What new or exciting or boring or weird or interesting things have you done or stopped doing as a result of Covid/quarantine?
Started any new hobbies?
Shed an unhealthy habit?
Learned a new skill?
I’ve cooked more. Tried new recipes (and it shows 
)
As things start to transition back to a “new normal”, anything you’ll be glad to leave behind?
I have always enjoyed smoking and grilling, but during quarantine I decided to start doing it at least once a week. I’ve managed to keep that up for over a year. I’m still enjoying it, so I will keep that streak going a while longer.
I have also been cooking more otherwise. That trend might drop a little when I can start going back to restaurants more again.
I got bored and started teaching my dogs tricks. 
I am one of the many that adopted a pup during quarantine
We bred our labradoodle in 2018 and 2019. We opted not to in 2020 because we didn’t think folks would want to take on puppies with all the other stress of Covid and distancing etc.
Boy was that a mistake!
There was a real shortage of pets for adoption at shelters in my area for most of 2020. I had to look for a while, and eventually drove out to a rural area where there were more pets for adoption.
I’ve been baking pies. Not every week, but nearly. Dunno if I’ll keep that up now that I’m more comfortable shopping for treats.
We also made all our own bread last year. In a breadmaker that we bought as a gift for my parents… decades?.. ago. Dusted it off and started it up. The damn thing has churned out fresh bread on a regular basis ever since. I think we will go back to buying bread. Fresh bread is nice, but it’s all been very similar. Yeah, we made plain white, and partially whole wheat, and and enriched (fake challah) white. But I think I’ll go back to buying baguettes and seeded rye and…
I tried baking bread/rolls a few times. I don’t have a bread machine. Some turned out well, others were inedible.
Fun to try though.
Did discover a trick to making the OMG best cinnamon rolls. Nothing special about the recipe. But right before baking, you pour half a cup of heavy cream over them. It soaks in as the rolls bake and they come out sooo gooey good. (Not doughy - but super soft - mmmm now I want to make some! )
hmm, we like different baked goods. I don’t like gooey.
Interesting. I know a couple of people who started smoking just so they could get an early jab
I restarted playing piano a few months prior to covid. In my youth, I played for several decades, and then stopped playing entirely about 12 years ago for several reasons, one of which my joint issues made it hard to get in the zone. Then after quitting for a while, I started thinking that I forgot how to read music and that thought scared me enough to not even attempt it for years.
Then I had a few musical friends from the ao, and I was jealous of their musical ability and thought, yeah, I used to be pretty decent on piano before I quit and I don’t know if I still even know how to read music and I’m scared!!! Then one day was the tipping point when I saw the son of one of said ao friends play something on piano and I’m like, I’m gonna just try it. Walked over to piano and was very rusty, but I still could sorta read the music! score! I had to remind myself of some of the basics though.
That was late 2019. has served me well as a hobby during quarantine. I still don’t play as well as I did prior to quitting though and I don’t think I have as much energy in my hands to get to that point now. 
Also not really a hobby per se, but all this quarantine fun made my old injuries unbearable, so I do a ton of physical therapy exercises every day now and go to pt once a week. Not sure if it is curing me since I still have pain, but I’m stronger as a result and way more flexible.
We got 2 kitties. They are awesome members of the family and make our home better. We went against the grain 2-1/2 years ago and bought a big house (3500 finished sf and a full unfinished basement). That turned out to be amazingly good foresight as it has seen a huge increase in it’s Zestimate on Zillow and it has been extremely functional as a base for our family. A couple of new pieces of furniture, stealing some chairs from the office, and it is a great remote office/school. I doubt me or my wife go back to being in the office.
There’s actually very little I want to leave behind from this quarantine… It’s nice to see friends again, I’ve been slowly doing that a little.
Just travel really.
I figured that due to lockdowns this would likely be a vintage year of travel, as I could possibly take the family to places with like zero tourists (when normally there would be hoardes of them).
Wasn’t wrong: we bounced around from July 2020 to this year as much as we could (UK, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Brazil, and soon to be Iceland), and it has been amazing. Saw many places with like zero tourists, which was an experience.
That’s really sad.
Kudos to the author for writing it in a numerate way though: looking at “chronic absenteeism” rather than just average number of days missed (which would include actually sick kids staying home).
Seems the best place for this: Generally Poor Behavior in Public.
One thing missing in this article: that other people are simply not doing anything about it. “And, hey, why should I be the one?”
It would also fit in the “conclusions made primarily by speculation” thread.