Digital horses don’t get COVID-19!

Hello, Fellow Lock-down Dwellers,

If you, like me, find yourself hunkering down in your home, all the good TV shows already binged, all the good food already eaten, you might find yourself bored enough to resurrect a blog that’s been dormant for 5 years. So, here we are.

Anyway, here’s a screenshot from an obsession that I’ve had since the holidays when Jay bought it for me: Farming Simulator 2019 for PC, which I adore. I’m planting and harvesting soybeans and sunflowers, I have chickens and sheep, but I get horses, too. And they conveniently have an arena with jumps set up at a ranch up the hill, and an indoor arena, and a round pen. It’s almost like they knew once we got horses we’d want to tittup around and pretend a bit. Plus, horses are easy money in this game, you buy them for $5,000, ride them every day, sell them a few days later for $50,000. They come with cool names like Tango, Elvis, Stella, or Bob. And then there are the sunset rides by the beach. Very relaxing.

I’ve also purchased Animal Crossing: New Horizons for the Switch but I’m not about to post a screenshot of my ratchet-a** island yet. I’m grinding it out instead of time-traveling, so progress is slow and it shows. I’m having fun, though, and that’s what matters. Everyone’s own mileage may vary.

Since I’m working from home and am using the same laptop that I game with, I try to give myself some ergonomic breaks when I do game. I’m on the laptop M-Th now for 10hrs/day for work, so when work is done and it’s time for gaming, I turn to the Switch. When it’s time for the weekend, I grab the PC for some gaming but mix it up with some Switch time. It changes the focal point for my eyes and it changes my posture. Plus, I try to drink enough water, go outside for some sun, and move enough (I had a pulmonary embolism in 2014, wearing compression stockings daily and moving are part of maintaining my health).

We have no way of knowing how long this COVID-19 emergency will last, all we can do is make the best of the time we have as we try to stay safe while preserving our resources and our sanity. Best of luck to us all that we beat this thing eventually with as little loss as possible.