Voices from my Bunker 2020, Episode One! Formerly known as “PODSNACKS/Art of the Diet, this podcast interview will reintroduce you to Melissa from Iowa.
She is a great transition to my rebranded podcast, now titled, “Voices from My Bunker 2020”. I am taking my own advice and beginning, again. The former podcast focused mainly on weight maintenance but in 2020 my life, and perhaps yours as well, has by necessity just focused on sanity maintenance. My doorbell hasn’t rung in months and at 75 it is not likely to until there’s a vaccine. So, I decided to invite folks into my virtual living room via Skype audio recording and we discuss how 2020 has impacted our daily lives.
This sanity maintenance may be a more complicated goal than weight maintenance but one thing I know with absolute certainty is that focusing on someone else’s story is a path worth exploring. I always seem to breathe a bit deeper after finishing our conversations.
And, PS, if there are tech issues, let me know cuz I did more fiddling around and typing and retyping and checking this and unchecking that I don’t believe a farce stage production of “Noises Off” could have required more behind the scenes prop changes.
Coming up this summer will be an interview with Babz, a 27-year-old occupational therapist who moved to Boston in February 2020 just before that city and the state of Massachusetts became a COVID19 hot spot. We have the third-highest death toll in the US, behind NY and NJ. She found herself going to work at 8 am in the morning on an empty city bus by April. She was masked. The driver of the bus was masked. The bus was empty except for her. Her entire caseload by late April was recovering COVID19 patients who also needed to recover from their extensive ICU stays. It appears to be a whole new specialty of rehabilitation.
You’ll meet Helen, married 54 years, and who has been learning some new things about her husband and herself in the first few months of lockdown. Bonnie from Asheville, who had said to herself about her relocation from St. Croix to Asheville, NC, her new neighbors, new volunteer work in a consignment shop, her garden, her animals, her husband, that it seemed to her that “Life just couldn’t be better” in January 2020. And, she was right. It couldn’t be better as within weeks, the store had to close, her neighbors could no longer visit, prospects of seeing her son and his wife in NY looked not to be possible till 2021 and yet, she manages to feel as if she is nesting not isolated.
You’ll meet some folks who faced the need to leave quarantine weekly to receive critical medical treatments and how they manage life-threatening illnesses and the pandemic at the same time.
I am hoping to interview as many folks as I can before November 3, 2020. Why that deadline? Well, unless COVID19 gets me, or some other damn thing, I’ll be above ground until then. But, if he is re-elected, you shall be reading my obit. So, let’s be clear about that. My new podcast will not discuss the elephant in the room as words fail me. But, individuals trying to live their life with integrity and purpose even if it’s just how to get to the grocery store and back without contracting or infecting someone else is an extraordinary story to me, and we all have those challenges in common.
I’ve done about five interviews so far and would love you to consider sharing your story about 2020 (so far) with me. You can contact me here.
Melissa from Iowa was interviewed in the old podcast as she was one of those rare WW members who kept off their original weight loss for going on now 12 years. So, discussing with her the specific challenges of 2020 in all aspects of her life seemed to be a great way to bridge this podcast from ‘Art of the Diet’ to ‘Voices from My Bunker.’
I’m posting regularly on www.patcoakley.com, some familiar rants, and raves, during the week and hope you find something of interest for you there as in the new podcast. Please remember if your attention is needed elsewhere you can always unsubscribe from the mailing list. I hope you’ll continue to listen but if not I have appreciated your presence and wish you well.
And, PS, my niece’s husband, Jeff Hale, composed and played my new virtual “doorbell” that begins my new podcast. I love it!! I hope you’ll ring it one of these days. For now, meet Melissa. Click the white arrow in the lower-left corner to begin the audio.