I undertook my every two to three week stress creation exercise known as grocery shopping this morning. As many of you are tracking from my comments, I’m shopping for my mom and myself. She’s 77, had a triple bypass back in 1998, but is in otherwise excellent health for a 77 year old. She exercises several times a week using my TRX and she walks with me every night when I walk the dogs after dark, which is a 2 to 2 and 1/2 mile walk depending on the route we take. But my one goal, MY ONE FUCKING GOAL, is getting her through this safely until she is either vaccinated or Dr. Fauci knocks on the front door and says it is safe to come out!
So I went to do my every two to three weeks shopping this morning for us. First bad sign: several of the bag boys collecting and wiping the carts down either not wearing their masks at all or not wearing them correctly – as in over the mouth, but under the nose. Inside the store the vast majority of the people in the store were wearing masks and trying to maintain distances, as is always the case, there were a bunch of white guys, most older, one or two younger, looking like they hadn’t bathed in several days, not wearing masks, not trying to maintain distances, and just generally being oblivious. I managed to work around them. And, of course, one white woman with chemical blonde hair who clearly was coming to the store from whatever event required pearls to be worn at 11 AM on a Friday in June in Florida.
And then I got to the checkout… Neither the woman running the checkout, nor the bag boy were wearing their masks correctly. Over the mouth, but under the nose. I asked them, politely, “would you please put your masks on right?” She said sure and did. He did, I then asked for paper double bagged, and looked at him and he’s glaring at me. And that was the point where I decided to audition for social media! I said to the woman checking me out to please give me back the stuff she’d scanned – two items – and I’d go find another lane. She replied with: “I fixed my mask”. I said: “Ma’am, you’re fine, but I don’t need to be eyeballed by a 15 year old idiot for asking him to do the right thing. Please give me back my stuff, I’m going to find another lane.” They both looked at me like I was nuts. And that’s when my volume went up and the FUCKS were deployed. I got my stuff back in my cart, the manager who watched this whole thing go down approached me and asked if she could check me out in the next lane over and I replied with: “Thank you, as long as he stays 20 feet away from my stuff”. I then looked at him one last time and said: “I wasn’t afraid of ISIS when I was in Iraq, I’m not afraid of you so just stop glaring at and eyeballing me”.
I then took my groceries to the other lane, thanked the manager, explained I wanted paper double bagged, and reinforced that the woman checking me out was fine. That I know the store can’t do anything about the idiots that won’t wear masks, follow the aisle directions, and maintain distance, and that I appreciate what the folks at the store are doing, but I shouldn’t have to FUCKING ask the checkout boy to put his mask on right and when he does I shouldn’t have to be FUCKING glared at when he does. And that this is clearly an individual personnel problem. They checked me out, I paid, left the store, put my bags in the car, brought my cart back up to just outside where they clean them for the customers, went back to my car, wiped my self down with a disinfecting towel, got into my car, started it, took my ball cap off, my eye protection off and wiped it down, used a wipe to take my mask off, wiped my face down, and drove home. Where I cloroxed wiped and cool soapy watered my groceries down, put them away, stripped and put my clothes in the washer, and showered like I’d just come from a CBRN contaminated site.
So if you see a large guy on social media saying FUCK!!!! a lot, at a high volume, in a Publix in Florida on social media: ITS FUCKING ME!!!!!
And before anyone says anything, I got away with doing this because I’m a white guy who is the 5’11 scale version of the guys who do strongman competitions. I am well aware of why no one called the cops or tried to shoot me, though given it’s Florida, I’m frankly a bit amazed at that last bit.
My final thoughts from today’s excitement. Americans have four jobs right now as Americans: 1) stay home as much as is practically possible; 2) wear a mask, and do so properly, when out in public with the exception, of course, of being on your own property, working or exercising in your yard or driveway, and/or walking/walking the dog, running, cycling late at night/early in the morning when no one else is around; 3) socially distance 6 feet or as close to 6 feet as possible when in public and especially when in indoor spaces; 4) wash your hands often! That’s it. We put people in jail during World War I for violating meatless Mondays, for not buying war bonds, and for making fun of President Wilson and/or his mother. We don’t talk about it, we tend to pretend none of that happened. But if we can tolerate presidentially created and endorsed authoritarianism so that Wilson could make the world safe from future wars, we can wear masks properly and maintain appropriate distances while outside.
Open FUCKING!!!! Thread!
NotMax
Is it
CasualCrotchety Friday already?;)
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Apparently IT FUCKING IS!!!! Why do you ask?
Dorothy A. Winsor
I went to the salon in my building today. It just opened this week. The stylist wore a mask and a plastic face shield and they allowed one customer at a time. So the stylist told me that she was surprised the building didn’t require residents to wear a mask. I was surprised at that too. The building very much DOES require everyone to wear a mask outside their own unit. But customers have come in without masks, telling her they’re optional. The salon then gives them a mask and puts it on their bill. This is an over-55 community. By definition, everyone here is higher risk. These people are idiots.
West of the Cascades
Thank you for being a voice of reason in these difficult times!
David Anderson
Adam just for greetings sake — FUCK YOU TOO
The current asshole self-identification system here in North Carolina is for individuals to claim that they have an unstatable medical condition that mask wearing excerbates and they can not disclose due to HIPPA. Last night when I was getting take-out, 9 out of 10 people either in the restaurant or waiting patiently playing Angry Birds in the parking lot had a mask on. The single person that did not had IIIer, Tea Party and 26.2 miler stickers on their vehicle. Again, asshole self-identification service
Just a a note for graduates of the University of Facebook Law Speaking School — HIPAA does not apply to take-out restaurants, gyms or other retail establishments. They are not covered entities. If you’re going to bullshit your way to self-identify as an asshole, the plausible law to flout about is the ADA.
Adam L Silverman
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Florida is going to quickly become a charnal house as a result of our idiot governor’s response to COVID-19.
Adam L Silverman
@West of the Cascades: YOU ARE FUCKING WELCOME!!!!
West of the Cascades
@David Anderson: This will make rounding them up next year and putting them in reeducation camps easier.
Citizen Alan
I just got the news that the woman who handles the mail at the courthouse where I work tested positive. I’ve been telecommuting and have only been in the courthouse once in the last 3 weeks, so I’m fine. But now, no one is allowed into the building until it’s been cleaned. So I’m looking forward to hearing how we’re going to hold 2 days of telephonic hearings next week.
Adam L Silverman
@David Anderson: I’ve seen reports of that. I only leave the house to go shopping every two to three weeks. With the exception of walking the dogs every night around 9:30 PM when there is no one else out. And working out in my driveway. That’s it. I don’t get takeout. I don’t get delivery of pizza or other meals. I’ve been doing this since mid-February and I’m not changing what I’m doing or how I’m doing it until I’m vaccinated or Fauci personally tells me it is safe to come out. The risks are simply not worth it. It is not that I don’t want to support the restaurants that I was a regular at, but I have no idea what is going on in the kitchen with the people preparing the food. So it is just not worth the risk. I can cook for myself. And I do.
Nicole
What’s really infuriating is that the mask wearing apparently really is the majority of what’s necessary to keep the virus from spreading- it’s important to wash hands, etc., but from what I’ve read, the latest data is that this is spread via respiratory, and while it’s theoretically possible to get it from a surface, it’s unlikely one will pick up and transfer enough virus to get sick that way.
I get it, masks are uncomfortable. But I was thinking about how, until I was 18, I never wore a bicycle helmet, and riding bicycle without a helmet is great. It feels great, the wind going through your hair. Helmets are hot and my hair is all sweaty and matted when I take the helmet off. Bicycling is not as pleasurable wearing a helmet. But I prefer my brains inside my head, and so, even though I never got a serious head injury while riding a bike as a child, I now wear a helmet EVERY time I go out on my inline skates or my bicycle.
No, daily life is not as pleasurable behind a mask, but big fucking deal; it’s the safe thing to do and so I do it. I just don’t get why this is so hard for people. I swear, I feel like I’m seeing who, really, when you come down to it, has never had anything truly bad happen in their lives.
Adam L Silverman
@Citizen Alan:
I’m going to guess that telephones will be involved.
dmsilev
@David Anderson:
The other part of that is claiming that the ADA requires letting them into the store.
You probably have heard this already, but that particular set of nonsense originated from the “sovereign citizen” loons and then it metastasized from there.
dnfree
At the Meijer where I buy groceries in the northwest suburbs of Chicago, there’s a (bored-looking) employee in the entrance checking that every customer coming in is wearing a mask. But in the store itself some customers and even a few employees have their masks down. I don’t say anything to them and neither do any employees. Probably afraid to wind up on social media.
