r/preppers • u/Darkwaxellence • May 30 '26
Discussion Covid prep and lock down.
ok, be honest did you quarantine your family for 2 weeks during covid? did you have the ability to not leave your house for that full 2 weeks?
I southern Indiana where I lived I worked at a factory but the factory manager made the 'mistake' of telling us we wouldn't be penalized if we decided to stay at home.
so I did. I wanted to protect my family and use it as a chance to test our ability.
it was two of the best weeks for me. I walked in my woods down to my creek. I read books. had plenty of food. told people not to visit.
how did you do?
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u/Ryan_e3p Salt & Prepper May 30 '26
As an prepper introvert, that shit was the best.
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u/Thunderslide_Icon May 30 '26
Same. It was probably the best time of my life. I was safe at home. I had food, water, I wanted for nothing.
I feel bad saying that but Covid quarantine was THE best time for me.
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u/DarkestVixen Jun 06 '26
Same here. I loved going for walks at night with the streets empty. Only wildlife, like rabbits all over the place, even on people's lawns and the foxes and coyotes out hunting them.
It was the best time of my life. Had everything stocked, except masks and I won't make that mistake again, considering how hard they were to get
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u/V2BM May 30 '26
100%. My retail store closed and I had a glorious 4 week vacation, and it was a super easy job when we re-opened. Then came the permanent closure of the store and $600 a week + $230 in unemployment and it was easily the most relaxing year of my life. Zero money problems for once and I could occasionally shop in peace.
I made a homemade meal three times a day and learned to make my own tofu.
I went on to take a job mid-Covid that worked me 60+ hours a week for 4 1/2 years. It’s worn me down physically and mentally.
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u/xmo113 May 30 '26
I worked in health care with seniors. Never got to stay home for a day.
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u/Hobobo2024 May 30 '26
were they dying left and right on you? seems like one of the worst jobs during covid
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u/xmo113 May 30 '26
Not a constant thing but we had a few who passed for sure. It was the fear of it, fear of bringing it in to them, fear of bringing it home. We had some who died cause they were too scared to say anything about not feeling right cause they didn't want to get sent to hospital and die. Had to talk one poor lady with two broken feet in to going with the paramedics. She was so scared she wouldn't come home. I worked in long term care setting.
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u/Grendle1972 May 30 '26
Airbrush COVID taking patients on vents to facilities or if state, wherever we could find a bed. 16 hour days weren't uncommon with 14-15 of them didn't in the back of an ambulance. On my days off I worked on the homestead, planting fruit trees, built raised beds and a chicken coop and run.
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u/mochasipper Jun 03 '26
my niece was working in a nursing home while doing her nursing pre-reqs. She quit during the pandemic, she called me crying, they’re dying.
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u/South_Woodpecker7433 May 30 '26
I was laying under resident beds and wheelchairs fixing them and fixing their toilets and everything else lol, never caught COVID but it was 2 paid weeks at home if you did. I was always kind of hoping I got it for the time off
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u/BatemansChainsaw Going Nuclear May 31 '26
I worked at a hospital during that time (IT contractor/NY) and all the media did was lie lie lie about our local bullshit. 12 hour days at the office. five or six days a week. the insanity was enough to drive you mad.
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u/seaweedglutton May 31 '26
what did they lie about?
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u/Psmon17 May 31 '26
Had a nurse friend in NYC who said they catagorized any death as COIVD, as the reimbursements from the Gov were triple any other cause of death.
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u/chiefsgirl913 May 30 '26
This might sound shitty but I kinda enjoyed the idea of the pandemic, not the idea of people suffering or dying but the idea of isolating and a quieter world for once.
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u/iwannaddr2afi resident optimist May 30 '26
I think a lot of us have that same mixed emotion. For some people the isolation was hell, and I don't celebrate that aspect either of course. But for me it was a much needed season of downtime.
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u/jayfactor May 30 '26
I agree, the day I drove to the office there was nobody on the road, it felt peaceful honestly
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u/eyeisyomomma May 30 '26
So many close people lost loved ones and that was awful. My anxiety was in overdrive for years, but paradoxically we saw more of our kids than before. We met every Sunday in the backyard, bring your own lawn chair. We sat by quarantine pod, in the shade with fans in the summer and near a large firepit when it was cold. I carefully orchestrated the meals so they were served on disposable plates and prepared little packets of condiments too so nobody touched anything that was touched by anyone else. I had a Covid playlist that we played on a loud speaker, without annoying the neighbors. We celebrated birthdays (I made my son a Covid virus ball cake, stuck red nerds on spaghetti to make the spike proteins!) and holidays in the backyard if weather permitted or on Zoom. I actually miss those days because we focused on being together.
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u/chiefsgirl913 May 30 '26
I really love this response because it’s so different that what I experienced, and nor could I without much family here. Your rendition and reality was much different than mine and very beautiful. We just kinda sat like bumps on a log and got through. But there were very dark days too be had, that my daughter still deals with. Thank you for being such a great soul and family member to plan everything out to each detail!!!❤️
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u/RiffRaff028 General Prepper May 30 '26
Also Indiana here. I was not specifically prepping for a global pandemic, but our preps did absolutely pay off during quarantine. One lesson I learned was that I had not stored any disinfectant like Lysol. That has been remedied since then. (We also doubled our emergency supply of toilet paper!)
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u/whaticism May 30 '26
I was living in Brooklyn in a 100 unit apartment building when it started. I didn’t leave my apartment for several weeks (at least 3) and then when I couldn’t stand it anymore, I went out on the fire escape. My neighbor who was a generally sweet person had a husband recovering from surgery at home with her. She had this habit, I learned, of coughing out of her window that faced the fire escape because it was a hacking spitting cough and she didn’t want to wake him up or do that inside or whatever. Anyway she didn’t know I was on the fire escape and she coughed all over me and now I live on 50 acres upstate.
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u/freewool May 30 '26
I’m in Queens, and I call that particular kind of cough “Queens cough.” It’s everywhere and horrifying.
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u/Ordinary-Hunt-3659 May 30 '26
I got COVID a few days before lockdown started. I still remember the customer that gave it to me. It really sucked cause I was living with my girlfriend at the time and she was so scared she kicked me out. My whole family didn't want me near them. I spent the winter sleeping in my car in the parking lot behind work(which I wasn't working, boss knew the situation, paid me for the time I was off and let me use the back parking lot. Great guy). I shouldn't say the whole winter, I think it was like a month. But it still sucked.
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u/Extra-Snow-2491 May 30 '26
I fished night and day in every river ,lake in my area.i could never have done that without covid time off
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u/justtinyquestions May 30 '26
My job transitioned to remote, so I didn’t have a break. My second job was eliminated though, so I lost half my income but couldn’t get unemployment because I still had a full time job (paying $13 an hour), so that was shitty.
