Coronavirus, Covid 19 Discussion and How It Has Affected Your Daily Life Chat Thread

[Pasha838]

I think you make a good point about living out of the way at least. I avoided covid in large part because I'm a housewife and I only work twice a week at an extremely small company. Other than that I only go to the grocery store. I only got covid due to a family gathering in which a child was ill and everyone was in close proximity. There are quite a lot of large cities and suburban areas where people are very close together. Pardon my ignorance here but it's my understanding that Russia is rather spread out as far as rural communities. That's part of the reason Napoleon failed because it took too long between areas on foot and his troops were starving and cold.

It's awful hard to maintain a 6ft distance (which lets face it is a minimum) when you're in a city that is overly populated. When you live out in the middle of nowhere and rely on mostly yourself however you rarely get in that distance. And unfortunately even though a lot of people were told to quarantine if they tested positive...it doesn't mean that they actually did. I know of at least two individuals who tested positive and refused to reschedule their appointments because it was too "inconvenient". It's unfortunate but people are generally selfish and inconsiderate of others. While I had hoped the pandemic would teach people to not be...well...you can't fix some people.

The local mentality also plays a role here - most of the population doesn't go anywhere during holidays and weekends, but stays either at home or in their summer cottages, small plots of land in the suburbs, scattered anywhere. These summer cottages were usually given agricultural wastelands - the slopes of ravines, or, on the contrary, hills, or forests, or some other patches of land, and over time, it was overgrown with small houses scattered here and there. Well, it ended with the fact that during Covid, people simply went there, sat there in the gardens, cooked jam and barbecued, and no one was in a hurry to leave. And considering that most of these houses have cellars filled with canned vegetables and fruits grown there - people didn't even go to the store much, what's the point of buying pasta in the store if you can walk two steps to the potato beds and dig it up for lunch.

In addition, cultural peculiarities also played a role - Orthodoxy, Islam and, suddenly, communist propaganda are quite strongly developed here, and all of them unanimously (a rare case when religion and communism are in solidarity with each other) repeat that going to parties, clubs, concerts and restaurants a lot is indecent and sinful. Well, as a result, although concerts in Russia are outwardly quite well attended, often no more than 1% of the population goes there. Everyone else simply does not go there at all.

Tourism is not very developed here either, many people don't go anywhere at all. Or they go - but it's some kind of wild tourism, when people go in small groups to walk in the forest, without even staying in a hotel.

Most often, people's entire vacation boils down to the fact that they simply go to their dacha. And there are two options - either a person starts digging beds hard, or hangs a hammock and sleeps in it for the entire vacation, or something in between. But in fact, people rarely go out and travel anywhere.

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

The local mentality also plays a role here - most of the population doesn't go anywhere during holidays and weekends, but stays either at home or in their summer cottages, small plots of land in the suburbs, scattered anywhere. These summer cottages were usually given agricultural wastelands - the slopes of ravines, or, on the contrary, hills, or forests, or some other patches of land, and over time, it was overgrown with small houses scattered here and there. Well, it ended with the fact that during Covid, people simply went there, sat there in the gardens, cooked jam and barbecued, and no one was in a hurry to leave. And considering that most of these houses have cellars filled with canned vegetables and fruits grown there - people didn't even go to the store much, what's the point of buying pasta in the store if you can walk two steps to the potato beds and dig it up for lunch.

In addition, cultural peculiarities also played a role - Orthodoxy, Islam and, suddenly, communist propaganda are quite strongly developed here, and all of them unanimously (a rare case when religion and communism are in solidarity with each other) repeat that going to parties, clubs, concerts and restaurants a lot is indecent and sinful. Well, as a result, although concerts in Russia are outwardly quite well attended, often no more than 1% of the population goes there. Everyone else simply does not go there at all.

Tourism is not very developed here either, many people don't go anywhere at all. Or they go - but it's some kind of wild tourism, when people go in small groups to walk in the forest, without even staying in a hotel.

