Tag Archives: pandemic

Why is everyone chomping at the bit for the Disney parks to reopen?

May 4, 2020 Gill Trotman Leave a comment

When are Disney parks going to reopen?

Cinderella's castle with Disney characters standing in front. Taken at Disneyland Resort. — (Joshua Sudock/Disneyland Resort)

This seems to be a headline no matter what news source you open. The Disney parks are not like your local pub or restaurant that you are eagerly awaiting to open. For all of these people chomping at the bit for the Disney parks to reopen, it has to be something more. I mean, why does it really matter when Disney parks will reopen? When it comes to Disney theme parks, you either love them or you hate them. Personally, I was just reintroduced to them about ten years ago. We don’t live close to any of the parks so it had to be something that we planned and saved money to do. The last time that I had been there was probably 10 or more years ago and before that, I was 14. For me, the resurging interest is all of the memories that flooded back. Those memories from my visit when I was 14, visiting with my parents, but was it only memories that drew me back? No, for me, it is more.

The real reason we can’t wait for Disneyland to reopen

I think the real reason why I can’t wait for Disney parks to reopen along with many others is for the following reason. Disney does such a great job at making your visit feel as if the world is standing still. They have made sure to create barriers to keep the view of the outside world hidden. This helps to keep distance between the visitor and the real world. For those of us that go to the parks to find that experience, we know that our troubles will be waiting for us once we return home. Yet for a few days, we at least can ignore them.

We are all feeling stressed

Let’s face it, we are all feeling a good amount of stress during this Pandemic. Many people are concerned about their health and the health of their loved ones. We also know that there are so many businesses that are struggling. Many of these businesses will be unable to go back to business as normal. Disney itself is losing $30 million per DAY. For those of us that love Disney, we aren’t sure what the future holds for our escape from reality. We want some normalcy in our lives and until Disney opens its parks, the world just won’t seem normal to many of us.

The happiest place on earth

Riding in a boat through Disney's ride titled It's a Small World

It’s no reason that Disney parks are called the happiest place on earth. I think that many of us that frequent the parks want to return to a familiar place. We know exactly what to expect when we return, we want that familiar smell when we walk into the Polynesian Resort. We don’t want them to change the song during our ride through ‘It’s a Small World’ or ‘The Tiki Room’. Many would ask, “Why do you go back to the same attractions each time you go to the park?”. My answer is, “Disney and the Imagineers have done such a fantastic job at creating each attraction, I see something new each time I go.” I hate to compare it to home, but in a way, it’s like returning home. There are familiar sites and sounds and almost always smiling faces to welcome you back. Disney, we miss you. Hurry back!

Thoughts

Shelter in place, redeem the time

April 24, 2020 Gill Trotman 2 Comments

As I look out my window on this beautiful spring day, I see people walking and jogging. They are trying to sluff off the tension that is building up from needing to “shelter in place” during this Covid19 pandemic. The fresh air and the sunshine beckon us outside. Being cooped up inside the house with stale air can’t be that good for any of us, both physically and mentally. People seem to be keeping their distance from one another to keep from catching any bad germs. That is, except those that live in the same household as far as I can tell.

Dennis had to ‘Shelter in Place’

Even though I hate this isolation, I think in many ways it will end up being good in the long run. It does give us time to be introspective, that is if we allow ourselves to take the time to look within ourselves. This may be akin to having to sit in the corner.
Do you remember WHY you had to sit in the corner? I think I was spanked more than put in the corner. It was usually a parent telling us, “Go sit in the corner and think about what you did.” I don’t know that it is anything we “did”, but it does give us time to think while being in this proverbial “corner”.

What is nice to see, is people walking and talking to one another. I don’t see as many people looking at their cell phones. Everyone has all day and night to view a screen of some sort. When we are made to shelter in place, why continue to look at a video screen when we can be outdoors?

A few ideas to keep us busy

If you live in an area where the city lights don’t overpower the stars, now would be a great time to buy a telescope. Sit under the spring equinox and look at the stars. There is only so much one can take watching movies on TV.
This week marks the Lyrid meteor shower. Here is a link to astronomical events for the next month or two.

if you are a student, you can get Rosetta Stone free for 3 months and learn a new language. If you aren’t a student, you can try 3 days free to see if this is something that you might want to do.

Make a daily shelter in place checklist

What I have found helpful when I get up in the morning is to NOT pick up my phone, tablet, or turn on the TV. I write down with paper and pen what I want to do for the day. I don’t overload my list, I just put 2 or 3 things that I want to get done by the end of the day. When I do this I find that I actually do these things. If not, I just sort of let the day evaporate into thin air. I hate throwing away a perfectly good day. To me, every day is a gift. When I just waste it, to me it’s like taking this gift that I have been given and throwing it in the garbage. It’s as if I am telling the giver of life, “Here, take this day back. I don’t want it.” I will admit that I haven’t always succeeded at this as evidenced in my previous post!

Hopefully, we will all come out of this sheltering in place with some very valuable lessons. Hopefully, insights that will continue past the end date of this pandemic. I just hope that we become kinder to one another and embrace every day, no matter where we find shelter.

Thoughts

Not a spoonful of sugar!

April 16, 2020 Gill Trotman Leave a comment

Do we need a spoonful of sugar?

My last blog post said that I was going to get all kinds of projects done. I was so positive and had all sorts of ideas on what to do during this pandemic. I have to admit that I have pretty much failed to do anything. I’ve done a couple of small projects, but nothing monumental. I see all of the things that a lot of you are doing and I am impressed. For me, it is as if I have put my life on hold. I wake up in the morning like a child who is wishing for snow. I run to the window to see if there is snow on the ground; well I don’t actually run to the window to look for snow. I simply look at the subject lines of emails in my inbox without opening them up to see if a vaccine is ready to be administered to the general public so that we can all go back to our pre-pandemic lives.

Shelter in Place

I have been doing this every day since the ‘Shelter in Place’ order came out in our state. Our governor has extended non-essential businesses to remain closed until May 8th and for the ‘Shelter in Place’ order to remain until June 10th. That is over 2 months away! No amount of running to the window is going to change this unless they come up with a vaccine before that time. You see, it’s as if I do not want to swallow this ‘Shelter in Place’ medicine. I feel like a child who is refusing to take that spoonful of medicine. Right now, there is no amount of sugar that is going to make the medicine go down.

I’m not one who is good at accepting things nor adapting to something that I just don’t want to do. I will admit that it is not an emotionally healthy attitude and it is past time to take my medicine. I know that it is good for me, but I don’t have to like it as I know that you do not as well.

Time for Projects

Now onto ‘Projects’. As I work remotely anyway, I don’t have all of this extra time that many people speak of. I still work 8 hours per day. It’s just the nights and weekends where I have fewer choices on what I can do and this is where projects are supposed to fit in right? Why am I putting off starting any of these projects? It’s as if because I know that I have extra time after hours, I choose not to start them. If I had more choices, then I would probably start them. Does that make any sense? It’s sort of the human condition; we want what we can’t have and don’t want what we do have. I do have this extra time on the weekends, but I DON”T want to start a project because that would be saying yes to the medicine.

For those of you that are totally enjoying this time of isolation and the ability to get to all of those things that you have been putting off done, I applaud you. I tip my hat and hope to attain some of your traits, but for now, I see my mother coming down the hall with that big silver spoon, twice the size of my little mouth and there is some sort of chalky medicine that isn’t suitable for an adult much less a child.
Here I go, I’m holding my nose and closing my eyes. It smells yucky!!