Normally I chew myself out a little for eating at restaurants. It is expensive, the food isn't that great, and the music is intrusive and ugly.
But today it felt great, after two months of Lockdown. Near here, a restaurant/store reopened in a small rural town. I was their first customer, so I left a big tip to get them started right. It seemed like the whole family was working there. Nobody was wearing their fear mask.
It just felt so normal. There certainly is something to be said for taking things away from yourself, temporarily, just so you start to appreciate it again.
But today it felt great, after two months of Lockdown. Near here, a restaurant/store reopened in a small rural town. I was their first customer, so I left a big tip to get them started right. It seemed like the whole family was working there. Nobody was wearing their fear mask.
It just felt so normal. There certainly is something to be said for taking things away from yourself, temporarily, just so you start to appreciate it again.
 |
| from PRI.org |
Comments
Chris
This article in The New England Journal of Medicine supports your 'fear' mask position.
We know that wearing a mask outside health care facilities offers little, if any, protection from infection. Public health authorities define a significant exposure to Covid-19 as face-to-face contact within 6 feet with a patient with symptomatic Covid-19 that is sustained for at least a few minutes (and some say more than 10 minutes or even 30 minutes). The chance of catching Covid-19 interaction in a public space is therefore minimal. In many cases, the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic. - Universal Masking in Hospitals in the Covid-19 Era, Michael Klompas, M.D., M.P.H., Charles A. Morris, M.D., M.P.H., Julia Sinclair, M.B.A., Madelyn Pearson, D.N.P., R.N., and Erica S. Shenoy, M.D., Ph.D.
Chris
Could be true, Ed. Could be true. However I wear a mask if for no other reason than for the neighborhood solidarity feeling it gives me. Other folks know I care about them. That's good enough for me. George
Ed, the other thing to consider, with all due respect to the New England Journal of Medicine, is that other "authorities" have different conclusions. This virus is apparently quite highly contagious. Masks cost one nothing but a little effort. Maybe they work; maybe they don't. Maybe they work in some situations; and maybe not. Whatever. But, as I say, I will wear my mask when I am out and about for the simple reason I stated above. Which, to me, is bigger than anything for there is a lot more unknowable than knowable about this virus. The world is full of people waving some sort of banner and fighting for this or that and it all is rather foolish IMHO for it ends up being symbolic of something else, some intangible belief that people want to think rises above all else and as I say it is foolish.
A woman at the campground needed a ride to the mechanic, because of car problems. I haven't been in a car with another human being for two months.
When we started off, I told her that using the air conditioner probably wasn't a good idea, since we would be breathing each other's air, that way. So we both rolled the windows halfway down and flooded ourselves with fresh air. She liked that idea, too.
I have always been a bit of a safety nerd. There are so many things to do about the virus that would NOT ruin people's lives or their economy. This was one of them.