Most often, people's entire vacation boils down to the fact that they simply go to their dacha. And there are two options - either a person starts digging beds hard, or hangs a hammock and sleeps in it for the entire vacation, or something in between. But in fact, people rarely go out and travel anywhere.

We personally rarely take vacations. One cause it's a waste of money and two because it's hard to find someone to watch the chickens. But there are quite a few people in America that take at least one vacation a year. And quite a few people that travel for work. Industry is also a big reason it spread so fast because of work travel. Before covid a lot of people felt obligated to go to work even though they were sick. Some minds have been changed since but it does seem to be fleeting. However those that do are at least masking up now so I'd call that an improvement. I always liked that practice in Japan. It always seemed to me to be very considerate of others and I found that mentality commendable. Sadly it took a tragedy like covid for us to start that practice but I'm glad it's becoming more common place.

 

[No Coop No Problem]

We personally rarely take vacations. One cause it's a waste of money and two because it's hard to find someone to watch the chickens.

I don't understand the mentality of taking vacations. I enjoy my daily life and my home. There's no where else in the world I would rather be

If my life was such that I wanted to escape it for two weeks out of the year, I would rather spend the money for a vacation on making my daily life higher quality and not something to escape from

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

I don't understand the mentality of taking vacations. I enjoy my daily life and my home. There's no where else in the world I would rather be

If my life was such that I wanted to escape it for two weeks out of the year, I would rather spend the money for a vacation on making my daily life higher quality and not something to escape from

My husband feels the same. Though there are places I've never been that I'd like to see and mostly over seas

 

[Pasha838]

We personally rarely take vacations. One cause it's a waste of money and two because it's hard to find someone to watch the chickens. But there are quite a few people in America that take at least one vacation a year. And quite a few people that travel for work. Industry is also a big reason it spread so fast because of work travel. Before covid a lot of people felt obligated to go to work even though they were sick. Some minds have been changed since but it does seem to be fleeting. However those that do are at least masking up now so I'd call that an improvement. I always liked that practice in Japan. It always seemed to me to be very considerate of others and I found that mentality commendable. Sadly it took a tragedy like covid for us to start that practice but I'm glad it's becoming more common place.

In Russia, city dwellers usually spend their holidays in places like these. These are summer villages where no one lives in the winter, and in the summer people come there to barbecue and work in a small garden.

When Covid started, everyone just went to these houses and sat there, growing potatoes or cucumbers.
These are plots exclusively for city dwellers, if you take farmers or just villagers - their plots are usually much larger and the houses differ in price. And these are most often purely summer houses, although now they have begun to be built with the possibility of wintering in severe frost. And earlier, during the USSR - these were houses made of cheap plywood, the frame of which was built from the forest cut down nearby, and these houses were built haphazardly. Sometimes they even resembled some kind of slums. Usually such dachas did not bear any financial burden - the land was given for free, the house was built from "cardboard", and the furniture was old, which was boring in the city. People planted strawberries, potatoes, cucumbers - and went for walks in the forest or to the river. And for the winter they returned to the city - to work at the factory or in the office.

These are the places we spent our time during Covid. Every city in Russia is surrounded by such houses on all sides. And the cities were half empty. Everyone went on vacation and decided not to go back because there was Covid. It turned out to be some kind of extended Covid vacation.

 

[Molpet]

In Russia, city dwellers usually spend their holidays in places like these. These are summer villages where no one lives in the winter, and in the summer people come there to barbecue and work in a small garden.

When Covid started, everyone just went to these houses and sat there, growing potatoes or cucumbers.
These are plots exclusively for city dwellers, if you take farmers or just villagers - their plots are usually much larger and the houses differ in price. And these are most often purely summer houses, although now they have begun to be built with the possibility of wintering in severe frost. And earlier, during the USSR - these were houses made of cheap plywood, the frame of which was built from the forest cut down nearby, and these houses were built haphazardly. Sometimes they even resembled some kind of slums. Usually such dachas did not bear any financial burden - the land was given for free, the house was built from "cardboard", and the furniture was old, which was boring in the city. People planted strawberries, potatoes, cucumbers - and went for walks in the forest or to the river. And for the winter they returned to the city - to work at the factory or in the office.

