Silver Lining of Covid This Fall?

Great start of a thread. I'm a strong believer in finding COVID rainbows! Ours was that our son was able to pack on 10-15 pounds of mostly muscle because:

1. He was able to eat what felt like non-stop while at home, as opposed to barely eating breakfast because his day started so early and then only having 30 minutes to wolf down lunch; and

2. He was lift weights/condition for 1-2 hours a day without the time that is usually wasted commuting, transitioning from classes, etc...  He was also home so he could go do live BP on a field which isn't normally possible during the day and he could organize his schoolwork accordingly. 

(He's a 2021...not wanting anyone to think their 6th grader should have been doing this!)

Freshman year of high school my son was 5’ 11” 135. He had just grown seven inches in eight months from April to November. In August he grew an inch over ten days. I could see the height difference after he was away for ten days. 

My memories of the following year could have been summed up by a picture of the back of his head in the fridge. He was 6’ 160 soph year.

simple answer is no, complicated answer is no and pretty much any logical response to the shit show of the last 6 months being positive...is just no. Sorry to sound negative but I see what I see. 

@old_school posted:

simple answer is no, complicated answer is no and pretty much any logical response to the shit show of the last 6 months being positive...is just no. Sorry to sound negative but I see what I see. 

I don't care if you are negative. That's your own personal hell that you chose to live in. What's not acceptable is saying that the only logical response is to be a piss-ant when in reality that's your response. I'm currently living overseas. While I was here my Dad died and I couldn't get home and did not even have the comfort of human contact during my time of grief (and before you say that's silly, I'm living in a country that only had 7 ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic so prevention was the only tool available to fight COVID). I've been stuck here for 6 months because they grounded international travel. I chose to find the small positive things, the blessings, the silver linings, the mitzvahs, the rainbows...whatever you want to call them. Because they exist. And because recognizing them and giving them air is much healthier for me than to focus on not being there for my Dad or my daughter's NCAA run being cancelled or missing my son's awesome summer this summer. So you do you but stop denigrating the rest of us doing us. All you had to do was not respond. 

@PTWood posted:

I don't care if you are negative. That's your own personal hell that you chose to live in. What's not acceptable is saying that the only logical response is to be a piss-ant when in reality that's your response. I'm currently living overseas. While I was here my Dad died and I couldn't get home and did not even have the comfort of human contact during my time of grief (and before you say that's silly, I'm living in a country that only had 7 ventilators at the beginning of the pandemic so prevention was the only tool available to fight COVID). I've been stuck here for 6 months because they grounded international travel. I chose to find the small positive things, the blessings, the silver linings, the mitzvahs, the rainbows...whatever you want to call them. Because they exist. And because by recognizing them and giving them air is much healthier for me than to focus on not being there for my Dad or my daughter's NCAA run being cancelled or missing my son's awesome summer this summer. So you do you but stop denigrating the rest of us doing us. All you had to do was not respond. 

Instructions on how to make lemonade.

@RJM posted:

Freshman year of high school my son was 5’ 11” 135. He had just grown seven inches in eight months from April to November. In August he grew an inch over ten days. I could see the height difference after he was away for ten days. 

My memories of the following year could have been summed up by a picture of the back of his head in the fridge. He was 6’ 160 soph year.

You could call it "Portrait of a growth spurt." LOL PTWoodson wasn't growing up any more, just out. 

I'm saving money by not going out to eat as much, by not being on the road as much and stopping at stores on the way home or what not.

It’s a matter of mindset. My hubby is the only income in our household  and he lost his job March. I could cry all day long - but for the first time in All our years together - we have him home! 8 months home, holy happiness- we wake up and go to bed together as a real life family. My son has his daddy at home. That is pretty awesome in its own tiny way. Our rainbow is we’re all home and get to spend some awesome time together. We’re making some cool memories and our son gets to have his daddy at his side like a “normal” kid. Pretty priceless I say! 
rainbows is a promise that’s it’s going to be ok. In the mean time I will soak up my love being at our sides and for once my son has his daddy all for himself. 

TerribleBPThrower,

Attitude is everything.   Your son has a great attitude!  Love it.   Sometimes life throws us curve balls, and we've got to learn to hit curve balls.   Your son has found a great use of his time to improve himself in the classroom and on the ballfield and that is what it is all about right now for him.  When this gets back to a somewhat normal state he will be ready for Showcasing and his AP tests.  Good luck!

@PTWood posted:

You could call it "Portrait of a growth spurt." LOL PTWoodson wasn't growing up any more, just out. 

Soph year of college he was 6’2” 195.

As a basketball mom you will appreciate this. There was a time when I used my weight advantage in driveway, one on one basketball to back him into the basket. By high school I couldn’t out shoot him anymore.

By college it was like trying to lean on a brick wall. He was an inch taller than I. And I couldn’t jump anymore. It’s when I started hearing, “Give it up, old man.”

There was a time in our driveway games I couldn’t defend him beyond the foul line. Now it was my turn.

Silver lining ...

I believe the quality of D1 baseball in the spring will be at an all time high. From a viewing perspective it will be great. It will be far superior to MLB swing and a miss or homer ball. 

@RJM hilarious! PTWoodhubby had knee surgery to regenerate cartridge. It was almost healed when he was throwing BP to PTWoodson and son hit a comebacker that got hubby in the almost healed knee. That was the end of one-on-one although there was a significant online poll at son's HS about who was better in their prime when son dunked over someone and then the  AD dug up video of hubby literally jumping over and dunking on someone in a game against Navy.  For now, hubby significantly outweighs son so there's no question about who wins if their backs are to the basket. LOL It's everywhere else on the court that's a problem...

