Staying Apart, Together: The weighting is the hardest part
Pandemic confession: I’ve been on the hunt for a 15-pound dumbbell for the last eight months.
Sometime back in March – near the start of the pandemic when my gym closed – I purchased a pair of 15-pound weights using Target’s buy-online, pick-up-in-store option. When I went to pick them up, the clerk handed me a plastic bag with a single weight about to burst through the bottom. I told her I had ordered one set of weights. She looked at the digital receipt and apparently the “1” I entered meant not one set, but a single weight. Lesson learned.
My new pandemic workout? Holding the single 15-pound dumbbell in one hand and two 8 pound weights in the other. (Ask my downstairs neighbor how that worked out …) All the while I became obsessed with locating a second dumbbell. There were false starts and dreams dashed. One would show up as available at an online retailer, only to disappear when I put it in my basket. Once, I completed a purchase, only to receive an email notification a few hours later that it was unavailable. (Our friends at Reviewed.com chronicled this shortage of weights.)
fear of the novel coronavirus – or giving it to someone you love.
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation’s October health tracking poll, two-thirds of the public is worried about getting sick from the coronavirus, up 13 percentage points since April.
Here are a few tips on dealing with yet another new stress in 2020.
- Reframe your thinking. Dr. Monalisa Tailor with Internal Medicine at Norton Healthcare encourages her patients, regardless of age, to do their best to redirect their thinking. “I am reminding them we are staying apart or limiting our traditional celebrations because we need to stay safe,” she said. “We may not be able to spend this holiday with our loved ones this year, but we are spending time apart so we can be with them next year and the year after that.”
- Make alternate plans. You could recreate the feeling of a shared meal by holding a pie contest or best-looking dessert competition over a virtual Zoom call.
See more tips in our story here.
Today’s reads
- Chipotle opens it first digital-only restaurant. But the burritos are real, don’t worry.
- Your “awww” of the day: How our contest for the best po’boy in Louisiana sparked romance.
- Wait. Donnie Wahlberg left how much of a tip at this Massachusetts restaurant?
- This airline will let you swap airline miles for a free at-home COVID test.
- Italian Tenor Andrea Bocelli has some wise words: “Always pursue optimism.”
Today’s reminder
Kelly still wants your family Thanksgiving recipes, if you are willing to share (we understand if some secret ingredients need to stay that way). Send them to stayingaparttogether@usatoday.com.
Today’s pet
This pup is “10 year-old Nitro, an English Springer Spaniel,” says Lee Ann Slattery of Wind Gap, Pa. “As a senior dog, he’s still full of energy (living up to his name of Nitro), and he loves hanging out with me in kitchen, performing clean up duties when food hits the floor.”
That’s it for this Tuesday. I’d love to hear from you – the good, the bad and the ugly – so please email me at amaxwell@usatoday.com. After a brief break this weekend, the newsletter will return next Tuesday with Kelly back at the helm. Don’t forget to send pet pics, TV recommendation requests and coping tips (and your full name and location) to our newsletter email address, stayingaparttogether@usatoday.com.
Have a restful week,
Alison Maxwell
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