These are the places we spent our time during Covid. Every city in Russia is surrounded by such houses on all sides. And the cities were half empty. Everyone went on vacation and decided not to go back because there was Covid. It turned out to be some kind of extended Covid vacation.

I have to say I wasn't aware of summer villages there.
But what I know of Russia is from Dr Zhivago movie, western made documentary and news.

 

[Pasha838]

I have to say I wasn't aware of summer villages there.
But what I know of Russia is from Dr Zhivago movie, western made documentary and news.

Well, the first dachas appeared here even before the 1917 revolution, but they were usually rented and for money, or given to long-serving government officials. The rest of those who wanted such dachas simply rented them, for money, from villagers. Under the Soviet Union, the situation changed - an idea arose to give these dachas, if not to everyone, then to many. This was done for free, and the land was assigned to some city factory, theater, printing house or whatever. And so they existed - dachas, where everyone was an artist, or factory workers, or some kind of printing house workers. The infrastructure here was exclusively summer and cheap - houses without insulation, summer water pipes, which most often just ran along the roads, cheap dirt roads, and houses built from whatever came to hand, most often bad designs. They were built by the owners themselves, very rarely hiring specialists, and the materials used were ... Whatever anyone could find.

If we take my late grandfather's summer house, it was built from the fence of the Moscow Dynamo stadium. My grandfather simply built a brick foundation, put a frame of large fir trees growing right there on the site on this foundation, and the forest was freshly cut and damp, and then covered this frame with boards from the fence. Once upon a time, the Moscow Dynamo stadium was surrounded by a cheap and ugly wooden fence of green color. This fence began to be replaced. Quite beautiful brick pillars and forged metal bars were erected. And the old fence made of boards was torn down. My grandfather, who lived nearby, managed to run and buy these boards, I think, for a bottle of vodka. He brought these boards to the dacha and covered the house with them in two layers, pasting paper wallpaper on the inside. After which, year after year, he painted this house with the same - gloomy dark green paint that this fence had.

Well, and on these plots there were usually small beds with potatoes, zucchini, strawberries, peas, and fruit trees grew. And in Russia, such a vacation is to come to a similar house, sleep there, go fishing nearby or work with vegetables in the garden. Then, when the summer is over, close the house and go to the city for the winter.

The situation has not changed much now, with the only difference being that under Putin such plots have been cut up twice as large (they are still very small, but twice as large as under the USSR), and the houses that are being built there have been built with the expectation that one could spend the winter there. Although few people still spend the winter there, they are more often used for New Year's holidays, after which they return back to the city.

If we take state registration, then such houses were not even taxed, or were taxed, but the tax was purely symbolic, if I am not mistaken in converting to dollars - this is around $0.5 per year. 56 rubles, if we speak in rubles.

Well, half of Russia sat in these dachas during Covid, talking to each other at a distance and through a fence.

As for the rules themselves - to be honest, we were mostly in the Middle Ages. Books in the style of "Diaries of the Plague Year" by Daniel Defoe (a description of the plague in London in 1665, where Defoe was both an eyewitness and a participant in the events) and other similar books were actively sold, every unlucky historian and writer urgently began to sort through all the pandemics he could find, be it the cholera epidemic of 1830 or even some stories from ancient Egypt.

Well, just in case, people stopped shaking hands with each other, wore masks, and took money in the store with gloves. Restaurants have removed half the chairs and lines have been drawn everywhere to ensure everyone stands at a distance from each other.

 

[Pasha838]

I have to say I wasn't aware of summer villages there.
But what I know of Russia is from Dr Zhivago movie, western made documentary and news.