The aisles are marked on the floor as to the direction to go, and I think that’s being less observed than it was.
NYCMT
Two week countdown to the religious conversion, as the ambulance sirens serenade them at all hours.
dmsilev
Apparently AMC has reversed themselves and will be requiring masks.
Bill Arnold
@David Anderson:
So far, I’ve walked out of one store (hardware) in NY State due to poor mask discipline. (We have had a mandatory indoors face coverings order since April 17; very very low levels of Governor’s-order-breakers.) My comment was a very loud “No masks, no customer”. This, FWIW, was in Florida, New York. (I will not be visiting that town again until there is a vaccine + at least 2 years to be sure.)
Adam did good. Assholes is a polite word for people who believe they have the right to randomly kill people. (Does that HIPPA argument have any force of reality?)
MisterForkbeard
@Adam L Silverman: THIS IS A GREAT FUCKING THREAD!
More seriously – I’m in a similar situation and have gotten the side-eye when I asked people to put their mask over their noses. It’s incredibly irritating and one person I asked to do it literally ‘Baaa’d (get it, because I’m a ‘sheep’?) at me. So I guess he’s a tool. If he was working at that store I would have gotten him fired.
Adam L Silverman
@Nicole: Yep. Proper mask wearing combined with wearing eye protection, which doesn’t get mentioned very much, and hand washing would make a huge difference.
Spanky
Wait, what’s the deal with Wilson’s mother?
Adam L Silverman
@dnfree: The same idiots in the store not wearing masks also completely ignore the directional markers at the entrance to each aisle and within the aisles.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: The stock going into negative territory this AM sharpened the board’s attention.
Joe Falco
I’m one of the few people at my government office that still wears a mask while at work. I’ve also cited to my supervisor some underlying health conditions that puts me in a higher risk category so I was placed on phone duty to avoid me having any physical interactions with the public. There has been only one reported instance of a co-worker (in another department) that tested positive since the pandemic started, but I still wear my mask as much as possible. Thankfully, I haven’t received any grief for it.
low-tech cyclist
Pro tip: do your shopping early in the morning, preferably on Sunday. In my part of southern Maryland, the groceries mostly open at 6am, and I’m there when they open on Sunday morning. Not only are the insouciant assholes still sleeping in, but so is most everyone else. There might be one or two people on the same aisle as me, but it’s even more likely that, whatever aisle I’m on, I’ll have the aisle to myself.
Also, if a store has self-checkout open at that hour, I’ll use it. One less person to be in close contact with.
dmsilev
@Adam L Silverman: The invisible middle finger of the market.
SFBayAreaGal
Good morning (here) afternoon (where you live) Adam. Hope your day gets better.
TaMara (HFG)
At the store the other day, the only ones without masks were a trio of teenage girls, who I couldn’t be angry at because I remember being 14, and a couple that were most likely Trump’s people.
I’m happy to be living in Colorado. I lived through and survived its red-phase and am now enjoying this purple to blue era. Democratic Governor who has managed to not only convince the population to stay home, wear masks and stay 6 feet apart, but has managed to slowly open up the state in a responsible way.
(Should I mention he’s a gay father of two, because no one here ever does, which to me is validation that things really can change for the better)
sdhays
I’m confused. Do we call you Karen Silverman now? “Not that there’s anything wrong with that.” //
It’s pretty pathetic how poorly mask wearing is enforced at some of the grocery stores here too. I’ve been going late at night so at least there aren’t many people in the store.
Citizen Alan
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, but 30 people on a conference call is bad enough when me, the clerk, and the judge are all in the same room that everyone has to call in to, with the IT guys standing by if anything goes wrong. If no one can enter the building at all, I don’t know how they’re going to set up the call in the first place. Not my problem, tbh, but I expect it to be a frustrating mess.
NotMax
Dunno about other locales but currently here if you bring your own reusable bags (as close to 100% do as so many stores don’t offer any type of bag) store personnel will not pack your groceries, it must be done by the customer. Which is but a minuscule, barely worth noting inconvenience.
What I don’t quite understand is the thinking behind what Safeway (chain supermarket) is doing here (other markets are not doing this). You must wait to unpack your cart onto the conveyor belt until the cashier gives a go signal, after the previous customer’s items have all been removed from the belt and all of them have been bagged. They’ve even removed the separation thingies which used to be available to mark the boundaries of each person’s goods.
Still astonished when I go to NY and see stores still using plastic bags as they’ve been verboten here for so long.
CaseyL
@Nicole: Bicycle helmets, seat belts, looking both ways before crossing the street… the litany of what people adapt to once they realize it’s a life/death issue is a long one, depending on how far back you want to go.
That about half the US can’t be arsed to do something as simple as wear a mask… that the Ignorant masses are intent on killing as many people as they can…that the GOP Industrial Grifting Complex is aiding and abetting…
I really can’t get over how much we’ve failed as a country. All the duplicitous ignorant shit that’s been shoveled out and eaten up over the past 40-odd years has come to a head, exactly like an infected zit.
Oklahomo
@dmsilev: A good comeback would be, “But sir, that only applies to gold fringe masks, so get yours on.”
Delk
@David Anderson: and you know that if you asked them to spell it you’d get HIPAA.
Barbara
In Northern Virginia, grocery stores and most retail establishments will not let you in the door without a mask. Just wearing a mask makes people more conscious of other distancing protocols. I know it’s been said, but this is the party that thinks it’s okay to force women to undergo ultrasounds and if they got their way, to force them to give birth, but IT’S NOT OKAY TO FORCE ME TO WEAR A MASK!
At the same time one of our state legislators was gunning for forced ultrasound she was appearing on right wing radio shows screaming about the overreach of the federal government to force people to go through body scans and pat downs at airports.
I hate these people. I used to just tune them out, but now, I actively hope that they come to harm.
sdhays
@NotMax: They’re doing that at Wegman’s and Whole Foods here too. Social distancing for produce.
dp
@West of the Cascades: Yes.
Adam L Silverman
@MisterForkbeard: The same stupidity happened in 1918. Everyone did great for about three months. Then the usually wealthy ideological suspects bankrolled the formation of the American Anti-Mask League, with the original chapter in California (LA if I’m recalling correctly), and then pushed it nationwide. Because masks were unAmerican threats to freedom. Not Wilson’s propaganda minister who was also in charge of enforcing meatless Mondays and forced donation to the war effort at work and not disparaging Wilson or the war effort – all of which could get you arrested. The real threat to freedom was having to wear masks in public.
HumboldtBlue
I managed to avoid menacing anyone this morning but I did stumble onto an impromptu jazz concert.
“Pipelinefunk” Armin Küpper
Oklahomo
I was pleasantly surprised when early on in this mess a store manager banned 4 young morons who were going up and down the aisles coughing behind masked people and then giggling like idiots. I was actually pleased to hear she banned them for life.
Bill Arnold
@sdhays:
In general, to everyone, please give the state code when using the word “here”. (E.g. mask discipline here in southern NY is high enough that i can afford to tell the manager “unmasked people, no customer!”, since there are other stores and Amazon etc.)
sdhays
@Barbara: That’s not been my experience. H-Mart is very good about that and were ahead of the curve (not surprising since it seems to be a Korean company), but the others only made half-hearted attempts in May. They definitely aren’t enforcing masks on customers in Fairfax in June.
Adam L Silverman
@dmsilev: I hope they had to sit on it and swivel!
Gravenstone
Maybe my own privilege showing, but I don’t see that you did anything wrong. You requested proper adherence to safety guidance, escalated when you didn’t receive appropriate compliance, reinforced those who did respond appropriately, and left.
Also, you remind my of my college roommate, the farm boy turned power lifter. He’d have tossed the kid halfway across the aisle. So your self restraint is admirable.
sdhays
@Bill Arnold: Northern Virginia.
West of the Rockies
So… Anger Management class not going well?//
I hear you, Adam. So sick of the lazy, privileged, science-ignoring Morlocks of this nation.
Adam L Silverman
@SFBayAreaGal: I really don’t think it could get worse! But thanks for the good thoughts!
Roger Moore
@Bill Arnold:
No. HIPPA applies to medical providers, not to patients. There is no rule saying you can’t share your own information with anyone you like. And there’s no rule saying the business can’t keep you physically outside if you aren’t wearing a mask. I think ADA would require the store to make a reasonable accommodation, but that could be handled by shopping for them rather than allowing them into the store.
