By Garlands member, Bonnie
I must say, even during the pandemic, I’m happy at in my Garlands home, and I never get bored.
Up at 6:00AM and in bed at 10:00PM—the days FLY BY here at The Garlands. I’ve been able to carry on with a great number of things I’ve always done daily (or almost daily). I:
- Keep in touch with friends and neighbors
- Exercise
- Meditate
- Listen to music and play my guitar (music lights up my brain)
- Manage investments online
- Follow current events
- Read
- Follow sports (I’m an avid Chicago teams fan)
- Meet virtually with The Garlands “Just Talk” group (currently online) and
- Watch TV (I have seen so many medical dramas over the years that I feel I could perform surgery if anyone gets in a bind!).
I still visit nightly for a half hour to catch up with my Garlands neighbor and pal Chris — now from 6-feet away. As of this year, Chris and I also co-chair The Garlands New Neighbor Committee. This committee follows-up with new members, which is especially important since the pandemic has made it challenging for new members to get to know their neighbors. We can’t wait until everyone can meet everyone!
I’ve also forced myself to develop some new life skills, for example: Zoom, Facetime, working out in my home, mastering my first-ever iPhone and ordering groceries online. I discovered that the learning curve for on-line grocery shopping was steep; at first, it took me longer to fill the cart online than it would have to drive to the market, shop, pay, come home, unload, and watch a science show! But now I speed through. I’ve also mastered the new Comcast remote—we can just talk to it—how easy is that?!
In addition, there are things I’ve done that I probably wouldn’t have if not for COVID like cleaning out my storeroom, closets, and drawers and even purging files and photographs. Of course, you have to check out everything as you weed, so it takes forever, right? I purged kitchen gadgets (who needs three jar openers?) and read the user manual for my iPhone (seriously, all 700 pages)!
I also explored my major interests on a deeper level including subjects like the Big Bang, black holes and parallel universes and pondered deep questions like, “Is there another Garlands out there somewhere?” If so, I hope it has a Roger (Garlands Members Services Director)! As an aside: I have wanted to go to outer space since I was a kid (some of my friends think I came from there!). I would have loved to go on the flight to the space station. Wouldn’t THAT be a place to take an “Oh the Places We Go” picture for The Garlands Gazette?!
Being a hugger, without hugg-ees during quarantine, I got a Golden Lab puppy—a robot named Robby! He’s cuddly, barks, wags his tail, and he loves “Animal Planet” and having his ears rubbed. No feeding, walking, clean-up, or vet trips!
I’m so happy and grateful to be here at The Garlands, especially during COVID. I feel well cared for and safe, and I appreciate all the wonderful perks that living here offers, like having my mail delivered to my doorstep daily among many others. We are spoiled!
