Now You See Me ...

 

CDC eases COVID-19 mask guidelines!  For those fully vaccinated, they no longer have to wear a mask.

Freedom!

Well, sort of.

It's freedom, but there are exceptions to the rule.

The first stop along the mask freedom road comes in the form of Federal rules on the subject.  But politicians are just as tired of wearing them as the rest of us, so while there are places where they must keep their hot air and germs still corralled behind mouth and nose coverings in Federal government buildings, etc– oh, yeah, they're GONE.

Then come the mandates of each state. Some states embraced the change immediately or within a few days of immediately.  Still others have set dates where masks can be tossed in the air like graduation mortarboard/caps, a preparing period and/or wait-and-see what happens approach of several weeks to a few months duration.  Basically, though, all the states will have followed suit by sometimes during the summer.  County and local municipalities, including school districts, are basically following their state's mandate.

Finally, there are the individual business decisions.  Now, while you might think every business would be thrilled to see their customers full-faced and want to greet them the same way, there are still some who are being cautious.  I was surprised to find my grocery store still requiring masks or face coverings after the state had eased the restriction.  But I also understand it.  

Think about it - someone with COVID-19 who has no symptoms just coughed or sneezed on the produce, etc.  Granted, just breathing passes the virus into the air and onto surfaces as much if not more, but there's more of an eww factor with the cough or sneeze that gets to us.  We like to think that everybody covers their mouth and nose when they cough or sneeze.  We like to think that everybody without a mask is abiding by the honor system of being maskless only when fully vaccinated.  We like to think that we're still as cautious with our handwashing and our food washing as we were when the masks were always required.  Reality check - it ain't necessarily so.

Masks, handwashing, social distancing, and now vaccinating are not perfect in their prevention of COVID-19, but they do work.  If they didn't, we wouldn't be seeing the numbers infected noticeably decreasing.  We're still on the road to recovery from SARS-CoV-2, aka COVID 19, and we can't fully let our guard down yet.  So, sometimes you'll see me without mask (fully vaccinated - thank you Pfizer and Walgreens) and sometimes you won't.  It depends on where I am at any given moment.  If they say I can ditch my plain white multi-layered cotton face covering, I just might (and have). I can only hope everybody is following the rules in doing the same.

So, I Have a Suggestion for Mask-Wearers

Oh, trust me, I am among you.  I have multiple masks which get regularly washed and worn.  You can protest all you want how it takes away your freedom to be told to wear one.  Go and have that argument with someone who has a loved one in the hospital trying to survive COVID-19.

Sorry - this was supposed to be a short and slightly humorous.  Here's the thing.  We all find masks and face coverings  warm, acne promoting, eyeglass steaming, restrictive, annoying, can't wait to get them off our face apparel.  But for the moment, this is where we are in our existence.  However, I firmly believe that there will come a day in the not so distant future (not this year - sorry) that SARS-CoV-2 will be controlled and we will be given the all clear to take off our masks and leave them off and we won't be sorry we did.  Take a moment to think about that day to come and smile.  

Now, what the heck are we going to do with all the masks we've accumulated.  Toss them all out?    Aren't the landfills and trash barges overcrowded enough as it is?  But the reality is that that's likely what the majority of people will do.  Oh, some will hold onto them for the next pandemic or "just in case".  Some will donate them for use for something else somewhere else.  Some will try to recycle them a bit, wash them one last time and then use them as dusting cloths, piece them into post-COVID quilts, or turn them into fashion that isn't worn on the face for a change.  There is no perfect answer as to what to do with them all.

Yet, I have this suggestion for one of your masks.  Just one.  Burn it.  

I know this has already been done in protest by anti-mask wearers, a STUPID gesture if ever there was one.  I also realize this is an untimely suggestion in the face of wildfires burning on the West Coast of the U.S., and I mean no disrespect to those who fight the fires and those who have sadly been impacted by any loss as a result of that devastation.  However, I'm talking controlled, celebratory ignition of a single face mask that wouldn't be happening right away, and by the time we get there, we might be ready to do more than just toss them all in a trash can.

Although I'm old enough to have burned my bra during the early days of the feminist movement, I never did.  It was symbolism, pure and simple, and not really necessary.  But, the liberating aspect of the action does have some appeal, especially after all these months of being compliant in covering  noses and mouths with paper or fabric protection.  

Again, I don't think the final day of wearing masks against COVID-19 is happening in the immediate future.  But it will happen soon enough, and when it does, even if it's just me, a mask and a match in my driveway, there's gonna be a celebration.