Adam L Silverman
@Citizen Alan: Could be worse, could be video calls…
Tom Levenson
Other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I stopped using my reusable bags because of that. I ask for doubled paper and make them heavy. Come home, wipe everything down in the garage and then bring it in and put it away. Leave the bags in the garage where anything on them will get killed from several days of heat. Then I fold them up and put them in the recycle bin.
Barbara
@sdhays: I should specify Arlington then. They will make you stay outside if you don’t have one. They stock a supply for the day and will give you one until they run out, but once the masks are gone, they don’t let you come in. You can use a t-shirt or a scarf as well.
Sure Lurkalot
@low-tech cyclist: I agree with the crack of dawn approach. I went to a Kroger affiliate at 6:15 and it was mostly stockers. Everyone I saw was masked and I violated the direction on one aisle and my apology was accepted. However there were no checkers so the self checkout area was the only pay option. I had a big basket and it took a long time to checkout with all the produce….I actually would have preferred to be checked out…somewhat close to one person for 5 minutes vs many people for 10.
catclub
Good. they should have stated their policy is dependent on local testing positive rates. Give a number and a number of days.
If too high, the mask is required. Simple rule.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
This is why I think the masks people are wearing should be those molded cone-shaped masks. There’s no way for the nose to be exposed, because they won’t slip down. Too many people, if they’re wearing actual surgical ear-loop masks, forget to bend the metal wire over the bridge of their nose
JoyceH
And now Trump is making it even more certain that his base won’t be wearing masks, by saying that people are only wearing the masks to show disapproval of him. Does he genuinely WANT his base to die? Well, I know he actually despises them, but does he want them to die before they can vote?
Regine Touchon
Adam, I Karened this morning also. I too go to Publix and they are pretty responsible except for the people who stock shelves from individual companies who usually are maskless. Today there was a young maskless guy stocking shelves and was almost blocking the aisle with his boxes. He politely asked if I wanted to get by and I said yes but wanted him to move further away and that lit a spark. I ended up saying he should be wearing a FUCKING MASK and he lost it. The manager showed up as I quickly hightailed away. I was so shook up and full of fucking rage that when I arrived at the most important aisle in the store, beer and wine, and saw 5 chunky middle aged maskless white men, I continued on with the wrath of God controlling my tongue lambasting them for not wearing masks. A couple of weeks ago I talked to the manager about this situation. I guess she warrants a call once again. Here in Alabama, It’s the wild west and living in Auburn, a university town, proves to be interesting since the majority of young adults don’t wear masks nor socially distance.
Bottom line: WE ARE FUCKING SCREWED!
Adam L Silverman
@Gravenstone: I raised my voice, not to a full scream, but to what was clearly angry and threatening levels, deployed FUCK repeatedly, and when I get worked up I basically look like the scene at the end of the Avengers when Banner turns to Captain America and says “my secret is I’m always angry”. I’m a large guy. I’m almost all muscle. And when I get angry or get worked up, I’ve been told by people who know me well that I look massive compared to normal and really scary.
catclub
You could take them back the next time! and not let the bag boy touch them! Usually isn’t it Jewish mothers that will do anything for their sons?
What a good son.
Spanky
@Barbara: Welcome to the dark side! We have cookies.
Barbara
@Roger Moore: It’s HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (of 1996).
It applies to health care providers. health plans and insurers and health information clearinghouses.
Just drives me a little crazy to see it cited incorrectly so often.
Dr. Omed
@Adam L Silverman: As I tell people who think I’m overdoing my precautions, there’s no penalty for being too careful.
sdhays
@Barbara: I was in Clarendon a couple weekends ago, and wow – people were all crowded around, lining up to get into restaurants or talking close together at outdoor tables. It was like any other summer day in Clarendon. Maybe one or two masks here and there. My jaw literally dropped. I really didn’t expect that level of disregard so quickly.
Gravenstone
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s rarely a case of the mask slipping down. It’s that people are going through the motions and having the mask “on” but not in an effective manner.
catclub
No shirt no shoes no service
also no mask no service
RPorrofatto
I live in NYC where pretty much everyone is cool with wearing masks, with the exception of a few twenty-somethings who hang out at the sidewalk bars that have cropped up. I will never understand people for whom wearing a mask is too hard, or worse, the ones who think it’s a tyrannical assault on their freedom, especially considering this: NYC has a population of 8.4 million and 24,661 deaths from COVID-19. Hong Kong, even more dense than NYC, has a population of 7.5 million and their number of deaths from the virus is (this is not a typo): 4. Yes, 4. And the total has remained at 4 since March 13.
Epidemiologists say one of the biggest reasons for this is that the residents of Hong Kong, having been through many of these scenarios, started voluntarily wearing masks the minute the virus became known. They didn’t need to be told, asked, or convinced.
Adam L Silverman
@West of the Rockies: I usually start with the checkout folks with: “Paper double bagged please. How are you all holding up? Everything good?”
I used to have a terrible temper and didn’t manage it well. Of all the martial arts I did, nothing really helped until I started doing aikido. Since then, I’m rarely out of control. I mean very rarely. But I’ve found that having to go to the grocery store stresses me out. So I try to force myself to be polite. This morning I did not do a good job of that.
NotMax
Wanna lob some choice epithets someone’s way? The guy’s absolutely a candidate. Am not generally a vindictive sort but I hope they throw
the bookseveral books at him.Adam L Silverman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): These were cloth masks, which was fine, and they’d pulled them down just below their noses.
catclub
How about a pink triangle T-shirt to wear, while also wearing all the protective gear, that says
“Careful!, I might be infected”
Adam L Silverman
@Regine Touchon: I’ll put up a post for a virtual support group later on…//
low-tech cyclist
@sdhays: Interesting to hear how things are going on the south side of the Potomac. I’ve got family in Alexandria and Falls Church, so usually I’m in and out of there pretty often, since I’m maybe 35-40 minutes from the Wilson Bridge on the MD side. But I haven’t even been near the Beltway, let alone Virginia, since things started shutting down.
Bill Arnold
@Regine Touchon:
Keep pushing on mask discipline if possible. Try to get a mask order in place in your jurisdiction, or failing that, in stores that you need to use. Making it mandatory is the only way to get a high enough level of face coverings wearing.
E.g. California! face coverings order, yes! The actual order[1] is fairly complicated, with a bunch of factors meriting exemption that will be gamed by the California right, but overall, if my NY experience is any indication, mask discipline will improve a lot.
[1] GUIDANCE FOR THE USE OF FACE COVERINGS (PDF, June 18, 2020)
Barbara
@sdhays: There are a lot of people who feel invulnerable and adapt their practices to what they think will keep them safe. They don’t really care what happens to anyone else. Bars and restaurants are supposed to be at no more than half capacity. We went out for the first time last weekend, but in another part of the state, and they were definitely observing that rule, as well as wearing masks. Maybe I have a knack for only going to places that seem to be maintaining compliance. In general, I feel like Clarendon has turned into a wasteland, with a few places excepted.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
I don’t blame you for getting mad, Adam
@Gravenstone:
Imagine being so lazy, you can’t even be bothered enough to properly wear a mask to protect yourself and others from a dangerous virus. I mean, all you need to do is fold over the metal wire, people! I see so many who wear their masks like this and it’s infuriating
Mallard Filmore
@JoyceH:
Maybe in future years Juneteenth will be a 2 day holiday. The first day stays as it is, the second day celebrates the Tulsa event where the Klan off themselves at Trump’s rally. The final page of our Civil War.
Adam L Silverman
@Dr. Omed: A good chunk of this is that I am not doing anything that could cause my mom to get infected. Not that I want to get COVID-19. As much as I’d kill for a variety of cuisines, most I can cook for myself, and the rest I can survive without until it is all clear.
Adam L Silverman
@catclub: Always amazes me that the people in the US who think corporations and business should be allowed to whatever they want suddenly think it is somehow unconstitutional for private companies and businesses to do whatever they want.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
A quote to remember. Still, suppose if as long as their is white privilege it should be put to some good use. These twatwaffles work on rest of the whites being to polite to shame them for their behavior.
WereBear
@Adam L Silverman: Do glasses count as eye protection? Because I’ve been doing that since the beginning, though I normally don’t use my reading glasses in a store.
dmsilev
@NotMax:
Locally, stores either require that you self-bag reusables or flat-out don’t let you use them. They do provide single-use bags though, without the normal California bag charge.