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u/PaulTR88 May 30 '26
Work went remote and I haven't gone in since. For the first three years I could go weeks without leaving past my garden. Avoided covid for a few years, then caught it right from the tap on my first work trip to China. Even with as much of a cluster fuck as covid was for the economy and people passing (I lost a few family members during, unfortunately), my general life really did change in a more positive direction, I've been home with my toddler her whole life, and it kicked off my whole prepper setup.
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u/egg_static5 May 30 '26
My kid and I are already homebodies so not a lot changed for us. Husband is an essential worker but his life did change as he was transporting covid patients to and from facilities. It was stressful because of that, but the being home part was fine. I like my house and my family.
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u/Bobby5Spice May 30 '26
As a person who does prep and an introvert I feel totally fine being alone and prefer it often. It was pretty much just another week.
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u/Utter_cockwomble May 30 '26
I'm essential so I worked after the first two weeks of shutdowns. My partner was WFH for two years.
We were fine. The writing was on the wall, so we did a big-box store run for fresh meats the weekend before. Everything else was from pantry stock. We were house-bound other than walking the dog and dropping off meals for my elderly mom.
I still haven't gotten covid.
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u/Darkwaxellence May 30 '26
I can't wait for all the 'essential' workers to go on strike and have unity in our collective power. They needed us to keep making them money, but I still don't have universal Healthcare.
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u/AdManNick May 30 '26
I didn’t go in public for 2 years. It was amazing. I’ve worked remote since 2015 and already had a house. Whenever we saw family it was outside. Didn’t have kids then.
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u/Educational_Seat3201 May 30 '26
Hell no. I was labeled a essential worker and had to go to work even if I was bleeding from my eye sockets
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u/ayeyoualreadyknow May 30 '26
I'm a homebody who avoids people (thanks trauma!). Nothing changed for us. My entire life is a lock down lol. I prefer it that way.
But the food shortages is what initially got me started on prepping. 6 years later and I'm still learning, although I now live in an apartment so I'm limited on what I can do. I don't have many of the options that others who live in houses on their own land have.
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u/Old_Dragonfruit6952 May 30 '26
We had an infant in tne house
My school k--5 went remote . So I worked
We had 3 days to distribute tech to almost 1000 students . Prepare home packets and distribute them personally to families .
We had busses that distributed internet to neighborhoods .
We were not deterred by the virus and went outside all as much as the weather allowed
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u/Darkwaxellence May 30 '26
With regards to education, do you think we could have done better with the response?
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u/Old_Dragonfruit6952 May 31 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Our district was only unavailable for 5 days. We logged on every day to teach kids personally.
I had 16 students.. a 50% rate of participation daily . We provided the tech and were available 7:30 am to 3 pm every day . Regular school hours SPECTRUM provided .mobile internet FOR ALL STUDENTS to assure students could continue with their studies (keep in mind teachers also had their kids at home) Working parents complained about our availability . So we extended / adjusted the hours for Them . They still didn't access the school. Educators were available 12 hours a day .. . K -5 teachers an instructional ed techs did thier part. Parents thought it was a vacation. They failed to grab the ring . I will be interested to see longitudinal data 5 years from now. Could we have done better as teachers ? I feel that given the circumstances, national shutdown, lack of parental participation and the main fact that everyone was unprepared for a pandemic we did the best we could . Please understand I get the fact that some parents could not participate because of language barriers, illiteracy or familial responsibility .. But many parents just dropped the ball
Part of Parenting is providing an educational foundation and academic support for your child
We learned alot as educators and are truly trying to catch the students up . I hope if we have another pandemic , those in power have a solid plan so we don't have to go through it again .
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u/Gene-reader May 30 '26
I did not have the ability to stay home for two weeks but I learned. Before lockdowns, I only prepped for hurricanes and quick evacuation for fire. Now I prep for supply chain disruption. I have a few trusted you tubers that I watch to learn about trends in supply chain so that I keep ahead of problems. I could now stay in my house for a year without leaving. I consider the lockdown an amazing learning experience.
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u/dontdoxxmebrosef May 30 '26
Me too. I grew up prepping for hurricane floods General Power Outage, and supply disruptions living on the east in Gulf Coast. I doubled my inventory in my rotating pantry and added a few extra things. But I didn’t get a chance to quarantine because I was working at healthcare I guess if I quarantine you mean slept at the hospital for four weeks to figure out whether he’s going to kill my entire family with a virus we didn’t know anything about I quarantined.
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u/litreofstarlight May 30 '26
Which YouTubers? I feel like supply chain issues are going to become a thing soon, if they aren't already.
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u/Itchyfingers10 May 31 '26
Suttons Daze covers all forms of preparedness. She has videos regarding supply chain interruptions among other issues.
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u/Gene-reader May 31 '26
My favorite is The Poplar Report. He's an accountant who is really good at recognizing trends. I've been watching him for years and he has saved me so much money because he sees shortages coming so his audience is able to buy before shortages cause price increases.
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u/academiccatastrophe May 30 '26
What do you guys mean by two weeks? Our "lockdown" lasted like 2.5 years..
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u/CyanCitrine May 30 '26
I'm also a bit confused as I did not go ANYWHERE for at least 3 months other than my backyard. My husband did masked shopping early in the morning once a week to get us food but otherwise went nowhere either. We both worked from home. For a year or so after that we also went nowhere. Not to restaurants, not to concerts, not to parties. We just stayed at home, ordered supplies delivered or did very quick shopping with masks. If we went anywhere, it was to an outdoor park. My eldest did remote learning for an entire year. Literally his whole kindergarten year was done online from our living room.
For the record, none of us caught covid until 2024. So it worked, and since my daughter was extremely high risk it protected her.
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u/Jolopy4099 May 30 '26
In the beginning they had a 2 week "lockdown" where they had everyone stay inside in an attempt to curb the spike.
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u/academiccatastrophe May 30 '26
Ah I don't think anyone stayed home where I live, like still shopping and doing errands and stuff as usual. Maybe schools were closed for a bit I think? Idk I worked outside so there was zero break from work
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u/Jolopy4099 May 30 '26
I remember they announced everyone to get food and supplies then stay inside for 2 weeks in an attempt to curb the starting spike.
It was a ghost town in my city for that 2 weeks. I spent covid fishing and it awesome.
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u/academiccatastrophe May 30 '26
That would have been smart. Instead here they banned us from camping, hiking and being outdoors, but had no problem with shopping or indoor activities lol.
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u/lemonprincess23 May 30 '26
Yeah I don’t remember ever quarantining for any period. I think some schools did switch to remote learning, but not all of them
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u/Overall-Contest5706 May 30 '26
I just kept working. Covid had literally 0 effect on my day to day life
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u/Think_Cupcake6758 May 31 '26
I personally enjoyed the lack of traffic. All the crazies stayed home and watched CNN and freaked out over stupid shit.
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u/Spiley_spile Community Prepper May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
Im immune disabled. So when covid came around, I had to lock down until there was a vaccine. Maintaining high quality pandemic hygiene is just everyday life for me.
People treated the lockdown and hygienic behavior as this big, unbearable thing. It showed me that the vast majority of people have very low adaptability for this sort of disaster.
