TIME ON YOUR HANDS?

If you're working from home and at the same time, supervising children all day, this blog is not for you. Instead, I'm thinking about people who find they have time on their hands. Perhaps they're working from home but at a reduced level. Maybe they're been furloughed or are retired. Most of us should be sheltering in place. We're supposed to stay home except for essential reasons. 

For people who are used to finding entertainment outside the house, there's not a whole lot to choose from these days. The performing arts that need an auditorium or theater are all on hold. Some sports teams are trying to maintain a somewhat normal schedule but usually in empty arenas and stadiums. Bars, gyms, and restaurants have restricted hours or are completely closed. Taking a walk in the neighborhood is still possible, and I see several of my neighbors daily as they pass by my windows. 

Some friends on FaceBook post photos of the very complicated jigsaw puzzles they have completed. Crossword puzzles, cryptograms and Sudoku provide a mental challenge and can pass a lot of time. Many people play computer games and watch old movies and TV shows online. Netflix and other online streaming services must be doing a great business. We haven't had a television set for more than 30 years, and we don't stream content on our computers, so I can say much about the Covid-19 state of entertainment on those media. I suspect there's a huge catalog of old content, but not much current stuff. Covid 19 makes it too risky to assemble a cast and crew to make new episodes. 

But I do listen to the radio a lot, almost exclusively public radio, and it's been interesting to see how the programming has changed with the pandemic. Shows that depend on an audience are mostly re-playing old episodes. Talk shows have adapted to remote conversations with a moderator in one location, and a guest somewhere else, even very far away. Sometimes this is quite interesting, professional, and satisfying. But sometimes it's cringe-worthy. I listened to a conversation between two writers and the moderator could not produce a complete sentence. She'd begin a sentence headed in one direction, then stop with "ah", "that is", or "I mean" followed by a completely unconnected fragment. Verbal tics are also annoying. 

The conversations that are pleasant and informative to listen to seem to have been well prepared, recorded ahead of time, and edited. The moderator has proposed a series of questions to the guest ahead of time and both of them appear to know what they are talking about. 

Programs like Terry Gross' "Fresh Air" and Ira Glass' "This American Life" are often topical, but with the rapidly changing political and epidemiological situation these days, topics can be out of date overnight.  Now they announce at the beginning of the program that it was recorded on such and such a date, usually just a day or two before broadcasting. Their staff must be working under the same pressure as a newspaper staff, ready to scrap what's been planned and instead, focus on the new big thing. 

I guess we all have needed to adapt quickly but at the same time, the days go on much the same for those of us who are staying at home. But somehow in retrospect, nine months seem to have flown by.