A couple days ago I went to the supermarket to top up our supplies of various necessities (you know: cleaning products, milk, vegetables, chocolate, etc.) and had two different experiences.
Firstly, there was Kroger, which was busy, but basically allowed one to walk in, shop around and keep a “safe” distance from other customers.
At Central Market, there was a long line outside the store, each customer standing at a “social distance” from each other, and only being allowed to enter the store at three-minute intervals. (Thank gawd it was a cool day [45F]; had it been Dallas mid-summer broil [100F++], I wouldn’t have stayed.)
At both stores, I estimated that face masks were being worn by about 50%-60% of all customers, in both stores (I not one of them). And I have to confess that I felt as though I should have worn one — even though Plano’s Chinkvirus infection rate is tiny, and the death toll less than a rounding error.
So as much as I have railed against the fucking lockdown and accompanying regs, I find myself curiously conflicted by this little piece of officialdom:
All persons shall wear facial coverings before they enter any indoor facility besides their residence, any enclosed open space, or while outdoors when the person is unable to maintain a six-foot distance from another person at all times.
I have to say that of all the stupid Gummint shit that has taken place recently, and loath as I am to ascribe any kind of sense to Southern California governments in general, this regulation actually makes a great deal of sense to me. I know that face masks are not perfectly efficient, but they do work from a logical perspective in that they prevent sneezes and coughs from spraying aerosol germs all over the damn place. It’s not perfect, but it is also a good prophylactic device — and the old “perfection is the enemy of the good” warning definitely applies here.
So the next time I go out on a shopping trip, I’ll be wearing a face mask from my Grab ‘N Go stash, and at all times in the future. And yes, I already carry a bunch of steri-wipes in my pocket, and clean my hands and touching-surfaces obsessively. All that plus our already-low COVID infection rate should suffice to keep me safe. Me, in a face mask?
I’ll have to take a lesson from one of our elected Texas politicians…
…after all, she does have a BA from Yale and a law degree from U. of Virginia. Or I can just go for a full-face cover:
I’m a little south of you in Richardson. Kroger is the same here, although Tom Thumb appears to be the best of the lot. Other than controlling enter and exit – enter on the left, sanitized carts on the left, exit to the right, dirty carts to the right), they pretty much leave you to your own devices. Everyone has masks (of the staff), and the CC machines have that “saran wrap” cover you see at the dentist. Both are well stocked. Other than rice and paper products being low at the peak, they had everything else.
Walmart, on the other hand, had gates to corral you in and out, with a doofus in a mask hanging on her chin hollering “6′ apart! … Stay 6′ apart!”. I’ve seen the gambit of gloves and masks, the funniest being the bandannas. If I can see your gob behind the veil, it’s not doing anything. Walmart has one, maybe two check stations open, and everyone is standing in the mosh pit of self check, with a Pakistani looking clerk, without a mask, prodding customers like cattle to stay 6′ apart in the pit.
Never again. I’m changing how I shop. I’ll spend a few more shekels to shop in a well run place.
Just got back from my weekly supply run. I left the house right after I heard the idiots on Good Morning America tell us that there was going to be a meat shortage because some processing plants somewhere had shut down to be sanitized. I found plenty of food and even toilet paper (with a purchase limit) on the shelves and walked out with everything I needed. This is Oklahoma which of course doesn’t count to the people in New Your City. They think that the world ends at the Hudson River.
About 80% of the customers were masked up as were all of the staff.
Some time back I bought a package of military surplus “pandemic flu” PPE from one of the online militaria vendors. I got six N95 and a dozen surgical masks in the package along with a legit instruction sheet written in official DOD style prose. Apparently the kits were put together for military dependents during the H1N1 threat. If a guy was a conspiracy theorist he could have lots of fun with this gear. Anyway I’ll bet that the .gov had a warehouse full of this stuff which was at the end of its life cycle, whatever that means, and a surplus wholesaler made a bid on the entire lot. The masks showed up on the Internet and Dave spent a couple of bucks thinking that he might someday need a couple. “Someday” is now. When the word went out “encouraging” us to wear masks the wife looked at me and said “I haven’t looked into your SHTF boxes but I know that you have some.” I just smiled and replied “We’re good.”
I had a similar conversation with my wife, when she noticed the well stocked pantry. I added some shelves in both closets, cleaned, then organized them so you could see what we had. A lot of it was in the garage before I did that. Had to move it before the DFW heat sets in for real.
She was in the doorway to my office, complimenting me on my prep. I said I didn’t know what the deal was with TP, but if they were smart they’d be buying guns and ammo, which we’re fine as well as I’d been buying it here and there for a year.
That got a smirk– “So…I suppose you’ve been categorizing that as ‘household’ in the budget”
Why yes, yes I did.