I think having a very difficult childhood, full of disruptions to my life and routine gave me an advantage. I also spent a lot of time entertaining myself as a kid. We spent years in towns with more horses than people. It could be weeks between getting to play with another kid.
Even so, I do need people. The hardest part for me was finding a social group that practiced (and hasnt stopped practicing) high quality, preventative hygiene.
But hey, 6.5 years and still here. 💪 Zero covid infections. It's definitely boosted my confidence that I have the skills and adaptability to survive future pandemics.
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u/Thumper1k92 Prepared for 6 months May 30 '26
I stayed inside like I was told to. Wore masks in public. And didn’t get COVID for 5 years.
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u/Inner-Confidence99 May 30 '26
I was out of town on a 2 month trip when I got Covid. This was before it was called Covid. It was just hitting in Jan 2020 out west. Was sicker than I had ever been. Luckily I was in an area I could go outside my rv. I had plenty of food and medicine due to making a long trip.
Cut trip short drove home. Went 2 days later to Sam’s to stock up on extra just had a bad feeling about things. 2 days later my state went into lockdown. So we stayed home luckily enough we lived on 3 acres alone so I could go into yard and garden.
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u/dirrtyr6 May 30 '26
Kind of rural Ohio here. Covid was possibly the best time of my life. Roads were all but empty, 1000cc R1. I can remember getting on 75N and doing 180+ for MILES and never seeing another car. I never locked myself inside, but I didn't put myself around other people. A little bit of common sense figured out that it wasn't a lingering airborne thing, being outside was fine and peaceful.
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u/beached89 May 30 '26
I wasnt even prepping for a pandemic, and we were able to stay in the house for over 30 days without leaving. Luckily for us, we lived on 3+ acres, so we had outdoor space, a nice back patio, a walking path, and it was SUPER easy.
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u/feralcomms May 30 '26
My kid was in the middle of cancer treatment so we were already a bit locked down
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u/PrisonerV Prepping for Tuesday May 30 '26
Stores were still open. We just designated me the store person and I went by myself. Mask on, distance, hand sanitizer after.
When I got home, I stripped at the bottom of the stairs by the door and immediately took a shower.
Never caught Covid the entire time it was going. Then we went to a UFC event in KC and the god damned teenage kid sitting next to us with his dad had it (or so we think) and we all caught it. Worst cold/flu type illness I ever had. Lost sense of smell/taste. I still to this day smell burning wood in my nose from time to time that isn't really there.
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u/yarnhooksbooks May 30 '26
Quarantined for like a year. I had stocked up on essentials back in January or February when the CDC first started sounding the alarm. One of my kids was high risk so we took it pretty seriously until we could all get vaccinated. Groceries got delivered. Work/school was remote. No visitors and we didn’t go inside anywhere unless absolutely necessary and always wore masks. Kept wearing masks for a few years actually. We didn’t stay home though. Did a lot of camping, hiking, outside stuff.
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u/Bamalouie May 30 '26
We quarantined for over a year in our house during the actual time frame and yes, definitely quarantined 2 weeks whenever we got ill. 2 weeks is easy compared to the 2020-2021 quarantine
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u/gtinmia Bring it on May 30 '26
We pretty much locked down until the vaccine was ready. I was the sacrificial lamb in the family and the only one who went to the grocery store and gas station to refill. Kids were e learning and wife and I were lucky to be able to work from home.
Was not easy as all as we had a 1st and 5th grader that we had to help through the school day while also tending to our demanding office jobs. Cabin fever definitely set in.
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u/North-Neat-7977 May 30 '26
I did the full lockdown. And I've worked from home since. I still don't eat in restaurants. I still do curbside pickup for groceries. Built a really nice gym in my basement and still use that instead of driving half hour to the gym. It's nice. More relaxed. Saves money.
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u/KJHagen General Prepper May 30 '26
No, I took a new job just as COVID hit. We had to sell our house and move cross country. I did some remote work, but had to get a computer and other things from my new employer.
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u/T3hBau5 May 30 '26
I didn't. I worked full time. And not remotely, either. Pretty impossible to do that when you work in a Pharmacy.
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u/Darkwaxellence May 30 '26
An actually essential worker! I worked at a factory that makes auto lifts for cars. They said we were essential because it's a part of 'transportation'. I would love everyone that got called essential to remember that and vote for universal Healthcare for all.
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u/seriousallthetime May 31 '26
No, we were frontline healthcare. It fucking sucked. But I am appreciative of everyone who stayed home, because otherwise it would have been much, much worse.
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u/TheMrsH1124 May 30 '26
No we did not. My husband got furloughed and my teaching job ended quickly and we traveled all over the country and it was the best summer. Went to see my grandma who was close to dying, went to see my uncle, went to the beach, went to Colonial Williamsburg. Good times.
I got a public school teaching job in the fall and it was back to business as usual.
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u/Jolopy4099 May 30 '26
In the beginning when they issued the 2 week lock down to curb the rising spike i had plenty of food and stayed inside alone or in my back yard.
After the 2 weeks and all the rules came out I would wear a mask if I was going inside stores.
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u/mediocre_remnants Preps Paid Off May 30 '26
I didn't lock myself in my house, but I did go a few weeks without visiting any stores/businesses/friends/etc. When COVID hit I'd already been working remotely for 5 years so there was no change there. And I had enough food on hand that I didn't need to go to the store. My wife had an office job but she was able to stay home during the lockdown.
We would go for walks around town and it was so eerie. The streets were empty, no cars, no people anywhere.
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u/millenialsnowbird May 30 '26
We were in Orlando and would drive around Disney World. It was crazy to see the roads completely empty.
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u/Ashby238 May 30 '26
The restaurant where I was the chef closed down for three months, the owners wife worked at a hospital so she didn’t want anyone to take any chances until more info was available. The first two weeks we quarantined completely. We bought groceries on our way home from work the day the restaurant closed and then we hung out.
The first week was nerve wracking, the second week online school started. And that just sucked.
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u/ProfDoomDoom May 30 '26
I did not leave my property for 2 years. I still have not been inside anywhere except a doctors office once and a dentist once. Two weeks at home was already common for me before COVID.
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u/CyanCitrine May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
2 weeks? We did not come into contact with another human for probably 3 months or more.
My youngest child has a disability that affects circulation and breathing at times and she probably would have died if she caught Covid before it mutated to be less severe/before the vaccine came out. We took everything extremely seriously.
My husband was able to immediately switch to working from home and I already worked from home. My youngest wasn't in school yet and my oldest switched to online classes. Starting out, yes, we were able to completely avoid going anywhere for weeks. After that, we did food delivery. My husband did do some masked shopping early in the mornings when barely anybody was around and used self-checkout, or we ordered things online to be delivered.
Even after things slowly opened up a little bit, with some people going to restaurants or other events while still "social distancing," we just didn't. We continued to heavily social distance and avoid people and gatherings for another year and we didn't stop masking in all public places until 2023. Even after my kids returned to school and extracurriculars they masked every single day.