Back Again

So, let's see.  I posted once and only once this year for my infamously inane "Countdown to Spring" series.  It was a year before that for the last post, also for that series.  As deconditioned as I became physically, especially in the last three months (thank you COVID-19), I became similarly out of shape creatively.  Not just in not posting anything here, but in general.  It wasn't that life got in the way, but more that I let it get in the way and let things slide.  There's always a reason to not do something that's good for you, right?  Too tired, too busy, too stressed and the biggee, too lazy.

Well, just as I started eating properly and exercising again, I'll start getting reacquainted with my creative side, both here and in general.  I don't have much of an audience for this blog anymore because I haven't been posting.  It's now mostly made up of spammers looking to hawk their product in the comments section.  Bad news for them, the comments section is moderated.  But maybe, with time, folks will come back.  We'll see.  Even if they don't, I'll still be writing here.

And to my muse, which likely took an extended vacation in idyllic locations that I always wanted to go to, it's time to punch the clock.

Landfill Versus Petri Dish - The Return of the Plastic Shopping Bag

Throughout the country, municipalities had been enacting laws banning the business practice of one-time use plastic bags.  Those ever so convenient bags that proudly bore the store's logo and were readily available at each checkout that you'd just pull open, fill, take off the holders, put in your cart and repeat until done were going away, becoming obsolete one city or county at a time.  In their place, reusable bags made of various materials that consumers would purchase, fill, take home, then bring back and use again were to become the norm.  No longer would consumers collect the one-timers and reuse them for trash, or just toss them out after one use.  No longer would these bags clog our landfills, streams, etc. and become the bane of our ecologically-conscious existence.  That was the plan.

Then along came COVID-19.

The thing about those reusable bags is that we weren't always treating them with the respect we should have been.  Specifically, they weren't always being cleaned.  Some of the materials used didn't handle the washing too well, while others simply never saw the interior of a laundry room too often.  We'd reuse them until they were visibly less than spiffy, then clean them, retire them to other duties, or toss them like the one-timer plastic bags before them.  They became transfer points of grocery store germs to home and back again, now with our house germs included, and each time they were used without being washed and/or sanitized in some way just compounded the problem.  Most, but not all of those little micro-buggers that were being carted back and forth were harmless.  However, our latest coronavirus visitor which has caused a pandemic in its wake has also made us aware of our bad habits with regard to those lovely reusable bags, and the outcry against their use has been getting louder and louder.

In response, stores have started to bring back their one-time use plastic bags, with some not allowing customers to use the bags they brought with them. The holders for the one-time use bags were still there because they were convenient to hang the reusuable bags on to fill. Local lawmakers who had seen fit to try and save the planet one piece of molded plastic at a time now had to agree that, for the moment, one-time use bags are the more sanitary option.

So, they're back, folks, likely for the duration of this health emergency, slowly making a comeback to a store near you.  One-time use bags once again have their place in our lives.  We will use them and toss them and repeat that process the next time we buy goods to go in them.  Reusable grocery carriers will eventually regain their status as our beloved food transporters.  But until then, do us a favor and wash them.

Where in the World is COVID-19 and Why Do I Care?

There are ads on the internet and links on government sites for the public to track this latest coronavirus threat, COVID-19.  You get to know where it's been diagnosed and how many deaths have occurred as a result of it.  Numbers and pictures, data in colorful graphs.

So, here's my question – why do I want to track it, get a breakdown of where it is country by country, state by state, county by county, town by town?  Why is it necessary for me to know the most up-to-date numbers on the subject?  It doesn't raise my awareness that there is a pandemic.  I'm already there, thank you, perhaps more knowledgeably than others on the subject.  It doesn't make me wash my hands any more frequently than I already do - they look like Death Valley in summer, by the way. and that's with using a moisturizer.  It doesn't scare me into compliance – with the exception of wearing a mask (that's another entry), I am as compliant as remote working, socially distancing, shopping cart wiping, donation making and hand washing allows me to be.  It doesn't make me want to move to a place where the numbers are less, either. I like where I am, and that would be unnecessary travel, anyway.

Normally, I'm a stats person, craving info like a good Reuben sandwich.  But knowing how many people have been diagnosed (not as many as have or have had it - that's another entry, too), how many have been hospitalized and, sadly, how many have died as a result of it holds no interest for me.  If it had a purpose in my life to know, then I would be all over it.  But it doesn't. It is more purposeful to me to hear and see how it's impacting us, to know how to help and, if need be, how to get help.

My life goes on in blissful ignorance that is the result of avoiding the number-crunching of COVID-19.  I can't get away from it completely, of course.  But like the virus itself, I can limit the possibility of exposure.