Adam L Silverman
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Everyone involved in this morning’s self-Karening event was white.
henrythefifth
@Adam L Silverman: I’m going to be in Sarasota in a couple weeks and you just described exactly what I envisioned in my mind for visiting Publix down there. Where I live in VA people are wearing masks. It’s gonna suck to go to FLA where masks, I’m assuming, are stigmatized. I kept thinking maybe I should just buy a Make America Great Again hat and wear it with my mask, so I’ll just be left alone. But I just can’t bring myself to do that. Anyone find that smaller/family run/boutique grocery stores are more mask-friendly down south? I know it’d be anecdotal, but just curious.
Mingobat (f/k/a Karen in GA)
They reopened my office this week despite the fact that we can do our jobs from home. We have to be in Tuesdays and Thursdays, and one other day of our choice. I chose Friday because I knew nobody else would, and I’d be alone in the office.
Today a guy comes in to fix the printer. No mask. I’m at the front desk and he’s standing over me like COVID never happened. I look for the box of masks my employers so kindly provided, which were on my desk yesterday, and the box is gone. I try maintaining some kind of space between myself and printer guy, but space is tight and he’s not keeping a distance.
He goes to work on the printer. I search everywhere and finally find some masks in an executive’s office. I put one on, and give one to printer guy who says very nicely, “I’m sorry, I didn’t know I was supposed to wear one in here.”
I email the executive and explain what happened, and ask if visitors are supposed to wear masks when they come in and hey, should I put a sign on the front door? He responds with a no — visitors are only supposed to wear masks if they can’t maintain social distancing.
Oh, did I mention that this executive and several of my coworkers were saying a couple of days ago that we’ll just have to get used to this, like we’re used to the flu, and hey, it’s not killing that big a percentage of the population?
I fucking hate my job.
Adam L Silverman
@WereBear: Yep. You don’t need impact resistant glasses for this. You just need something to keep droplets out of your eyes. I use either the clear or the yellow tinted glasses I was issued for my Iraq deployment. We couldn’t actually wear the yellow tinted ones in Iraq, because you can’t see copper wire with them on, which means that even though they cut the glare from bright lights at night, they make you less safe because you could miss an IED. I’ve got several pairs. These were Army issued, so they are impact resistant. But any eyeglasses will work. I leave my normal sunglasses in the car, put the ones for the store on before leaving the car, then wipe them down and take them off when I get back in the car after shopping.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Although I do have the regular kind, my preference has become repurposed yarmulkes (super easy to do; purchased a pack of 5 cheaply on Amazon a while ago) to get what is essentially a conical mask made of two layers of fabric. One that for all intents and purposes cannot be worn beneath the nose without also exposing the mouth.
Used a paper hole puncher to make one hole on each of two sides, then looped one of the elastics for tying hair into a ponytail through each hole. Voila.
Someone also waiting to check out at Costco wearing a regular mask went out of his way to compliment me (genuinely, not sarcastically) on it.
Adam L Silverman
@henrythefifth: I’ve never had anyone give me grief or look funny at me for wearing a mask. But… 1) I go out once every two to three weeks to the grocery, get my stuff, pay for it, and get gone and 2) I’m not really someone who looks like you’d want to give a hard time.
cckids
Say it again!! Working as a cashier in a grocery store (we have to wear masks, but the customers aren’t required to), I’m daily exposed to varying levels of stupidity and/or malice from the non-masked minority. The number of people who half-ass a mask through the store, then pull it down at the register to speak to me is just staggering.
My wise daughter, at the age of TEN, to a friend who was complaining that her parents wouldn’t buy her a new phone, said, quote: “You need some ACTUAL problems in your life”. I’m tempted to quote that every day to the people who complain that masks are hot & stuffy.
Adam L Silverman
@henrythefifth: Have a safe and enjoyable trip!
L85NJGT
Sab
@Adam L Silverman: When you pull the mask down below your nose aren’t you just inhaling through your nose all the stuff from the outer side of the mask, the very stuff you are wearing the mask to protect yourself from?
When I am willing to speak to a maskless person (I prefer shunning) I ask them if they know anyone who has had Covid19? Invariably they don’t. I tell them that the handful of people I know that had mild cases are still not all better two months later. This disease lingers on and on.
raven
I’ve taken to wearing one of my Vietnam Vet hats when I go to the store with my mask on just hoping some motherfucker says something to me.
Anonymous At Work
Publix is bad, Costco is worse.
BUT, I keep my keyring out and in hand so I can jingle it at the Karens hogging aisles, the dude-bros neglecting the aisle direction signs, the Beckys who park their carts in spots that prevent anyone from going around, etc. “Narcissism alert”, I call it.
Finally, yes, many Floridians have given up the idea of living.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: COVID-19 protection brought to you by Max Rabinovich’s Bar Mitzvah!
raven
@henrythefifth: Trader Joe’s does a nice job here and in LA.
https://locations.traderjoes.com/fl/
henrythefifth
@Adam L Silverman: @WereBear:
I have basic safety goggles from Amazon for small projects at home. You can get a 10 pack for like $15 there. That’s what I use.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Adam L Silverman:
Anarcho-capitalists (AnCaps) are the weirdest bunch when it comes to this. I actually saw an NPC meme on Tumblr shared by one that mocked “leftists” for parroting the “Private companies have a right to regulate their own platforms” as well as just general anti-corporate sentiment.
Memorably, this same individual also excoriated the anti-war movement active during the GWB years that dissipated after Obama was elected. Oh and also believes in the “deep state” and that Trump is the democratically elected president that is a victim of theirs
Adam L Silverman
@cckids:
Thank you for what you’re doing for your community! And I’m sorry the morons where you’re at are putting you and your coworkers at risk.
raven
@Anonymous At Work: Costco was fine here in Atlanta. Masks required.
Roger Moore
@low-tech cyclist:
I’m also enjoying going to my local farmer’s market. They don’t have everything I need, but it’s a good place to get fresh produce. Mine even has a good variety of baked goods and a place that sells meat. The best part is that it’s all outdoors, which makes it inherently lower risk.
raven
@Adam L Silverman: My glasses fog up immediately so I’ve just been hanging them from my collar. Here’s the goggles we got issued!
Adam L Silverman
@Sab: My uncle has it, though supposedly he’s recovered from it, but is back in the hospital. Not ICU or anything. But when they had to hospitalize him it through him off his schedule, for lack of a better term, at the residential care facility he’s at, something got out of whack after he was discharged back to them, and so now he’s back at the hospital.
Booger
@Bill Arnold: No, it does not.
Brachiator
I work from home here in Southern California, and still don’t have to go out very much. When I do, I see that so far, the vast majority of people wear masks. Shopping has not been a problem, with either customers or employees.
I mentioned that last week I walked to a local coffee shop for take out, and was able to dine in for the first time in weeks. More people arrived after I sat down, all wearing masks, and all wanting to dine in.
I admit I felt a little uneasy as I realized that everyone around me, even at a safe distance, took their masks off to eat. I mean, you can’t get around this part, but i still felt uneasy. Even though I saw a couple who put their masks back on as they continued to sit and talk for a while.
Later I emailed a friend about this experience and his reply included this comment:
I can totally understand her apprehension. We all have, to varying degrees, some underlying conditions which increase our risk. So, the new normal for us includes people who give enough of a fuck to do the right thing.
Maybe I should get a t-shirt that reads ‘Your mask helps keep me safe.”
cckids
And yet, people bitch unendingly about it. “My bags are CLEAN!” The majority, honestly, grouchily opt for plastic instead of bagging their own groceries. While also complaining about wasting all that plastic.
I may need an entire thread to complain about the behavior of people in grocery stores, and to enlighten anyone who is doing it wrong :). I have come to firmly believe that any sociology student should work retail grocery for at least six months. Talk about seeing who a person truly is. . .
WaterGirl
@Delk: No, you’d get HIPPA, which is how most people think its spelled.
Gravenstone
@henrythefifth:
People would just point at you and hiss, like Donald Sutherland and the end of Invasion of the Body Snatchers. MAGAts can tell when one is not of their tribe.
Adam L Silverman
@henrythefifth: Those would work perfectly!
henrythefifth
@raven: Thanks!
Adam L Silverman
@raven: I’ve got the 2008 version of those somewhere around here too.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Added bonus is that, being fully ‘stached and bearded, they sit in place better than do the regular type.
raven
@Adam L Silverman: Did they have different color shields? I think we did.
SFBayAreaGal
@Anonymous At Work: Here in San Mateo County, CA, Costco and Trader Joe’s and other grocery stores had mask required before entering. This order was in place long before Newsom issued his state order.
low-tech cyclist
@Nicole:
It’s not like you even have to wear a mask that long at a time. 30-40 minutes in the grocery store or hardware store or wherever? Once you’re back at your car, you can take it off again. It’s just not that big an inconvenience.