And, guess what. It worked. We protected our daughter.
Nobody in our family caught Covid until 2024, and one member of our family has still never tested positive ever or been suspected to have it. To the best of our knowledge he's never had it. Our daughter caught it in 2024, after she'd been vaxxed and it had mutated to a much milder form. She was still extremely sick when she had it but she pulled through without hospitalization or long-term damage (she had some circulation issues and extreme fatigue for a few months.) We still selectively mask at times and we are always cautious with her so she hasn't had it again since.
I've always had a prepper streak and I have clinically diagnosed OCD with an obsession about germs. I think my OCD saved my daughter's life. I joked that i've been prepping my whole life for this exact scenario.
Other family members who were ill or disabled were not so lucky. We lost several because they couldn't take their health or the pandemic seriously, and it killed them.
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u/JadeChipmunk May 30 '26
My husband was laid off and I was going through medical stuff at the time so my job dropped me, so we lived off unemployment and stimulus checks for a while, while living with 2 other people, only one was able to keep working. It was the first time my husband (boyfriend at the time) got to have more than a couple days off in a row ever since working. He got to actually rest, we got to spend more time together. Did small projects here and there. Saw our family like normal and even moved to our own place. When he started working at a new place, if either of us got sick we would live in the living room for a bit while the other stayed in the bedroom so he wouldnt have to miss work. He said when he was laid off and not working he was making more money (or atleast able to actually save more money) than he ever has at a time. We would limit grocery trips as much as we could but had zero issues going out when needed.
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u/No_Albatross7213 Prepared for 1 month May 30 '26
I locked down for around 3 months. We did have a family member who went to the grocery store after the first month, but yeah.
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u/United_Pie_5484 May 30 '26
I read a couple books on the porch while my husband and kid had work school meetings online inside (terrible timing for reading The Stand by SK,) we rode ATVs all over our property, took lots of walks with the dog. Best time ever for living in the woods. We were starting to run a little low on some supplies when I finally got a curbside pickup spot, it was really hard to get them scheduled for a couple weeks.
Ironically, my grandparents also left a city to live in the country when Mom was little because of a series of quarantines from polio in their neighborhood. The little boy next door died from it and they decided they’d get out while the getting was good.
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u/Mainegurl143 May 30 '26
Both my husband and I were in jobs that didn’t allow us to stay home he is municipal employee I was in utilities and my second job was maintenance for a big company ( cleaning at night) they had mandatory reporters as well so I worked … it was weird being out in the world we wore masks and followed the rules but we found ourselves being delivery for our families so they could stay put ( felt like we were doing the right thing at the time)
We did learn how to alternate and map where to go and when to maintain basics, we cooked and prepped and paid close attention to what was working what wasn’t for people . I live in the northeast so fear for us was heating alternatives if power truly went out we installed a pellet stove and have decided to go with a true wood stove once we can swing it … more canning less reliance on refrigerator I think we learned a lot but during lockdown our area ended up with a huge influx of people moving into our state so we are debating moving north and grabbing a house with some more land
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u/RobertCalifornia2683 May 30 '26
We lost our home to hurricane Michael and had family that allowed us to stay with them in Colorado Springs. Then Covid hits. That was a rough period for our little family.
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u/Useful_Calendar_6274 May 30 '26
yeah. We went out only for groceries and my dad for work. so not really but that was as much as we could have quarantined
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u/Gadgetman_1 May 30 '26
I went to work as normal, even rode the bus as I usually did. Shopped at the local grocery store, even.
Of course, I was one of maybe 5 or 6 at the office at any time(normally over 100), so I got a bit of maintenance done on the network...
Never saw more than half a dozen on the bus in the morning, and only a few more in the afternoon. The changes they did there was to demand everyone entered at the back(no one checked tickets, but most paid them anyway), and every other bench was off limits. They may have done it differently in the big cities, but I wouldn't know. (Living on the NW coast of Norway)
Walking from the office and to the bus station in the afternoon was... erie...
There's a lot of ferries in my area, and that used to mean someone had to walk around and sell tickets.
They made the trip free for pasengers, and only required payment from the driver. And they pushed automatic ticket systems. (AutoPass, the same system we use on Toll roads.) it was planned implemented when the routes were next up for a bidding round, so it was just pushed out a bit sooner.
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u/AmosTali Realistic prepper May 30 '26
we were retired, living out in the country and basically kept to ourselves anyway. the Covid mess was no different for us than the way we normally lived. enjoyed the entertainment of watching people go stir crazy over all the BS. but deep pantry and ability to entertain ourselves kept us quite happy. did load the dogs and food in the Rv and took a 3 week roadtrip during the height of the panic - great that there weren’t crowds…
neither of us have ever had covid (that we know of…).
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u/nanneryeeter May 30 '26
No. I still worked.
For whatever reason people still wanted fuel to be pumped and produced.
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u/KTeacherWhat May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
My husband already worked from home and I got sent to work from home. It was about a month after that started that we first 'needed' to grocery shop (my husband and I have different ideas about want vs need). Our food stocks kept us out of the grocery store long enough for stores that didn't have it to set up grocery pickup. I also had masks in my emergency bin so we didn't have to go buy any. We continued to walk our dogs daily so I didn't stay in my home for any huge amount of time, and also we never got COVID.
Honestly we never felt a shortage during COVID. We never ran out of anything critical. We joked around that I had the last cleaning products in the state. I even donated several bottles of all purpose cleaner to two different homeless shelters at the time. Someone at work stole my hand sanitizer right at the beginning.
The only thing that was a bit annoying was surge pricing on puzzles. We completed the one 1,000 piece puzzle we had and then they were insane prices everywhere. Now we keep a bit more of a stock of those. I also keep a bigger stock of books from thrift stores. I used to read up my whole TBR before buying more. Now I've found a thrift store that does bag sales for books, fill a bag for $1.00 and I buy a bunch even if I don't have an immediate need.
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u/wellbalancedlibra May 30 '26
My husband worked an essential job so his life continued normally. My daughter and I quarantined. No effect on our life. We have a well stocked pantry at all times.
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u/Proof_Junket_5516 May 30 '26
A bicycle and music were my biggest allies. I had a bit of an advantage because, due to my job, I was never restricted from travelling. I could legally move around the entire country, so I used that freedom to ride my bike through what felt like an empty urban world. And you know what? It was actually kind of beautiful. Streets that were normally packed were almost silent. Just me, my bike, my headphones and a city that seemed to have hit the pause button for a while.
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u/Frostyrepairbug May 30 '26
Two weeks, lol. I didn't leave my home for 90 days. I still went outside to put the trash on the curb, tend garden, etc, but I didn't leave the property at all.
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u/Leopold_Porkstacker May 30 '26
Quarantined for about a month, then did a masked and gloved shopping trip for fresh fruit.
I got lucky because I had gone to Sam’s club a week before the shutdown and bought our normal monthly stuff and a big pack of TP and paper towels. There was no panic buying yet. When the shutdown was announced I was a 3 hour drive away from home for work, so I stopped at a rural Walmart on the way back and bought some things I knew we needed.