I like this thread. I gives me a reason to be thankful. It’s ok to be thankful. It’s also ok to be angry with what is happening. I prefer to tune in to the thankful posts and try to ignore the wo is me posts. Thank you for starting this thread. I enjoy reading about other’s victories. 

In our case, we are health care providers. We are still alive. We have increased our income, instead of losing a job. We are thankful. 

@RJM posted:

Soph year of college he was 6’2” 195.

As a basketball mom you will appreciate this. There was a time when I used my weight advantage in driveway, one on one basketball to back him into the basket. By high school I couldn’t out shoot him anymore.

By college it was like trying to lean on a brick wall. He was an inch taller than I. And I couldn’t jump anymore. It’s when I started hearing, “Give it up, old man.”

There was a time in our driveway games I couldn’t defend him beyond the foul line. Now it was my turn.

PTWoodson is 6'6".

Just sayin'.

It’s always possible to see the silver linings in almost any situation... In general I think it is healthy to look at things that way unless such thoughts are purely delusional.

My marriage has grown stronger through this, for instance.  My wife and I have both been working from home since March and have had a lot more meaningful time together because of that...

My kid has been able to sleep in a ton more than if he was in physical school.  Only twice a week now are his online classes are at 8:30 am now.  Teenagers in general don’t get enough sleep...  that’s a silver lining.  I feel for him of course, no Homecoming Dance, no Friday Night Lights with his buddies, no dating etc...it is really really tough.  The fact that he’s getting more sleep and is able to recover better from workouts doesn’t at all outshine those other realities, but it’s still a silver lining...

Well if you want include life that doesn't apply to covid...my golf handicap is at a 7 year low to place I never thought it would get, I bought a vacation home this summer, bought a boat for the vacation home, my kid got into grad school for next year so he will get his masters and play a 5th year...blah blah but your question was silver linings of Covid and that is still NO in my opinion.

I know plenty about lemonade and wine for that matter but I also call a spade a spade. 

Edit - then I read 3and2 say his relationship with wife got better...damn that would be a silver lining. I think mine has as well to be honest but I hate to give credit to Covid for that!! 

First of all this wacky experience did bring my family closer. I am fortunate that my immediate family was not affected by the disease. Sadly, I have lost friends and colleagues.

My kid's school always had some form of remote learning but when it was implemented full time, the family boss and I were concerned (me panicked) it would negatively impact his educational development and exacerbate bad habits. Well, I could not have been more wrong and I was very impressed that the boy developed good independent study skills and it reflected in his grades that reached an all time high for him. I admit I was at first skeptical that that the quality in remote learning was below grade but when we did some deeper digging, it absolutely was not and in fact more advanced as the assignments were modeled with the premise there was more time at home to do it. The tests/finals were not traditional but the school did make sure the "project" did encompass all that was taught in the trimester.  It did help him transition to the online SAT/ACT courses and independent study. He is taking them this month so hopefully he will score well and have an opportunity to retake them unlike the poor 2021s.

For baseball, he was fine. He worked out made big gains on his upper body (according to him), worked on skills development with his friend and sometimes let his parents feed him balls or record him. When his season started in July, he struggled for a few weeks with timing. I think hitting back to back tanks in a game set him back further because he was daddyhacking his way to two strike. He did fix his approach (thankfully his coach said something) and the last 3 weeks of season he was a hitting machine with one tragic event on his last game, he hit a hard liner to a pitcher's forehead. The kid was sent to a hospital ambulance, frightening scene and I am pleased to report he was/is okay. He did a regional showcase and was please with the improvement from his winter metrics but overall disappointed on how they took the metrics. He has been in contact with several D1 and D3s. He is still primarily pursuing HA.

I didn't even really think about the overall family aspect, but my wife and I are also a lot closer than I can remember in a long time. We've never had any issues, but we just get to spend more time together now. Almost feels like it did back when we met as seniors at FSU, if you know what I mean.... just kidding, sorta.

My dog has probably benefited the most from this. He went from getting a walk maybe once a month to a walk every day.

On the one hand, it's been extremely hard on my kids. Life was pretty easy pre-covid. But we called them home when their colleges went online only and they lived at home for about six months. We fought A LOT — what friends could we see and under what circumstances? We disagreed on protests, on presidential nominees and so much more. But we disagreed as adults and as equals. We argued like I used to argue with my friends at the bar on Friday.

We watched movies and talked about them. We read newspapers and magazine stories and shared them. At night we talked about their classes and what they were learning.

In short, we had the blessing of getting to know our kids as people and adults, which I think was really special.

I talked to a guy yesterday who said he felt blessed because "you always love your children. I'm lucky that I like my children too."

Same.

And without COVID I might not have realized how much.

Thanks. I woke up today feeling very down. This has brightened my spirits.

@TerribleBPthrower posted:

...

My dog has probably benefited the most from this. He went from getting a walk maybe once a month to a walk every day.

Haha... yup, our dog is beyond spoiled now.  Will be a major adjustment for her when we both have to go back to working at the office.

@TerribleBPthrower posted:

 

My dog has probably benefited the most from this. He went from getting a walk maybe once a month to a walk every day.

this is a fact, he has become a total snowflake. 

Yeah forgot about the mutt. He is having the best silver lining. I gotta get doggy prozac and lots of pads when the family boss is no longer working from home.