Voices from my Bunker 2020

Meet JoAnn from near St. Paul Minnesota. She and her own immediate family and her siblings have been caregiving for their 100+-year-old Mom through the last seven months of COVID restrictions and challenges, including her Mom being diagnosed with COVID and later recovering. I titled this episode “The Wrap-Around Family” because they seem to be able to wrap themselves around the needs of one another. JoAnn thinks their mother taught them how to do it. www.patcoakley.com

Bill Murray says acting suits him he said because he only has to be good at it for 90 seconds at a time. I am also very good at weight management 90 seconds at a time in 2020. But, unfortunately, that time span suits Hollywood and not weight issues. My successful weight loss plan in 2009 was built on flat land and my ability to maintain the weight loss for 10+ years has been due to building it on a slippery slope capable of absorbing challenges from within as well as from without. 2020 is the ultimate slippery slope and I am having to build new supports to be successful. www.artofthediet.com | www.patcoakley.com

In the beginning, Jay thought it was just a flu and that the news might be exaggerating it. He thought It would pass in a short period of time. Now, he thinks it is a natural calamity no one has ever experienced in their life.

The last ferry has left the island and I’m sitting by myself in The Reality Ballpark. What the hell? How did this happen: risk management is now a buffet of choices that do not manage risk but invite it in? Estrangement from the government I am used to in the last three years, but not estrangement from family and friends. Is this the new normal? www.patcoakley.com www.thephotogardener.com

My interview with Joan, a 74-year-old widow in Rochester, NY who, unlike myself, is not a sloth or someone who enjoys sitting for hours at a time reading, clicking, snoozing and I feel 100% sure never uses her bed as her living room, dining room, and office. But, she got through quarantine in her own determined way and taught me a few things. One of them? When in doubt, drive around. www.patcoakley.com | www.thephotogardener.com

Meet Steph. She was born and lived in US until a year and half ago but now lives in Stellenbosch, South Africa with her husband and five kids while he completes his graduate studies at the University there. She describes what “quarantine” has meant and if you think the US rules were strict, listen to Steph. I spent most of the time listening and going, “Really?”. www.patcoakley.com www.thephotogardener.com

Meet Alice. A First Grade Teacher in a Catholic School in Washington, DC during COVID19. After listening, you may agree that Teachers, Students and Parents are some unsung heroes of this pandemic. www.patcoakley..com

Meet Carol. She’s 70+, lives alone, and has been seriously ill and undergoing a succession of chemo treatments for three years. In addition, she had to go into lockdown in March, 2020, due to COVID19 and living in Massachusetts. She told her Doctor one thing: Keep me alive until Trump loses the election. www.patcoakley.com

Meet Babz. 27 year old Occupational Therapist who moved to Boston, Mass in February 2020 just as pandemic effects were beginning to challenge the city and the entire state. Meet Babz. Needed to. Meant to. This is how she answered my question about any conflict about being a health care worker in the middle of a pandemic in Boston, Massachusetts. After the interview, I had a strange feeling. I couldn’t recognize it at first. It turned out to be hope. www.patcoakley.com www.thephotogardener.com pbc@patcoakley.com

'Voices From My Bunker 2020" in Massachusetts. (Formerly known as Podsnacks/Art of the Diet). Guests ring my virtual doorbell and I invite them in for a chat. At play in dangerous times in 2020, we tell our stories. We laugh. Eye roll. Cry. Sigh. We go on. Today, meet Melissa.

Podsnacks/Art of the Diet is evolving and being renamed “Voices from My Bunker”. This episode explains why and invites you to continue listening as well as be a participant. The art logo came from a family arty day years ago. Handprints dipped in paint and each left their individual mark on the canvas. At play in dangerous times in 2020, folks tell stories. I try to listen. We go on. www.artofthediet.com www.patcoakley.com

Pandemic Diets require Click Supervision.

What is on my grocery list every week in a pandemic? Truth. Food is the only thing I have control over these days and it is oddly comforting. I dress for the Apocalypse when going to the grocery store and ask myself what do I need not what do I want. My goal for this period of time: to want what I need and to tell my food truth to myself every week. www.artofthediet.com

There are folks preparing for the Apocalypse and they have acronyms like GOOD=Get Out Of Dodge. I have an acronym for any dieters in the prepper population: SHWAA= So Here We Are Again & YSHTWYC: YOU STILL HAVE TO WATCH YOUR CARBS.

What’s Next on The Fun Agenda? 2020 begins with a cartoon question that I saw recently on an artist’s Instagram account. His name was “clownchic”. His character answered it by simply stating “Abstinence”. I laughed out loud as this character looked like he had abused every illegal substance available. After the holidays, don’t we all feel this way? Of course, but I cannot deal with another self help strategy, my own included. So, in 2020, I am focusing in literally on “Art of the Diet”. Artists who have tackled food, glorious food, food issues not so glorious, addiction issues, LIFE issues in their art and they have resonated with my own issues in some way. This month I discuss several artists. Philip Guston, Samara Golden, Dana Schutz, Wayne Theibauld, David Shrigley, Francisco de Goya. The podcast art for this month is a wall hanging/teatowel that I designed as a calendar for 2020 and that is for sale. 2020 is the Year of Anxiety for me as I turn 75 and it’s a presidential election year in the US. How much anxiety can an ol’girl take and maintain a 60 lb weight loss? We’ll find out. www.artofthediet.com