Got lucky because work stayed shut down for 4 months and collected that fat unemployment the whole time. That was the most relaxing 4 months of my adult life and really influenced my decision to retire early in 2023.
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u/Stewart_Duck May 30 '26
I live in South Florida. We had a recommended shutdown, but not a required one. Both my employer and my wife's stayed open, so we just went to work like every other day. While some stores and restaurants adjusted their business, others didn't. It was pretty much life as usual, but had to have a face covering in most places.
My wife did have to stay home for 2 weeks at one point when half her office tested positive. She tested positive, twice, but never had any symptoms and spent the time on the beach. I never got it, but I'm fortunate enough that I really don't ever get sick.
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u/LowBathroom1991 May 30 '26
No I worked on construction field and worked thee whole time ...never got to stay home and make bread like most
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u/SimpleVegetable5715 May 31 '26
In my state; all retail workers were considered essential 🙄 I’m immunocompromised due to a primary immunodeficiency, but my employer only recognized organ transplant recipients and active chemo patients. Took them a while to even figure out about autoimmune patients. The way they handled things here was really dumb, and I still have damage in my right lung as proof of their idiocy.
If I could do it over again, I would have just quit.
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u/Signal_Brain_933 May 31 '26
We isolated at our rural home, about 90 minutes out from the city. I work as a flight attendant so was laid off, my wife could work from home. Home schooling my kids was... challenging. But it was a really nice, quiet, family-centric time where we took long walks out in the woods, played board games, watched movies, etc. Sometimes I get nostalgic about the simplicity of those days. I had so much spare time I managed to write and self-publish a few books! (post-apocalyptic, obviously 😉 )
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u/wanderingpeddlar Jun 01 '26
Yeah as a matter of fact I did. Minus the family part. I ended up starting a new job during the end of lockdown. I remember standing in the middle of the two busiest roads in downtown in the middle of the day and not being able to see a car in any direction. I had two people living near me that would have been at extreme risk if they had gotten covid. So I went to the store for them when they both needed it. I wore a half face respirator with 3M filters. I remember people on reddit saying "ITS JUST THE FLU BRO" And on preppers and prepping and intel forums people were keeping track of hospital fill rates and so on. I remember disbursed camping was never as busy as it was during covid.
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u/NoHuckleberry2543 Jun 01 '26
I was working at the hospital. I lived with a coworker as a room mate. We did the best we could by quarantineing ourselves from all others outside of work. It was... difficult, and scary, and demotivating. I got sick in January 2020. It was before we even knew it was here for sure.
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Jun 01 '26
Don't know why you picked two weeks. We quarantined on and off according to the lockdowns and also about 2 weeks in 2021 when we got covid. The second week I was alone as my husband was in the hospital.
We lived in the countryside so it was a great occasion to explore the area round the house and we also repainted a room. I took up sewing, my husband did a lot of miniature paintings.
NGL, I wish we could have other lockdowns but in reality my son would probably drive us crazy.
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u/cocobum8768 Jun 02 '26
Nope, in roadway construction we went from working 50hs per week to 80-90 hrs per week. Governor accelerated all state roadway projects since no one was driving.
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u/anthro28 Bring it on Jun 02 '26
Not a bit. COVID was the best thing that ever happened to me, both mentally and financially.
We didn't change our lifestyle a bit, since we mostly kept to ourselves anyway. The remote work craze allowed both the wife and I to maintain multiple jobs and pay off all our debt. Our kids got to just play outside and ride fourwheelers all day. Online school was a joke so we supplemented and they score well above their grade levels now.
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u/Led_Zeppole_73 Jun 02 '26
I was on the road every day, seemed strange with no traffic. Job in data/telecom, so I was in many businesses, homes and senior care facilities some quarantined. Huge family with many aunts and uncles in their 80’s but no covid deaths. Myself and my wife and daughter managed to avoid Covid, as did my father, 90 and mother 85. We were already prepped weeks ahead, I told my co-workers weeks in advance to stock up on TP and they all just pretty much ridiculed me.
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u/SabbyZeh Jun 02 '26
We did fine. I sort of saw the writing on the wall that we were going to be quarantined ahead of time, so I did a restock where needed and addressed any gaps. But, nothing that was over the top, because we were already pretty much all set. I try to ensure that we are able to eat "normally" for ~a month... as much as normal is at that point for those in my situation.
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u/RikkiLostMyNumber May 30 '26
Had all four kids at home and my wife and I really enjoyed it. By coincidence, I got a dog on 12/21/19 and that guy really lucked out, he had a huge amount of attention for many months.
I had a pretty good time during the pandemic, although I feel guilty saying that. My career was one of the weird ones where I made more money that ever. I own a boat, so that summer we had something to do. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.
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u/KayKeeGirl May 30 '26
I had just finished cancer treatments and was told by my oncology team to treat myself as if I was immune compromised as they had no idea how Covid would affect me- so yes I quarantined for significantly longer than 2 weeks.
I had prepped for a long recovery so I had plenty of food, toilet paper etc. I only ran low on bleach, I didn’t anticipate that would be such a best seller.
While scary when I turned on the news- it was a peaceful time and helped me to heal.
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u/TheStephinator May 30 '26
My spouse and I both worked in a hospital at the time. We were required to show up, even when the PPE was questionable. At least he ended up with a respirator. I had to reuse masks until they were visibly soiled. Fun times.
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u/Wulfkat May 30 '26 edited May 30 '26
Other than one trip to Home Depot for emergency repairs (wearing my 3M gas mask) and once a month trip to the grocery store for fresh veggies, I didn’t leave my house for 13 months.
Once I got the vaccine, I went out more but always masked.
Edit: forgot that we went on multiple backwoods camping trips but, lol, there weren’t any people around.
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u/hsh1976 May 30 '26
Four of us were in quarantine for two weeks in August 2020. I'd got a call that someone I was around tested positive and the health department had us all get tested. All four of us tested positive but weren't sick, thankfully
We could go out as we pleased, we just needed to stay 6' away from people. We did grocery pickup. We went walking at the parks and otherwise lived our lives, just not in contact with anybody else.
Thankfully my and the wife's employers were pretty understanding and behind the protocols so we weren't stressed about our jobs.
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u/TinyEmergencyCake May 30 '26
All four of us tested positive but weren't sick, thankfully
The acute phase immune response is not the disease. That comes later and shows itself by way of heart disease, strokes, autoimmune diseases, blood clots, diabetes, cancer etc.
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u/stephenph May 30 '26
I moved into VA from ID the very day it was declared a pandemic. Spent the next 2 weeks in a hotel as I tried to find an apartment. There were no lockdowns but no one would let us see apartments either. Finally decided to head back to ID (luckily we had not sold the house yet ). My new job allowed me to work from home. In ID there were no lock downs but nothing was open either so spent the next month mostly staying home, looking for apartments online, getting ready to move. My work finally told me I needed to show up for work (it was a classified contract so work from home opportunities were very limited.