And like you say, it looks like if everyone would just wear their damned masks, we could open up most of the way and still be safe.
An aside re bicycles: about 15 years ago, I took a couple of weekdays off from work and rode out from DC to Leesburg, VA and back, mostly on the C&O towpath on the outbound leg. Since it was a weekday, once I was well outside the Beltway, I had the path to myself, and since the surface was packed earth rather than pavement, I actually rode for several miles without a helmet.
I probably hadn’t done that in 15 years, and I know I haven’t done it again since. But it felt practically decadent to ride without a helmet, just for that one short ride.
Adam L Silverman
@cckids: You can’t really bag your own at Publix, which is why I switched to the paper.
raven
Adam L Silverman
@cckids:
I’m your huckleberry!
Ladyraxterinok
@Adam L Silverman:
OT—-Do you have any relationship with the U of South FL? If so, did you know professor James Strange? He went to my college. I was friends with him and the girl he married.
I just recently saw he died in 2018.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: Yep. Clear and dark grey at least.
Flanders' Other Neighbor
I’m actually becoming accustomed to wearing my bandana mask while mountain biking, though I do drop it when there is nobody in sight on the climbs. I think of it as high-altitude training to try and put a positive spin on it.
germy
@low-tech cyclist:
My supermarket has reserved 6am-7am for seniors. And that’s when I’ve been going.
But I notice when I visit that early, the aisles are still full of the overnight crew, and these guys are too macho to wear masks properly (always the nose is uncovered) or wear them at all.
Yesterday, I visited a bit later and the overnight crew was gone. All employees were masked.
Last week I took an early morning walk to a mailbox to drop off some bills, and saw a purple latex glove sitting on it, next to the handle. “Jesus Christ” I muttered, while I opened the mailbox with two fingers. And then woosh! a young female jogged quickly past me, coming about two inches close to me. I could feel her breath as she jogged by. I hadn’t heard her approaching. No mask on her, and I wonder if she did it just to troll me. Usually joggers give other people lots of space. But she literally brushed right past me.
When I watch my local TV news, it’s full of stories about local businesses doing everything they can to comply and still make money. (The reporters in my local news are mostly boosters for local business when they’re not showing mug shots of Black men.)
So these “support your local restaurant/tavern/salon” stories always feature interviews with the owner, and employees can be seen in the background. And most most of the business people are wearing masks incorrectly or not at all.
I understand removing your mask for an interview, but one segment showed an owner handling two dishes of food while his mask was down around his chin. Am I supposed to want to support their businesses?
WereBear
I’m in the ADK, NY and mask wearing is near 100%. I’ve been able to steer clear of the rare exception. But then, my town went for Clinton.
I hit a pattern of stores at times they are sparsely full, and just avoid the little downtown grocery entirely. It’s got aisles where carts can barely pass each other: I can’t see social distancing working under even good intentions: and from what I hear, they have a higher proportion of people with bad ones.
Nothing I need there that badly.
different-church-lady
Y’know, maybe contact-less grocery delivery is more your thing.
Adam L Silverman
@Ladyraxterinok: I knew Jim. Not well. He and my dad knew each other very well. My dad started the criminal justice program at USF. Then turned it into the Department of Criminal Justice, then led the renaming to Department of Criminology, and wrote the proposals for them to have both masters and doctoral programs in criminology. He was the founding director of the program, then the first department chair, then the first graduate director. I grew up on that campus. One of my first memories is of my dad’s office, which at the time was in the back bedroom of an apartment somewhere on Fletcher Avenue because they hadn’t built the building the program was going into on campus yet. That was Campus Building A. I remember playing on the weekends where the social science building stands while my dad worked in his office. I remember them building almost everything built on that campus through the 90s.
I had not heard that he had died. I am very sorry for your loss.
Phylllis
Patrick Kelly, a public school teacher and member of the task force working to reopen South Carolina schools, agrees with you. Starts at about the 1:20:41 mark.
raven
@germy: Our neighborhood is really good. You can see people coming from quite a ways and everyone is good about moving out into the street to give space to pass.
different-church-lady
I’ve been thinking this for weeks now: I don’t know how to navigate a world where half the population thinks the pandemic is a hoax and the other half acts like we’re all gonna die if we so much as brush up against a random object.
bemused
@Adam L Silverman:
Your body posture when you’re angry sounds remarkably like a worked up cat that manages to puff up twice it’s size and ready to mess up any human or other critter which gets too close.
Kattails
This just cheers me right the fuck up. Go for it. I’m about to go the same route, although the physique won’t quite cut it. Up here in NH mask use is pretty good, but generally the young-to-middle aged white guys ignoring it. I was in my friend’s pet food store the other day, it had just reopened from curbside pickup only. Sign on the door stating masks required. SO of course middle-aged white guy with no mask, and the young woman in charge did not enforce it. So my debate, which I think you’ve just settled for me, is to let the manager know.
My employer wanted me back to work, even though I’d sent my doctor’s “this person could die if infected and should not be working during the pandemic” note to HR twice. The threat, now carried out, was that if I did not return I would be considered self-terminating. My response was that I have some options with unemployment, but not a lot of choices if I’m dead. This was a retail sales job, I would be wearing a mask and have one of those plexiglass shields, but they “couldn’t require customers to wear masks” although they would be “encouraged” and would be supplied at the door. But they can require shoes, shirts, and pants. Eight hours’ exposure in a small store with pretty lousy air filtration; I’d complained to the manager months ago about how the intakes were black and you could see black crud marks on the out-vents–literally could see the exhaust pattern on the vent shield. The constant biting tickle I had in my throat for months has disappeared over the quarantine period.
Local florist as well–went in wanting something, a friend had just died, neither the owner nor the helper had masks. Got what I needed and got out. Not worth telling her that I won’t be back for a long time. Too bad, because she had a lovely selection for a small town.
Question for anyone: what do you think about going into a store like the local drug store chain; workers have their masks down until a customer shows up? I mean, it’s still aerosols. This bugs me. I get it, but a drug store? I can’t do curbside for every fucking thing. And people who tell me to just stay home if I’m a fraidy-cat– Fuck those people too, while we’re at it. I’m home 98.8% of the time FFS. Maybe two hours’ shopping, and a few minutes in each store interacting at the checkout. My tiny little 5 minute interactions with sales people is all the face to face I get for a week.
germy
When I visit the supermarket I often used self checkout. Two less pairs of hands touching my groceries.
It’s not always possible, though. When I visit extra early, the self checkouts aren’t open yet.
Adam L Silverman
@Flanders’ Other Neighbor: You can actually buy a mask that will reduce the oxygen for that high altitude effect if you want.
Gravenstone
Speaking of Florida, just saw on ESPN.com that two Florida based spring training facilities (Phillies and Jays) have players and/or personnel testing positive for covid-19. Much as I might miss it, there really does not need to be a 2020 MLB/MiLB season.
Citizen Alan
@Adam L Silverman:
Really? I had no idea what you looked like (except for John, I’ve never seen a pic of any of the front-pagers), so in my head, I’d always cast you with Adam Scott for some reason.
Adam L Silverman
@bemused: Twice my size would be 12 feet tall and 500 lbs.
raven
@germy: Kroger has an app where you can pay with your phone and not have to touch the screen.
Juju
Adam, if you have a Publix, don’t they come with Instacart? My mother is 10 years older than your mother and I’ve had pneumonia four times in the last 22 years, so we are both at risk. I have Instacart delivery for groceries every couple of weeks. It has been stress free. I understand the anger at the morons. I’ve been out twice to a closer grocery store on a toilet paper quest, came up empty both times. I had a panic attack on my first trip out because I had signed up for pick up and then they didn’t bring the groceries out to the car and I had to go into the store. What panicked me was that I left my mask on the counter at home. I was not a nice person that day. I recommend delivery. I finally did manage to get toilet paper, but had to buy it directly from manufacturer. If you can’t find toilet paper go to Quiltednorthern.com and they will ship it to you. I have a 4-6 month supply.
I will be waiting for the vaccine or the written invitation from Dr. Fauci as well
I also managed to donate to Sophie. I went to the website and used the donate button, and I filled out the tribute part telling them that the donation was for Sophie. I got a nice thank you email.
germy
She’s complaining about liberal store managers insisting on masks.
Conservatives with no sense of what private property means. A store is private property. They have a right to tell you to wear a mask.
