Are Late Stage Pandemic Restrictions Messing With Our Brains?

StarSong said:
When you tell her to set a timer for a minute and a half and she'll say, "Timer set for one minute and thirty seconds, starting now!"

I reply back, "Stop correcting me." Sometimes, just to be a bi***, I'll cancel a timer 3 seconds before it goes off. I make her do all that work tracking the time, then swoop in and deny her the joy of showing off her skills.
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@StarSong thanks for the suggestion. I underuse my Alexa. I am so busy in the afternoon I frequently forget to take my afternoon meds till 3 and I like to take them at noon. Never occurred to me to tell Alexa to remind me. 😂. You don't know what you don’t know.

Now I know, I set Alexa, and now I have to remember why Alexa is bugging me at noon. 🤣🤣
 

Starsong, that's a good idea about Alexa. I know how to set a regular alarm, I just say, "Alexa, set an alarm for 30 minutes (or whatever)." Can you tell me how to set it for a weekly reminder?
 
At my age I'm normally forgetful and haven't noticed any increase in my forgetfulness since the pandemic. Most likely because there's 6 of us, from 3 generations living in this old house and the kids/grandkids keep us on our toes. It would be a much sadder situation if we lived alone.
 

Sunny said:
Starsong, that's a good idea about Alexa. I know how to set a regular alarm, I just say, "Alexa, set an alarm for 30 minutes (or whatever)." Can you tell me how to set it for a weekly reminder?
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Absolutely, I say to her, Alexa set a reminder every Tuesday at 5:00 pm to get ready to Zoom Darling. Then every Tues at 5:00 she'll say, I'm reminding you to get ready to Zoom Darling. (I have her call me all kinds of pet names: Your Highness, Darling, Gorgeous, etc.)

To cancel it, just ask her to cancel your Tuesday at 5:00 pm zoom reminder. She'll tell you what the reminder is and ask if you want to cancel it. You say, "Yes, please cancel." That's it.

For timers, most people don't know this, but you can add or subtract time. So if you set a 10 minute timer and it looks like you'll need more time, just say, "Alexa, please add 3 minutes to my 10 minute timer." Then she confirms it back. To reduce it, same thing. "Alexa, please reduce my 10 minute timer by 3 minutes."

Since I use it almost exclusively for reminders and timers I'm pretty well versed in what it can do.
 
Aneeda72 said:
@StarSong thanks for the suggestion. I underuse my Alexa. I am so busy in the afternoon I frequently forget to take my afternoon meds till 3 and I like to take them at noon. Never occurred to me to tell Alexa to remind me. 😂. You don't know what you don’t know.

Now I know, I set Alexa, and now I have to remember why Alexa is bugging me at noon. 🤣🤣
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When you set a reminder (rather than a timer) she'll tell you what the reminder is for.
 
OK, thanks so much. I just set it (I am Your Highness), and she added, "By the way, you can now set monthly or yearly reminders also. For instance, I can remind you to pay bills on the 1st of every month."

A little too much helpfulness, but it always cracks me up. Sometimes she'll say, "By the way, you have a package that was just delivered to your front door." And I go and open the door, and there it is, on the floor. Kind of creepy. But my favorite fun thing to do with her is to say, "Thank you, Alexa." She replies, "Of course, (my first name)" or sometimes, "You're welcome." I wonder if she's got "No problem" programmed in there also.
 
Sunny said:
OK, thanks so much. I just set it (I am Your Highness), and she added, "By the way, you can now set monthly or yearly reminders also. For instance, I can remind you to pay bills on the 1st of every month."

A little too much helpfulness, but it always cracks me up. Sometimes she'll say, "By the way, you have a package that was just delivered to your front door." And I go and open the door, and there it is, on the floor. Kind of creepy. But my favorite fun thing to do with her is to say, "Thank you, Alexa." She replies, "Of course, (my first name)" or sometimes, "You're welcome." I wonder if she's got "No problem" programmed in there also.
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😂
 
@Becky1951 & @officerripley I'm glad you found the article to be helpful.

@MarciKS & @ProTruckDriver Not seeing something that's right in front of me has happened a lot, long before COVID. Sometimes it happens that I'm looking for something, don't see it in the original spot I looked, look all over then go back to the original spot and it's there. I'm sure there's a explanation for the phenomenon, I just haven't found it yet.
 
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OneEyedDiva said:
@Becky1951 & @officerripley I'm glad you found the article to be helpful.

@MarciKS & @ProTruckDriver Not seeing something that's right in front of me has happened a lot, long before COVID. Sometimes it happens that I'm looking for something, don't see it in the original spot I looked, look all over then go back to the original spot and it's there. I'm sure there's a reason for the phenomenon, I just haven't researched it yet.
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This happens to me sometimes and before Covid. I have also had issue with sound recognition at times as in what’s that sound, oh, my toothbrush. So annoying
 
StarSong said:
When you tell her to set a timer for a minute and a half and she'll say, "Timer set for one minute and thirty seconds, starting now!"

I reply back, "Stop correcting me." Sometimes, just to be a bi***, I'll cancel a timer 3 seconds before it goes off. I make her do all that work tracking the time, then swoop in and deny her the joy of showing off her skills.
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I once told her thank you, she said your welcome. 😳
 
As MarciKS said ....."they're in front of me and my brain isn't even registering them."

This is something new for me and is happening frequently. Very scary.
 
The main effect the pandemic is having on my thinking is that I often don't know what day of the week it is. Every day feels like a weekend. I never realized how much I rely on regularly scheduled events to keep this kind of stuff straight. Sometimes I even have to think for a minute to remember what month it is! If I didn't have my cell phone to glance at, I'd be floating around in limbo.
 
JonDouglas said:
Maybe people are waking up to the idea that the brain needs sensory and tactile stimulation to keep healthy.
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That's right, JonDouglas. I don't know what these people are talking about because my mind is fine. I do a lot of reading every morning. Actually, 3 hours each day. Right now, I'm reading a book written by Edward Snowden. I also sing & play the guitar which is suppose to do wonders to keep your mind sharp. I also walk outside in the sunshine & fresh air 5 days/week. I limit my time on the computer, do not own a not-so-smart-phone & limit my evening TV to 2.5 - 3 hrs. I don't have cable so my brain isn't fryed watching endless commercials. Instead I buy DVDs & watch shows that make me think & that I enjoy. Don't mean to put anyone's lifestyle down, but to my way of thinking sitting all day in front of the TV or looking at your smartphone 150 times/day doesn't seem like your doing your brain a lot of good. Your brain needs to be exercised & challenged. That's what the people who do crossword puzzles do. Life is what you make it. Blaming a pandemic, your parents, god or the devil, the government or medicare doesn't cut it for me!
 
"Life is what you make it." Not always, especially not those in a concentration camp. Or in a circling-the-drain, cancer ward of a hospital (with a cancer that they got not because of "poor lifestyle choices" but because of heredity or being exposed to toxins in the environment). I could go on, of course.
 
So, ProTruckDriver, you are saying that before this generation came along, there was no violence, vicious attacks never existed, everyone was just nice to each other all the time?

I agree that the pandemic probably has little or nothing to do with this behavior. But why blame it on one particular generation? Stupid jerks have been around for a long time.
 
StarSong said:
I don't think the pandemic had anything whatsoever to do with this truly dreadful behavior.
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I agree.

A few months back I had looked into seeing a psychologist. Just this month I found out he went nuts & beat his father to death who was on hospice & put his mother in the hospital after beating her. I don't know why for sure. Perhaps his practice was suffering due to the pandemic.
 
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