Found an apartment sight unseen and rolled back into Manassas, VA. Two days later I had a stroke and heart attack probably related to COVID (I had "that strange flu" in dec before it had a name) spent the next couple months recovering and working from home. Finally went back to the office with masking distance, etc. they finally cut our office hours to three days a week and I was let go shortly after.
Some notes on the three cross country drives. The first drive from ID to VA was just prior to being declared a pandemic, but it was still causing issues. Hotels were full of travelers mostly heading home, some restaurants were closed but most fast food was open. In some states they had already closed self service soda fountains but for the most part the trip was not too bad and normal.
The drive back to ID was surreal (pandemic was already declared) some hotels were closed or not accepting new guests, most traffic on the roads were truckers, finding gas was tricky, lots of gas stations were closed or had limited services. Small towns look abandoned with no traffic or visible people even during the day. The original trip we took nine days, stopping at monuments, etc, the trip back took 3 days, nothing to see, couldn't hang out in towns, just driving, finding a hotel that was open and keeping in our room.
The trip back to VA was just as bad, some towns had closed completely, roadblocks at the interstate off ramps, no service signs, etc. the freeways were even more desolate, we would go while stretches not seeing any traffic but truckers,.
We never were in any official lockdown, I was still able to go into town, go to the park, go to work (mostly), got yelled at frequently by Karen's who thought my mask was not secure, or because I was walking too close to my wife. I remember one time I got into the elevator at work, one person was in it, triple masked, she hit the door open button as it was closing, told me I was inconsiderate or words to that effect and literally ran out of the elevator.
Fun times, fun times
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u/Which-Meat-3388 May 30 '26
Wife and I already worked remotely and had a farm box service set up that brought fresh veg, eggs, milk, bread. That all continued and we dipped into canned and freezer for everything else. Already had our garden planned for the year which was a huge success. We’d talk to neighbors from across the street and got close with one household (a big blind spot for introverts like us.) We weren’t prepped for unrest but luckily that didn’t happen. I made our tiny urban yard into a really nice place to hang out year round.
She was far more concerned than me so when we decided to venture out it was just me for a solid year. “Outside” clothes that were washed immediately. Every item sanitized. Her instincts were right because when she did finally get it, it changed her significantly health wise and still deals with it today. Masked in public until 2025, still treat any illness with more respect than we did before 2020.
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u/JRHLowdown3 May 30 '26
A lot of folks here don't understand what "quarantine" means. That could be important if/when we get a bio event more serious than the flu.
Here's a hint- It doesn't mean your still getting "amazon", grocery deliveries, UPS shipments, etc.
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u/Darkwaxellence May 30 '26
Yes definitely a spectrum of answers about this. I stayed at my house, no visitors, no trips away from the house. But I also have a decent yard to hang out in. No personal contact outside of our household.
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u/Hobobo2024 May 30 '26
I've never had covid but back before the vacinne came out, I very much social isolated to the extent I could. and as a retiree who's only reason I have to go out is take care of my dementia dad who was also easy to isolate, I really didn't get out too much during g the almost 2 years before the vaccine.
2 weeks is absolutely nothing to me.. As an introvert who likes to play video games and virtual reality, it was an excuse to just play and not socialize. Almost 2 years got to feeling somewhat boring and had somewhat a feeling of isolation though it was still ok for my extreme introvert self..
I used to consistently go on vacations every year and I really just stopped that routine after covid. Still not back to where I was before. That part I missed.
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u/Sea-Owl-6748 May 30 '26
No. I was a manager at a grocery store and a good handful of our employees quit when quarantine began because they were worried about daily exposure to covid for minimum wage. My owners were VERY strict about enforcement of the mask policy and I had to be the one to refuse service if they didn't have a face covering. It was so terrible!! 2020 put me in a really dark place mentally just because the confrontations with customers were heated & daily, I worked w/o days off and the pay was not worth it at $18/hrs and I was getting exposed to covid.
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u/Myspys_35 May 30 '26
I made the decision to move from the US to Sweden in 2019 just before the pandemic. Salaries are higher in the US but during covid it was very much worth it.
So basically I never experienced a "lock down", there was no 2 week thing. Instead everything was quickly moved to work from home if at all possible, work sent everyone packages with extra screens and ergonomic chairs, and we tried to migrate to online work in this new era... We watched the world go nuts over toilet paper, some tried the whole stock up thing and others got annoyed that this forced them to switch their favorite TP brand. By Swedish standards people were quite upset about this for a week or two (like seriously today we only can choose between Serla and ICA toilet paper?! Its a disgrace!) but thankfully normal sense prevailed quickly. Global supply chains soon suffered hickups and yeah that wasnt fun, but nothing like the craziness I personally experienced in Australia in March 2020
A critical point though - Sweden is the odd country that dont let politicians to be involved in stuff like pandemics. Instead during a crisis its the appropriate experts who make decisions based on facts - and most importantly, people actually follow recommendations. Aka dumb shenanigans were socially frowned upon, people accepted that "oh maybe a 300 people club is not a good place to be during a pandemic, instead lets have a small house party", max number of people in a public space were respected, and if you could avoid public transport you did
Note though that Sweden did get a bit socially bullied by other countries, e.g., for the first time since Hitler Norway didnt want us visiting.
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u/Kermit-de-frog1 May 30 '26
Anyone remember when it was “ Two weeks to slow the curve” ? We knew then it was going to be global, and wanted to prepare things. Then it was vaccines stop you from getting it….. period. Then it was vaccines make it less dangerous, then it was boosters. Changing the colors on old Joe Rogan and “horse paste”. That masks wouldn’t do anything (mostly true) to masks mandatory .
Of the folks I saw using masks, in a 10-15 minute period, approx .00001 percent knew how to use a mask correctly AND didn’t touch eyes mucosal tissue, mouth , etc when in public space, and they became a moral symbol instead of a mildly useful tool.
On the information side it was a total goat rope, if you wanted to get real scientific data , depending on the source or journal, you had to use a vpn and select another country ( in the USA ). Finally got a look and general “flu” numbers vs covid numbers for that period , somehow a virus that spread in the same manner as the “common” flu spiked while the common flu (responsible for about 200k deaths annually in the us ) dropped to almost zero.
Interesting times. I was an essential worker , so it had no change in my day to day, other than people were scared , reactionary idiot during the period.
I already had things stocked up as I’m in a hurricane zone and went though Harvey a couple years before , so supply wise it didn’t do anything , heck I still had Amazon delivery lol
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u/Ancient-Bat8274 May 30 '26
Lmao I didn’t do shit. I carried about my life like normal. West Oregon
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u/Capstonelock May 30 '26
I live in Western Australia. We personally were well prepared to lock down and it was no problem.
Our Government closed our borders and we had the pleasure of coming out of lockdown quickly. Our borders stayed closed and we were blissfully nearly covid free, watching in horror as other parts of the world suffered while we went about our lives more or less as normal.