Adam L Silverman
@Gravenstone: Phillies are in Dunedin.
Anonymous At Work
@SFBayAreaGal: They check for and require masks at the door, but don’t surveil for proper usage or continued usage in the store. And I saw a few bandannas, which is the “thoughts and prayers” version of a mask.
Adam L Silverman
@Citizen Alan: My forearms are bigger than that guy. Look up the now retired strongman competitor Nick Best. I’m built like he is, though about 60 or 70 lbs lighter. And I have a full head of hair.
SFBayAreaGal
@cckids: Yup. I worked in a doughnut shop when I was a teenager. I found about 99% of the customers were good. It was that 1% that makes you question your fella humans
NotMax
@Citizen Alan
Think a smoother sasquatch.
:)
germy
@Anonymous At Work:
Yes, in several of my local TV news segments on “support your local tavern/restaurant/salon!” segments, the owners and employees all wore bandanas. So their exhalations could blow downward into the food prep.
Adam L Silverman
@Juju: Thanks for the donation for Sophie.
I tried the contactless delivery for the groceries, and while it was good, it wasn’t great. So I’m willing to take 40 minutes of low-medium risk once every two to three weeks to actually get what we want, not the closest approximation the shopper got for us.
bemused
@Adam L Silverman:
Lol.
cckids
@Bill Arnold: For me, “here” is Bellevue, WA = eastern Seattle. About 80% of people in the store mask up, though there is a wide variety of “masks” and noses are out about 50% of the time. The people wearing a scarf as a mask, when it is so loosely woven that you can clearly see their lips through it, make me roll my eyes, but hey, at least it’s something.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I’m four months from my last haircut. I am really starting to look like this:
germy
@Adam L Silverman: Tell the maskless checkout employees who try to give you the evil eye that you can kill a man with just your thumb and forefinger. That should focus their attention.
Adam L Silverman
@bemused: 11 foot 10 inches and 526 lbs to be precise.
cckids
@Adam L Silverman:
I’ve just got to put this out there. Honestly, I know it is not popular wisdom here, but I cannot get behind the disinfecting of groceries, packages, etc. The evidence is strongly trending towards this bug being only transmitted via respiratory methods. If you could pick it up from object – hand contact easily, grocery workers would have been dropping like flies, which has not happened.
If it makes you feel better, by all means do it. But if it is stressing you out and making you feel more fearful, maybe wiping everything down is a place you can scale back.
I’m speaking as a person who lived through the absolute HELL that was March and April working in grocery stores here – believe me, you don’t have a f*cking clue how bad it was. Think of the busiest Thanksgiving week/Black Friday crowd you’ve ever seen. We had that level of crowds/sales for eight . solid. weeks. Day after day of unending lines, carts stuffed full, people angry and panicking. We NEVER were able to close anywhere near to on time, we usually were checking people out 30 minutes after the doors locked. We weren’t allowed to wear masks or gloves, because “customers won’t like it”. (not that there were masks to be found then, in quantity anyway). No social distancing. No shields. No limits on how many people were in the store.
Every damn day, someone at my register would tell me how they were sure they had it, or their parent/coworker/roommate had it, but nobody could get tested. And yet, despite all that, in our store of 150+ employees, ONE person contracted COVID, most likely from her EMT spouse, who had it as well. (she’s recovered) We all feel that we’re as likely to have PTSD as COVID at this point.
Wash your hands, FFS wear a mask. But maybe don’t freak out so terribly much. Rant over :)
Adam L Silverman
@germy: Oooh! The WuShi finger hold!
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
What are people doing outside? I wear a mask anytime I leave my property, even just to walk the dog. Here in the Maryland DC suburbs people out and about walking, jogging, etc…less than 50% are wearing masks, but that’s outside. I’m getting all my groceries via Instacart and hence haven’t been inside a store in months, so I have no idea what is going on but am guessing masks are being worn by most folks.
BruceFromOhio
Right there with you, Adam.
Adam L Silverman
@cckids: No worries from me. I’ve read it should be done, doesn’t need to be done, do it if it makes you feel better. It makes me feel better, so I do it.
At this point, if you’re in my house or proximity and you’ve not move for more than 30 seconds, you’re getting wiped down! The dogs have learned to never stop moving, they’re like sharks, the sleep while wandering a pattern through the living room.//
germy
cckids
@germy: Maybe cut them a little slack and be kind. Think of the most stressful, hardest, most worrysome day you’ve ever had a work. Then have that day every damn day for 2-3 months. Try to be cheerful though!! Smile!!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
Interesting! Still, I think it’s bullshit that medical-grade masks aren’t more widely available to the public at this point
FelonyGovt
Adam, as a woman not that much younger than your Mom, I can say: you’re a really good son. ❤️
And these maskless crusaders can go fuck themselves.
Adam L Silverman
@FelonyGovt: I have made it clear: I will get her through this safe and healthy if it kills me, drives her insane, or both!
It is most likely going to be both.
cckids
@Adam L Silverman: lol. I’m feeling particularly fatalistic today.
Also, had an ur-Karen in my line last night, demanding that I kick out a maskless gentleman who was waiting for his kid to get out of the restroom. She thought he should be “at least 20 feet away from decent people”. Lady, whatever you or I think, the store doesn’t require masks, he’s over 12 feet from you, and I can’t help but notice that you chose to loudly rag on the one person of color who’s not wearing a mask, as opposed to the pasty white ones around. Fuck you Karen.
Also, if I had the ability to kick people out of the store, he is not where I would start.
I’m so tired of people, I’ve gotta say.
Fleeting Expletive
My first experience with pick-up groceries had just one little glitch in a fairly large order. I had ordered two regular boxes of Kleenex or Puffs, and what I got was 8 of the little cube boxes, which for some reason were priced out at $5 each, so there was a charge for $43.00. I did call the store and they said they’d happily accept return and exchange for them, but I decided against it because restocking merchandise doesn’t seem to be a good idea in these times. A friend got a watermelon instead of a bunch of green grapes, but she took it as a kind of a serendipitous treat. I think I’ll prefer this setup over in-person shopping for the foreseeable future.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@cckids:
Fellow cashier here. Gotta be honest, I actually hate when customers ask for paper and use reusable bags only because they can be a pain the ass to open up and pack. The plastic bags are easier to pack because they can be pulled apart from the rack, the arms of which hold open the bags
3 months ago, before I took a leave of absence, I had a customer wear an N95 mask but was completely wearing it wrong! She left one of the straps loose and so the bottom of the mask wasn’t sealed against her face. I said something to her about it, but she blew it off.
cckids
Lucky. I dream of getting my hair cut. I look like an abandoned, greying Labradoodle.
ETA: With a mask/muzzle. :)
NotMax
@cckids
Fully with you when it comes to cleansing packaging. If it makes you feel more secure, nothing wrong with it, but obsessing about it as some have become prone to do is over the top, IMHO. Wash your hands after handling instead.
low-tech cyclist
@Roger Moore:
Alas, our local farmers’ market isn’t opening this year. It took place on Friday nights, and had become half farmers’ market, half street party, and for the past several years had typically been quite crowded.
There are probably some local roadside produce stands open, but since I tend to stay close to home except for my early Sunday grocery runs, I have no clue about where or when.
raven
We’ve had a group that comes to out neighborhood eatery on Friday night. They have picnic tables and each person or family takes one and we eat and shoot the shit. The tables are far enough apart to make it safe and it means a lot to be able to do it.
Cameron
Dr. Silverman, I’m impressed that you can do the grocery store thing every 2-3 weeks. I have to go at least weekly, although that’s probably because it’s pretty much the only face-to-face (OK, mask-to-mask) interaction I have with people nowadays. Very taken aback at what happened to you at Publix – I go to a Publix right across the street from where I live, and the people who work there wouldn’t dream of not wearing their masks properly while in the store and particularly while serving customers (they do move them when they’re taking a break outside, which I don’t begrudge them). Suppliers who aren’t employees are kind of a mixed bag – some wear, some don’t. I’m much more bothered by the change in the customers over the last few weeks – fewer are wearing masks, although now it’s about 50-50 as opposed to about 70-30 before. This is disturbing, because I live in Old Fart Land, where we’re supposed to know better, and the young workers at Publix have been setting a pretty good example.
People who take public transit here seem to be losing their shit, too. I think MCAT’s done a pretty good job, all things considered – transit is temporarily free, because they don’t want people bunched up to pay fares, the buses get wiped down at transfer stations (and I know it’s Clorox, ’cause I can smell it), drivers have a protective shield and most wear masks, etc. But 2 weeks ago when I had to go to West Bradenton, less than 10 people on the bus and almost all of them (probably 7-8) masked; today I went to West Bradenton, bus was maybe 3/4 full and only a few of us wore masks.
