Here in the UK, our lockdown has been extended for another three weeks. I'm not surprised. You wait, at the end of the three weeks, it's going to be extended even further. Why? Well, at first, we didn't enact the lockdown early enough so the problem had already gotten pretty bad. Secondly, people here are not really adhering to the rules of the lockdown.
Not to worry though, I'm prepared to be 'locked' in for longer than most people. Not only do I think we're going to be at it for a while, I think they already know this, but are only feeding the bad news to the masses in small bites to prevent them from going completely insane.
One of the ways I'm coping with the lockdown is using the time to learn and develop. I'm working on improving my body, and my mind. I am starting to develop some healthy habits, such as doing flexibility, strength and mobility exercises. I'm also consuming a lot of audiobooks.
In the practical world, I'm learning how to fix things by myself by taking on some otherwise daunting DIY chores around the house. I already figured out where all the mice were entering from and blocked all their pathways with steel wool, for example. I am now working on my doors, some of which need to be sanded and repainted. Sadly I don't have paint, but I can do the sanding in preparation for when I do get some paint.
I'm also learning even more about some of my neglected cameras. When it comes to photography, I'm quite a simple guy. I love the basics; aperture, shutter speed and ISO. I don't bother much about any other setting. However, with the free time, I've been looking at some of these other settings to see what they can do for me. I'm finding that most of them are useless gimmicks, but now and again I'm finding some interesting things.
I'm enjoying playing with older cameras, trying to bring them to function like newer ones. I find that with digital cameras, the limitation of older cameras tend to be speed. I don't mean the shutter speed, but the speed at which the photo can be taken. This is mostly related to autofocus speed. Using these cameras in manual focus mode, if you can, tend to speed them up remarkably.
Talking of old cameras, I've also managed to fix some broken ones. It's funny how, if we just slow down and take a proper look at some broken things, we can find what's actually wrong with them. These were mostly easy fixes like a broken battery contact, or a chipped off plastic mount that could be super-glued back. I have a soldering iron from back in the day. I've been rediscovering using that too.
I'd say yes, I am a bit more bored that usual these days, but I'm also a little smarter than I was at the beginning of the year.
Peace & Love,
Adé