not sustainable.

You have texts, email maybe (depending on the recipient), other forms of communication through compromised internet channels.

What's very different: 

Live TV:

We have gone...From National Pastime

To National Facepalm

I actually just watched the 1996 National Spelling Bee finals on ESPN, and was grateful for the chance to do so.  That's how bad it is for sports.

No money coming in to us ordinary folks--(everyone is hoarding cash, and all that Federal stuff is going to someone else ).  For example, I am owed a decent tax refund from Illinois from 2018, and I'm quite certain no one will look at my amended return anytime soon.

Every bill you pay seems like a major concession now.  Cash is king doesn't even begin to cover it adequately.

The famous "Taos hug" we all know and love has been extirpated.  Will it re-emerge in The New Life, once this change process has run its course?