I really don’t get it – you don’t have to be a newshound to be aware that the number of cases here in FL is rising, and rising hard. Kind of perverse to do exactly the opposite of what the situation calls for.
billcoop4
@WereBear:
I’m near Ticonderoga, and the mask wearing on Saturday mornings at Walmart has by-and-large been excellent. The Food Coop downtown even better.
BC
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Being an old, I can sing you every word of the seat belt jingle from the 60s that was part of the campaign to encourage people to wear your seatbelts. It didn’t work. Learning that being ejected through the windshield was a leading avoidable cause of death in accidents didn’t work.
So I’m afraid “life or death” is not actually a motivator for idiots in this country.
The only thing that worked is when states started making it a law and having the police write tickets for non-compliance.
And that’s the only thing that will work in states where the dominant culture is to be a mask-free idiot spreader.
Martin
Job #5: Vote. Vote like your life depends on it, because we’re 120K down because people didn’t do that in 2016.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
I think it depends on how often it will need to be handled and how important the object is. If it’s groceries and you need to make dinner ASAP because those are the only groceries you have, then I would disinfect it. Same with takeout.
raven
@NotMax: I get my stuff and have a table outside. I used wipes and hit everything and put them in a box to carry in the house. I haven’t thought of it as obsessive, just prudent.
Humdog
So I do bookkeeping for a small company and go to the office once a week. Must have a weekly closed door meeting with boss in his small office. Masks required indoors, but boss didn’t find them comfy. So I would stand in his doorway for the meeting to keep 10 feet from him. He didn’t like the lack of privacy during money discussions so he eventually wore a mask solely when I needed to speak with him.
until this week. He had his mask on but suddenly said excuse me and lifted up his mask to deliver a huge sneeze! I hopped out of the chair to stand outside the doorway and reminded him the masks are to keep your sneezes to yourself. He said he didn’t want the inside of his mask to get all sneeze filled, but he’d put it back on, what’s the big deal?
AAAAAGH!
raven
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): We take our own plates, unwrap the food and throw the packing away. Then we sanitize and eat. Most of the other folks just eat the stuff from the bag.
raven
Someone here said they sanitized every time they went from one room to another.
FlyingToaster
@Roger Moore:
I saw that happen at [redacted] across the river in Allston (neighborhood of Boston). I was leaving the store. At the entrance, am Old Lady tried the “private” and “HIPAA” and was told that nobody could care less that she was buying Depends, but either she put on a mask, or gave the manager her list to shop for her. They’d already called the manager and he came out behind me with his cell phone to call 911. When she started screaming and cursing, he hit dial. After he hung up, he yelled back “the cops are coming, and nobody cares if you’re buying Depends!” (I could hear that one out at my car.) Clearly this is not their first rodeo.
I suspect that she got herself trespassed from [redacted], if not the whole chain. She was still there yelling when I pulled out.
Phylllis
@Humdog: Did he at least sneeze into the crook of his elbow? Guessing not.
BruceFromOhio
Also worked out a couple “tag lines” for that ever-increasingly likely scenario where someone gives me shit about masking, as Ohio is over-run with covidiots not masking at all.
Your dentist tells you to brush your teeth. Your doctor is telling you to wear a mask.
You put on underwear to keep your clothes clean, put on a mask to keep your country clean.
I’m concerned you are receiving incomplete information about masking in public.
AMERICA WOULD BE COVID19-FREE IN 60 DAYS IF EVERYONE WORE A MASK IN PUBLIC
Martin
@Adam L Silverman: Mass increases with the cube, so you’d probably be 1000 lbs.
CliosFanBoy
FWIW, here in the Annandale/7 Corners part of Fairfax County mask use is the majority, esp in stores. Yeah, males, both white and black seem to be the biggest group of resistance.
SFBayAreaGal
@Adam L Silverman: Is the picture from a Star Trek episode?
Sab
My grpcery store, a local chain, now has t-shirts: Be a good neighbor, stay over there.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
High school yearbook photo?
:)
BruceFromOhio
@Cameron:
Are you familiar with Cleek’s Law?
Cheryl Rofer
We will not have a reasonable response to COVID-19 until Joe Biden is sworn in on January 20, 2021
SFBayAreaGal
@Adam L Silverman: Is the picture from a Star Trek episode?
Adam L Silverman
@cckids: I understand completely.
I try to really be polite and civil to people doing things for me, whether at stores, restaurants, customer service reps on the phone. I was on with someone yesterday and her system kept locking up and she kept apologizing and I said, not a problem, you’re doing everything you can, and I find that screaming at people doesn’t usually motivate them to be more helpful.
I apparently lost that plot this morning.
Cameron
@BruceFromOhio: Yes, I do know Cleek’s Law, but I’m one of those people who relieves the pain of his gout attack by banging his head on the wall.
Cheryl from Maryland
I am about to start WWIII with the new tenants in the townhouse next door in Montgomery County, MD. Twentysomething members of the Army who do not mask (they know my husband is in renal failure), burn in their fire pit Green wood they scrounge from the woods (we have stopped telling them about the poison ivy), have parties at 5am (that seems to have stopped ever since I told them to shut the fuck up and played opera outside on my deck the next day) and don’t put their trash bags and dog waste in a garbage can. I’m focused on the last one now – I asked them why, being from Alaska, that they didn’t understand the need to keep their garbage away from animals. And that they didn’t want rats and mice and that they didn’t want me to have rats and mice. The guy said yes, ma’am, I not sure if that is mouthing off or a good sign.
Kelly
Our local grocery store staff is universally masked. Customers about half masked although it varies a lot from on trip to the next. The hardware store staff not at all. Owner is a RWNJ. Last year the hardware store had an ammo sale in April. The sign read something like “Use your tax refund to exercise your 2nd amendment rights!”. I’m not joking.
Adam L Silverman
@Cameron: This is the first time I’ve seen it lax like this since March.
As for Florida, it’s Floriduh! And people here seem to revel in being purposefully stupid.
Adam L Silverman
@Martin: That’s a separate post, but you are correct.
Humdog
@Phylllis: Nope, his hands were holding his mask away so the sneeze was an unimpeded tornado!
WereBear
@billcoop4: Dacks represent!
Ksmiami
@different-church-lady: ive thought about this and decided I’m hopeful a lot of ignorant people will die so ya worry warts can get back to a more normal societal existence. In other words, since half the country dgaf, the other half is over cautious.
brantl
I think there needs to be a public service announcement t-shirt that says “wear your f’ing mask correctly! with pictures of how people are wearing it incorrectly, and how to wear it correctly. Some people are just too dumb to live, and since we became tool users, we’ve just been dragging them along, you know? Now they have their own political party!
I have been working as a temp-to-hire, and wear I work at least every other person is wearing their mask below their nose, or even on their chin, while talking to me. I have a 90-year-old mother in law, and I swear if she gets sick, I am going to crotch-punch every one of these people.
Juju
@Adam L Silverman: I wish I felt comfortable enough to shop. I’ve had no major problems with substitutions by the shopper, but I don’t have the food issues you have. My food allergies are seafood and asparagus. I don’t order those, so it’s not an issue. My mother does miss seafood though.
Humdog
I actually have a little trouble following the one way signs in a grocery. I am looking up to see what is in that aisle and whether I need anything on it then get partway up the aisle before I realize I’ve gone the wrong way.
once, I forgot one item in an aisle I just went down and instead of walking up the next aisle and back down, I walked backwards until I was where I needed to be. I felt sheepish when a stocker noticed and smirked.
Mary G
@raven:Soonergrunt was beating himself up for yelling at a MAGAt who was harassing him for wearing a mask in a WalMart in Utah where he lives. I didn’t comment, but I wanted to tell him that if I was another customer, I would’ve appreciated it. I know some women would be scared to clap back, not me, but I don’t shop. I use Instacart, who have gone to properly masked and gloved drivers.
cckids
@Adam L Silverman: Believe me, I understand. My personal Karen moment came on the Saturday night before Mother’s Day. I was running self-check out, with six machines. Had easily 30 people in line.
I checked a guy’s ID for booze, turned around, and in my little space, there were 3-4 people at every damn machine. Maybe a few masked, most not. Retail demographics will tell you that the night before a holiday, there will be many, many young men out last-second shopping. That’s who was there.
