I'm doing more online and food shopping, but starving for social interaction as the Covid-19 pandemic enters its 13th month

RECYCLING: I have been spending a lot of time recycling cardboard boxes from all of the online shopping we've been doing since the Covid-19 pandemic started in March 2020, and I make sure to put out our garbage and recycling cans every Thursday evening for pickup the next day. 

 

The news media are silent 

on how all older Americans

are coping with the isolation 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Have you seen those men's pants you can't let out because no extra material was provided?

Or those $99 men's shirts from UNTUCKit.com that are meant to be worn out, but that are much shorter with less material than a traditional shirt?

Who are the suckers who are paying more for less material? What a scam.

I can just imagine how the owners of UNTUCKit and the factories that make those pants are laughing all the way to the bank.

First, they charge an inflated price for a product with less material, then use all of the extra material that didn't go into those hundreds of thousands pants or shirts to make even more skimpy, overpriced products.

Random thoughts

I'm having these random thoughts after my son wanted to take a pair of pants to our local tailor that no longer fit after he gained weight.

I said, "Let me see those pants," and showed him there was no extra material in the waist, and just below it, to let out.

As for UNTUCKit.com, as soon as the business was formed, I laughed my head off at the oh-so-imaginative scam of over charging for a shirt that had more style but less material.

Yes. This retiree has a lot of time on his hands since the Covid-19 pandemic was declared 13 months ago, putting an end to my volunteering at Englewood Health, visits to the gym, eating out occasionally and traveling (our last few trips were to New Orleans, Alaska and Iceland).

PILING UP: We managed to clear a snowfall of more than 2 feet, even though our snow blower wouldn't start.

A tough winter

We quarantined during most of 2020 and cocooned during a tough winter, including a snowstorm of more than 2 feet.

And although spring is here, I am still not ready to return to the gym or dine in at our favorite restaurants.

I'm the only one in our family of four who has been fully vaccinated, and the Covid-19 headlines about virus variants scare me.

Food shopping

So, food shopping, cooking, posting on social media, online shopping, and watching TV or listening to WBGO, the jazz radio station in Newark, are pretty much all I have to keep busy.

It's not enough. I miss the social contact of volunteering at a busy hospital, and visiting patients who had open-heart surgery, as I did in September 2011.

My only form of exercise now is food shopping, and I count my steps on my smartphone. 

I can easily roll up 1 mile on my weekly visit to the Costco Wholesale warehouse in Teterboro or a half-mile at Whole Foods Market and H Mart, the Korean supermarket in Little Ferry.

I also recycle all of the single-use plastic bags and plastic food packaging we accumulate at ShopRite, the supermarket chain that assures customers all of that plastic is recycled into material used to make community playgrounds. 

AmazonSmile.com

I've lost count of all the online orders I've placed at AmazonSmile.com (where a tiny portion of each purchase goes to a charity I designate); Bed Bath & Beyond (I browse clearance items frequently, like the spring floral tablecloth and 8 napkins that were just delivered); Costco.com, Target.com. and other websites.

We've been getting a few packages, including an occasional box of wine, every week, and sometimes every day.

And I've made several trips to the UPS Store to return items, and recycle Styrofoam and other packaging.

When I use my Amazon Prime credit card at Whole Foods Market in Paramus (the supermarket chain is owned by Amazon), I get 5% back I can use on AmazonSmile.com

And there are special sales of produce and other items for Amazon Prime members, plus another 10% off, throughout the organic and natural foods supermarket.

What about us?

Although I haven't tired of writing occasionally about how the pandemic has affected me and my family, I have pretty much been turned off by news media coverage of Covid-19.

I subscribe to The New York Times on Sundays, and the sections from February, March and so far in April, especially Opinion, have been piling up unread.

As I've gotten older, I've seen less and less about people like me who have reached retirement age and beyond.

When the pandemic started, older Americans were said to be the most vulnerable, especially if they had chronic bronchitis or a similar condition (I'm one of them).

Now, in the 13th month of the pandemic, all of the coverage seems to be focused on younger and in some cases, much younger people.