I have rescued my wife and have brought her back to NYC...

[brooklynite]

Since we expect to be at home for the next 6-8 weeks, we plan to:

Take a walk every day

Buy some lunch from one of the remaining open restaurants in the neighborhood and eat it in the back yard or the park

Identify personal projects to spend time on

Spend time together learning Italian

[msongs]

1. going to NYC is a rescue? hmmm :-) nt

[brooklynite]

2. My journalist friend thinks that both NYC and DCCwill be on lockdown...

Better to to be locked down together.

[520to17]

3. Congrats

I totally get it and saw your earlier posts. Take care ps thanks for all you have done for the party and the country over the years

[PJMcK]

4. We live on the Upper East Side of Manhattan

But we have a mountain house in the Catskills in Pennsylvania. A couple of weeks ago we decided to retreat there to wait and see what was going to happen with the coronavirus.

We started stocking up on canned goods, dried food stuff, paper products, wine/beer/liquor, various meats to freeze and cleaning products. Fortunately, we were way ahead of the panic buying that gripped Americans last week so we're pretty well set for a couple of months.

We try to keep the cars fully fueled and we have about 20 gallons of extra gas in jerry jugs for the emergency generator or the cars, if needed.

Our water comes from a well in the mountainside so we're okay in that department.

Our local restaurants are mostly closed but the supermarket is fairly well-stocked.

There are dozens of projects I've wanted to tackle around here and I'm using this time to address them. My business can be conducted remotely as almost all of it is internet/email based.

Although my wife is a teacher who will be unemployed for the next 3-6 months, I feel that we are very fortunate to be able to self-isolate comfortably. All Americans should have similar safety in their lives.

[Hortensis]

6. Sounds lovely. Similar here. Enjoy.

[BadGimp]

5. Work That Plan!

and stay on top of the news:
https://coronavirus.topichubs.com/

[Hortensis]

7. Learning Italian! Yum. Wish my husband was up to it,

because learning together sounds so nice, and to dong something with it later.

[2naSalit]

8. Whew, you made it!

I was thinking about your journey and wondering if travel would be allowed by the time you were headed back.
Do take care. Many of us will be here, most likely.

[dawg day]

9. I'm learning Italian too!

The Coffee Break Italian podcast (15 minute lessons) is the best I've found- it's all about conversation and sentences and phrases I'll be using.
https://radiolingua.com/category/coffee-break-italian/

Great idea to make something of the time.

[Dem2theMax]

11. Yay! I live alone. I know my brain is certainly going to need some stimulation.

And I've been wanting to learn Italian ever since I had my first trip to Italy. If I learn Italian, I have to go back to Italy to use it, yes?

Thank you for posting this link. It is already bookmarked.

[littlemissmartypants]

10. Be well, brooklynite. Youre a good man! We'll see you on the other side. ❤ nt

[PatrickforO]

12. Learning Italian...sounds cool.

Regards, and stay safe.

[RealityChik]

13. If you're going to Italy...

Focus on Italian slang. I took 2 years of formal Italian in college. When I did finally go to Italy 30 years later, studying 50-100 Italian slang phrases taught me everything I needed to converse with Italians.

Italians don't speak like what you learn in full-scale Italian language courses. If you only need to CONVERSE in Italian for a vacation, learning all the verb conjugations, tenses, and that structural stuff is not worth the time because you won't remember most of it anyway!

As long as you can say Dove il bagno? (Where's the bathroom) and Quanto costa? (How much does it cost?), you're good to go! The rest of what you learn is gravy!

Figurati!

[DFW]

16. NO language is spoken like you learn in language courses!

They teach you to read newspapers, not to speak with live people. Over the years, I've taken courses in Spanish, French, Russian, German and Swedish. The "real" languages, as they are spoken today, are almost like separate dialects I had to learn on the side. Russian was especially a shock, as I only knew it from 100 year old literature. When I finally made it Russia, more than one person asked me if I was well-rested after being asleep for the last century. I have picked up Dutch, Catalan, and Italian pretty much by constant exposure and absorption, so with them, it's the written language that confuses me more than the spoken language.

[dawg day]

17. Also with Google Translate, you can type in the English

and it will speak the Italian for you!

[DFW]

14. Buono appetito!

L'italiano s'impara facilmente, vedrai!

(Italian is easily learned, you'll see!)

[Bigredhunk]

15. Great News!

Very cool! Enjoy your downtime together in the Big Apple & stay safe.