Well, Doctor Zhivago is an unpopular book in Russia, it was heavily criticized in the Soviet Union, and then... I personally didn't like it and I didn't understand it, that is, I sort of followed in the footsteps of the communists, who didn't like it, but at the same time the people who praise it and don't like the communists - I tried to talk to them, but it turned out that they hadn't read it at all, but simply got into circulation to spite the communists, and two principles emerged - the communists have "I haven't read it but I condemn it," and the liberals have "I haven't read it but I praise it," and only I, like a black sheep, managed to read this book. However, I've read a lot of things that can be bought or obtained here. Although I got this particular book in a strange way, there is an exchange place at our checkpoint, where people sometimes throw out various junk and exchange one for another, and I once brought a whole bag of goat back parts there. the place where the tail is, intending to give this thing to the owner of a bunch of old dogs that live nearby in kennels. Well, it turned out that I traded these goat butts for a book. I gave away a bag of third-rate meat with bones, took a book, which, to be honest, I didn't like later.

If we take local literature - well, a certain Veresaev writes about the more or less last pandemic, the story is called "Without a Road", it describes the cholera epidemic in the Russian Empire around 1830. But - Veresaev is a communist. His writing style is clearly different from the author of Doctor Zhivago, as are the characters. This book "Without a road" is gloomy. Although, of course, there can be nothing funny in a pandemic, but this book is much gloomier than Defoe's "Diaries of the Plague Year" (1665). It describes how one doctor in the Russian Empire came to fight cholera, but faced a bunch of difficulties and, in addition to them, with the lack of education of people, their obvious misunderstanding, well, and at the end of the book they killed him, because there was a superstition that cholera was invented by doctors and they deliberately poison people.

 

[dirkandlorie]

Well, Doctor Zhivago is an unpopular book in Russia, it was heavily criticized in the Soviet Union, and then... I personally didn't like it and I didn't understand it, that is, I sort of followed in the footsteps of the communists, who didn't like it, but at the same time the people who praise it and don't like the communists - I tried to talk to them, but it turned out that they hadn't read it at all, but simply got into circulation to spite the communists, and two principles emerged - the communists have "I haven't read it but I condemn it," and the liberals have "I haven't read it but I praise it," and only I, like a black sheep, managed to read this book. However, I've read a lot of things that can be bought or obtained here. Although I got this particular book in a strange way, there is an exchange place at our checkpoint, where people sometimes throw out various junk and exchange one for another, and I once brought a whole bag of goat back parts there. the place where the tail is, intending to give this thing to the owner of a bunch of old dogs that live nearby in kennels. Well, it turned out that I traded these goat butts for a book. I gave away a bag of third-rate meat with bones, took a book, which, to be honest, I didn't like later.

If we take local literature - well, a certain Veresaev writes about the more or less last pandemic, the story is called "Without a Road", it describes the cholera epidemic in the Russian Empire around 1830. But - Veresaev is a communist. His writing style is clearly different from the author of Doctor Zhivago, as are the characters. This book "Without a road" is gloomy. Although, of course, there can be nothing funny in a pandemic, but this book is much gloomier than Defoe's "Diaries of the Plague Year" (1665). It describes how one doctor in the Russian Empire came to fight cholera, but faced a bunch of difficulties and, in addition to them, with the lack of education of people, their obvious misunderstanding, well, and at the end of the book they killed him, because there was a superstition that cholera was invented by doctors and they deliberately poison people.

I'm so loving the stories you tell us about Russia. How you handled the pandemic, your lifestyle, etc. Tell us more!

 

[Ninjasquirrel]

I'm so loving the stories you tell us about Russia. How you handled the pandemic, your lifestyle, etc. Tell us more!

Yakov Smirnoff said: if you need 144 rolls of toilet paper for 14 days of quarantine, you should have seen a doctor long before covid.