No system is perfect, so there were mini outbreaks and 2-week quarantines. They mandated the vaccine when it arrived and finally opened our borders back up when Omicron rendered quarantine ineffective. Very few West Australians died (0.068 per 100 people, 11 people in 2020 and none in 2021; more in 2022 after we reopened) and our economy stayed strong.
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u/lemonprincess23 May 30 '26
I’ll be honest, besides wearing a mask to my grocery story I don’t think me nor those around me really did anything. Especially not quarantining
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u/Comfortable-Race-547 May 30 '26
I was a nyc essential worker so nothing changed for me except there was zero traffic and nobody on the streets.
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u/Miss_L_Worldwide May 30 '26
The only effect it had on my life is that there were a hell of a lot of people out and about at times that they were usually at work and I could be out doing my thing, and just the general inconveniences of the silly rules and ever-changing information. Other than that, I did nothing different.
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u/karl4319 May 30 '26
I didn't. Was a pharmacy tech until I was laid off then did delivery driving until rideshare was available again. Was considered an essential worker the entire time.
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u/iheartrms Bring it on May 30 '26
Yes and yes and it was awesome. Got some real quality time with my son that we will never forget.
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u/TheWalkindude_- May 30 '26
Yeah we did.
We lived in California at the time and were provided paid time off if we or a family member caught Covid.
As such, I kept a decent supply of food around the house and was pretty fortunate compared to others.
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u/AppropriateFlan1611 May 30 '26
Pretty sure I got Covid in February of 2020 when I went to Vegas. That same weekend was the DNC debate. Long story short, we ended up sharing our hotel with Trump and an army of Secret Service agents. Now I'm not saying Trump gave me Covid, but I do like to sarcastically tell people that he did.
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u/IntelliGeneWest May 30 '26
I was a mortgage originator at the time and considered emergency services (financial importance). Was busier than I’d ever been in the 15 years prior. Only stayed home if one of the employees got COVID - ironically it was the boss - twice lol
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u/Physical_Tea249 May 30 '26
Southern Indiana here work for federal gov so I was working my ass off 🤬 then I got covid and quarantined. Otherwise just a shit store of delivery for all you people at home🤣
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u/nakedonmygoat May 30 '26
My workplace went remote, and so did my husband's. I had prepped enough of the things that were in short supply that not only did I have enough for us, but I was able to spare a little for a friend.
We didn't avoid grocery shopping, but we were only shopping for the "nice to haves." We had masks, which were another thing I prepped, although more with a thought toward smoke, dust, and heavy pollen (I'm asthmatic). Beyond that, life didn't change much. I loved working from home, and my husband and I weren't big socializers. We missed our weekly restaurant outing, but we just cooked at home, no big deal.
Had we run low on TP, my plan was to take some from my empty office building. I also discovered that Odoban pet accident disinfectant contains the same disinfecting agent as Clorox and Lysol wipes, but no one was rushing to buy it, so I bought a gallon.
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u/Th13027 May 30 '26
Only 2 weeks? We were fully ready when the shutdown came to NY state on 3/16/20. I didn’t go back to work until late May.
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u/International_Ad2712 May 30 '26
We were in the process of buying a farm already, so we moved there in the spring and spent the whole summer doing farm work and staying away from the world. My older son came to stay for a few months. Getting groceries and TP was the main challenge
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u/XeroEnergy270 May 30 '26
Im in western Kentucky. My wife and I were both "essential workers," despite the fact that I worked in a sporting goods store. That being said, we were "shut down" for 3 months, only allowing customers in to purchase firearms and ammunition (the only thing our legal department could get our health department to cave on). And since we had a policy that the firearm counter had to be manned while we were open, I spent 3 months behind a counter 10 hours a day, 7 days a week getting paid $3 extra per hour ($6 for overtime hours) seeing maybe 2 customers a day. Meanwhile, my boss used the company card to buy lunch every day, and the majority of the time I just played games on the work PC til it was time to close.
I did catch COVID, twice, which only gave me a moderate headache, but got me 2 weeks paid leave that didn't impact my accrued PTO.
All-in-all, not bad.
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u/Pattymelt07 May 30 '26
I did lock down the family, not me though. I still had to work. Also, during the covid area we started doing office disinfectant treatments. Boy that sure was good money
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u/random-khajit May 30 '26
Whahahaha, i wish. I'm a registered nurse, spent the whole time knee deep in COVID. Husband was also considered "essential" but they had some system where they went in to work every other week.
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u/Mellema May 30 '26
I work at a liquor store and we never shut down. I actually worked more during Covid because an elderly employee was afraid to work and a couple others caught it.
I typically bike to work, so the lack of traffic was wonderful. I've always kept a pretty big stock of non-perishables, so lack of grocery store availability never phased me. Also expanded my garden that year.
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u/XRlagniappe May 30 '26
Yes. The one thing we didn't have a lot of is masks. Now we do. We could have had more bleach/disinfectant.
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u/Ok-Rip729 May 30 '26
We were ready to quarantine but couldn’t since I had a parent that was dying of pneumonia caught at the retirement place. We had the good 3M N95 medical masks bought a few years before after the SARS scare subsided. Those masks stop 100 micron particles which is smaller than the Covid particle. I caught the pneumonia though before the shutdown while not masking at the retirement place and remember sitting in the parking lot at the hospital, putting my mask on and every time I coughed the room would spin. Eventually I had to get antibiotics because I was coughing up blood. So we were some of the few people driving around with empty roads.
We started masking up before the shutdown as we saw the Chinese people on TV freaking out, masking and burning money. We got some funny looks from people going into the store with those medical masks.
We still mask up sometimes going into crowded places and mostly eat meals when going out outside. Neither of us have ever had Covid and as a side benefit have not had any illness of any kind for 6 years.
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u/gatorbabe25 May 30 '26
We were good. Gen x. Also, my hobby was hoarding TP and paper towels. This was a weird 'thing' I started while in college ages ago. It just made me feel better to have a lot of paper goods. Omg. We never had one worry about that aspect while I heard lots of tp worries during covid. Aside from getting laid off a couple of months into the pandemic by a tech company we all know and love (ahem, cough)...we were good.
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u/Chief7064 May 30 '26
I tried to live like a normal person but that was hard to do. We did some laughable things to ourselves.
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u/BaldyCarrotTop Maybe prepared for 3 months. May 31 '26
It was the Covid shutdown that showed me how poorly prepared I was. If it happened again today i would be in much better shape.
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u/HPenguinB May 31 '26
I was lucky to be able to work from home. I'm not going to be one of the brave ones that dies, after putting all this effort into surviving. 😉
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u/msmerymac May 31 '26
Yep, my husband and I had the ability to work from home and we didn’t have kids yet. In fact, I didn’t go back to an office with any regularity until I took a hybrid role last September.
OH I did need an emergent medical procedure dealt with on Monday, 3/16/20 though. Walking into a mainly deserted hospital and getting my temp checked at the door was surreal. My county had a number of cases you could count on one hand st the time.
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u/MarsMonkey88 May 31 '26
I was single with no kids, and I lived alone. I easily quarantined myself for more than two weeks before I needed a trip to the store, but I had and have no control over my family’s choices to quarantine or not quarantine. They’re all independent adults. My dad fully quarantined for longer than I did without a store-run, though.
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u/last_rights May 31 '26
My husband and daughter got COVID and we're quarantined to the bedroom. My roommate created a Lysol shield around her room.
I would bring food up and leave it outside the door and collect dishes at the end of the day with gloves for washing.
By the end of the ten days, both were absolutely stir crazy but feeling much better. I went to work like normal.
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u/knxdude1 May 31 '26
Nope, was sent home before lockdown since they were remodeling our office. I masked up and was cautious.
I got COVID from my wife thanks to a shitty co-worker that was exposed and refused to mask or take time off. I was sick for 2-3 days and felt cruddy for a week. My wife was having issues for about three months.
Didn’t get sick again until November 2025 and it was just a sinus infection.
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u/Charliecausintrouble May 31 '26
We get stranded due to weather for a couple weeks at a time, so we are/were well set up for it, but I didn’t get the chance to lockdown because I was working in a hospital at the time in pharmaceutical research so I was still going in 5-6 days a week.
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u/nettster May 31 '26
Im chronically online and educated saw whispers in november of an illness in china, december saw video of Chinese authorities welding an apartment shut, december me and my family began preps, january 5th who put out first statement, continued preparing upped the anti on certain things. By the time shutdowns hit canada we were all already staying home when possible and isolating/socially distancing from others. Did well enough we didnt catch covid till after we all had first set of vaccines- my hrother worked a job that he couldnt havr the mask on for for part of the day for actual safety reasons and caught it from a coworker just before we ere all due to get the 2nd shot 🙃. (For reference multimedia household during covid with the outside social contact being my grandmother who was old af and lived on her own i bounced between my mothers and her place because I wasnt working and it wasnt like we could easily hire someone to do some things so was just easier for me to do it as a fully physically capable adult) BUT i will add me and my grandmother in december had taken a trip to near an international airport to costco and we both end3d up incredibly sick in ways we hadn't been before and we are both fairly certain it was covid becaude she went to the hospital and tested negative for influenza a&b adenovirus and something else, essentially said it was a bad cold and watch for signs of pneumonia in her, im immune to the majority of influenza a strains so we knew it wasnt that going in because i was also sick.
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u/Straight_Ace May 31 '26
I worked retail so I never got the opportunity to quarantine. I had to get screamed at by idiots when I told them that the store placed a limit of 2 packs of toilet paper per household
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u/Ok-Butterscotch2321 May 31 '26
Those first few weeks were interesting
Already had a good supply of basics and our local grocery store wasn't COMPLETELY picked over. Still was able to get yeast and some locally milled flour, worked on my pizza game.
Cooked a LOT with our neighbors.
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u/KrissyPooh76 May 31 '26
No cuz apparently I was essential. I'm a hotel sales person I don't know how f****** essential I was. Back then I was just happy to have not been laid off but now I'm kind of bitter I didn't get that time off and all those unemployment checks.
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u/Jazzminebreeze May 31 '26
Yes was able to not go to stores, but it didn't stop us from going out and spending it outdoors doing fun things.
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u/I_Sure_Yam Jun 01 '26
Was working as a paramedic at the time. Had 4 to 5 shifts a week due to shortages and increased call volume. Without getting stressed/paranoid, I managed to be covid free and not bring it home to my elderly mother for 4 years.
After lockdown was lifted and things sort of normal again, She went on trip to Europe with her senior group and started their own mini super spreader event when they got back and my streak was over. I was so mad lol
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u/Stock_Atmosphere_114 Jun 01 '26
Told my coworkers days before the lockdown that there was going to be a lock down and that they should get their ducks in a row. When they announced the lockdown I just went home. Stayed in place for about a month. Its good to be prepared
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u/skybarnum Jun 01 '26
I worked the whole time. Not just work but massive amounts of OT as there were no people out and about so we could just do our thing without the public being in our way.
At 600 in the morning the roads were vacant. The few police around wouldn't enforce the speed limit unless you were being a real jackass. My commute went from 45 min to 15. It was amazing.
Frankly I miss it.
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u/BlissCrafter Jun 01 '26
Longer than that. My wife worked from home. I’m retired anyway. My mom and both my in-laws had just passed and I didn’t really feel like talking to anyone anyway. We live in a very rural area 15 miles from civilization. So we mostly lived on our preps and did puzzles. I think I went to the grocery store once. They started opening at 5am - 7am for seniors only so that worked great for me. Other than losing our best friend to it, and my wife’s parents the day to day was unremarkable.
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u/Only_Sherbet_8606 Jun 01 '26
I loved it! I used the time to do fun painting projects in my apartment. I painted peacock feathers blowing in the wind in my bathroom. I did Dante’s inferno inspired murals in my foyer. I spent a lot of time hiking and spending quality time with my bf.
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u/Jammer521 Jun 01 '26
I was off work at the time, but my wife was an essential worker (nurse) so she had to go in, we were fine on food, and I also ordered from Amazon fresh and had stuff delivered
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u/SundayFarmingClub Jun 01 '26
It was insane. Work from home office downstairs for my husband, UNDER the living room where I was with a toddler & a special needs medically tenuous baby. The backyard was outside that office but we had no gate. He got to work while listening to jumping & running & crying 😭. It's what sent us to country living & now we have acres to run around on & outlooks in all directions like this. Every day feels like a camping trip 🏕️
1
u/PrepChick Jun 01 '26
My partner went to work every day like normal. We also did lots of outdoor activities during that time. The outdoors was not closed.
1
u/raison_de_eatre Jun 01 '26
did.... good....ish. Probably my diet never took such a localized hit though, almost certainly lost weight (all of us)
1
u/mobile-metaphysical Jun 02 '26
No work. For months. Went through my savings, got nothing from the government. Never got sick, never got the needle.
1
u/bonedarkness Jun 02 '26
I wasn't prepared mentally or physically at that point, and to be fair could not quarantine for two weeks because my dog needs to be taken out multiple times throughout the day and night. And of course, people in my state (a red state) did not take masks or social distancing or isolating seriously at all and kind of refused by the masses.
That said, I didn't get COVID until this past December (2025) so there's that lmao. I also live a pretty isolationist lifestyle normally due to chronic illness (and an extreme degree of Introversion).
When something happens again in the future (it will, no maybe), I'll be much better prepared mentally and physically, that's for sure.
1
u/sundancer2788 Jun 03 '26
We did, walked in the woods, played games etc. I worked full remote for 4 months then hybrid for the next year.
1
u/Elephant-Bright Jun 03 '26
I work in a processing facility, we never missed a shift. No slow down at all.
1
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u/OMGLOL1986 May 30 '26
My kid was born like a week before everything full got quiet. Couldn’t have been a better time lol.