I confess, it freaked me out. I put on my mom voice, and yelled “There are way too many people in this space. One person per machine, the rest of you get OUT!” I could instantly tell the people who’d heard that tone from their mom; they looked sheepish & slunk out. A few gave me that almost-eye-roll, and stayed put, so I used my hand-held control to lock their machines until they complied. I’m an easy-going person, but damn, kids. Stop being assholes.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Adam L Silverman: Yes, I am afraid that it looks very bad for Florida right now. The fact that it’s far from alone can maybe be some consolation?
Medicine Man
Now I’m hunting for video of this incident.
I get where you’re coming from though, Adam. My mother was just released from the hospital last week. Operated on for the biggest hiatal hernia the doctor had ever seen. She’s 75 years old. I haven’t seen her in person since December. For a few moments, I was worried that was going to be the last time; I still have the same worry on occasion.
I can only imagine what that feels like in Florida right now. 100x worse, I reckon.
oldgold
How about the government running some PSAs showing us how to put on a mask and how to take it off.
That is, if we had a functioning government.
rikyrah
This is some muthaphuckin’ BULLSHYT!!!!
Pentagon ENDS the career of USS Theodore Roosevelt captain Brett Crozier after upholding decision to fire him over leaked letter and BLAMES HIM for coronavirus outbreak aboard the ship
By ASSOCIATED PRESS and DAILYMAIL.COM REPORTER
PUBLISHED: 14:26 EDT, 19 June 2020 | UPDATED: 15:39 EDT, 19 June 2020
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8441145/Navy-upholds-firing-carrier-captain-virus-outbreak.html?ito=push-notification&ci=19460&si=733427
randy khan
@David Anderson:
Even then, it’s okay to ask what the disability is so that you properly can accommodate it.
@dmsilev:
Of course it did. And, yes, the business has a choice about what its reasonable accommodation will be, so it can, for instance, get you what you’re looking to buy and bring it to you.
cckids
@Humdog: Oh Jesus. I had a guy do that at self-check out; a full-toddler-level sneeze. Just disgusting. He didn’t even have the grace to say “I panicked” or anything, just carried on. The second he was done, I shut it down, sprayed sanitizer all over it, again and again, until it had been wet with sanitizer for 15 minutes. Wiped it down, then repeated. Then, after an hour, re-opened it.
What the actual hell, people??
Benw
Did you get a FUCKING key lime pie!?
I love Publix key lime pies
Phylllis
@Benw: Are these found in the bakery section? Asking for a…friend.
Mike in NC
On the local TV news last night they showed some dipshit woman trying to organize mask burning gatherings to protest government tyranny. No doubt the asshole also approved of burning crosses.
We went to Total Wine and Costco today and 95% of the customers and employees had masks.
rikyrah
I appreciate you, Silverman. Your mother appreciates you too.
To work.
And home.
That’s all the energy that I have left in this world. I don’t have any energy for anything extra. I try not to go into stores. I just don’t.
I am not interested in playing Russian roulette with my life. I’m sorry if others don’t see the danger in this pandemic, but I’m trying to protect me and mine. Do what I can to stay alive.
I don’t grocery shop anymore. It’s hard not to pick your own produce, but, I am buying a weekly box from a produce place. They give a nice mixture of fruits and vegetables. And, I’m eating a lot more froze vegetables.
Cameron
@Adam L Silverman: I know I find this totes reassuring: https://www.bradenton.com/news/coronavirus/article243655502.html
Kay
Ugh. That’s high.
I went to renew my driver’s license this morning. They’re doing social distancing so only 5 at a time let in, really long line outdoors and it was hot, but it was not grumpy. People were pretty stoic and cheerful about the whole thing.
I haven’t seen the anger at the Covid procedures here and it’s a VERY Trumpy area. I sometimes think the really loud covid deniers are over-represented in what we read and see.
The biggest issue I hear is parents wanting schools open in the fall. That’s what they’re most worried about- that schools won’t open. Online learning was (generally!) a disaster. No one likes it- not parents, not kids, not teachers.
Adam L Silverman
@Martin: I have had quite the day, lets not make things worse by making me do math!//
opiejeanne
@Adam L Silverman: Good God, Adam, I need a cigarette now and I don’t even smoke!
That was cathartic.
Mike in NC
@Benw: We loved Publix when visiting friends in Florida and now have one three miles away. Love their Key Lime pies and NY Cheesecake. Actually, they have the best bakeries of any supermarket chain.
Adam L Silverman
@SFBayAreaGal: Nope, that is the same actor that played lurch on the Adams Family, playing Bigfoot/replacing Andre the Giant as Bigfoot, in the two part Six Million Dollar Man episode Bigfoot Returns.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Recent selfie.
Kay
Ohio workers comp sent nice white cotton masks to Ohio employers. They sent me 50 and I only need 5 so I put the rest out on the counter for people to take. They’re taking them. They’re comfy- like t shirt material.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl from Maryland: Email me their unit. I’ll figure out who their Command Sergeant Major is and get a message to him or her.
Oklahomo
@SFBayAreaGal:
I think it’s from the “space aliens created a Bigfoot android” (2 episodes) from the 6,000,000 dollar man.
ETA I see Adam answered and it was that show.
Kelly
My Karen moment will be on our river beach this summer. We have a lovely river beach our neighborhood shares. All land access is private but anyone can float in on the river. Most people are polite and easy to get along with. I enforce two rules.
raven
They are breaking in to the golf to say Nick Watney, pga golfer, tested positive.
gvg
I have figured out how to do contactless shopping for everything i need. Publix does curbside here, but you have to figure out the secret. Only 1 store does curbside! if you figure out which one it is, curbside is listed as an option, if you try any other store it’s not and they are deliberately vague about where you can do it. I don’t care for insta cart but that works for mom.
Target does curbside at most stores but you have to install their ap. Walgreens will do a few groceries thru the pharmacy pick up window where they put the food in the drawer. 1 gallon of milk will fit. CVS won’t do sudafed or groceries so they lost my business. Ace hardware and even home depot do curbside. Ace is actually easier. JoAnns does curbside (early on mask making supplies) Lots of mailorder. I even bought shorts from belks curbside.
Work has called us back(why? it’s stupid) and I stay in my office. I may get some exercise equipment because I can’t do walks now but it’s the coworkers I have liked for 20 years that are annoying me with no masks even though there is a strict policy. I don’t want to start feuds but that is a problem. I have also encountered lax mask use at a medical lab and doctors office which is really alarming because I haven’t been feeling well and want to find out why.
Strangers in a store aren’t a problem for me because I just don’t go in.
Adam L Silverman
@polyorchnid octopunch:
Adam L Silverman
@oldgold:
That’s just crazy talk!
JMG
In the small Cape Cod town I’m in now, masks are mandatory in every place of business (state order that) and in the (all of four blocks by two blocks) downtown area outdoors as well from 9 to 6. Compliance is universal. Outdoor dining in restaurants has been allowed in Mass. for several weeks (indoors allowed starting Monday), but relatively few restaurants have offered it because of a lack of takers. Even at my golf course, folks wear their masks by the clubhouse and putting green, then most take them off once they start play and it’s easy to stay yards apart.
The only minor discomfort a mask caused me was Wednesday when I had an echocardiogram. For that you have to lay on your side, and doing that in a mask felt very weird. But so what? It was 15 minutes.
Adam L Silverman
@rikyrah: Who decided on what will eventually leak as the decision makers keep trying to CYA by throwing each other under the bus. This will actually get worse before it gets better.
frosty
@different-church-lady: I think that’s 27% on one end, 27% on the other, then a middle 56% that follows guidelines and takes precautions but isn’t freaked out about it.
PS I love your comments BUT YOU’RE NOT AS LOUD AS YOU USED TO BE!!!11!!
Ruckus
@Nicole:
I would imagine that life in a casket or crematorium isn’t all that much fun and I really don’t want to experiment to see.
Mary G
The occupant of the Oval Office is having a hard week:
different-church-lady
@frosty: I’m tired. I’m just so tired…
JPL
@Kay: Went to get my car inspected and have an oil change.. no masks. I should have left, but the person knows me and had me in and out quickly. I did wait outside.
Benw
@Phylllis: tell your friend that all the fucking pies are in the bakery :)
WereBear
Words we all have to live by.
Adam L Silverman
@Benw: I make better key lime pie than Publix.
Frankly, since they changed the ovens out at Publix about five or six years back, the pies aren’t as good. And I got that info from the bakery manager. She says that she and every other bakery manager she knows complained to corporate that the new ovens was causing either the pies to burn or to be underbaked, but were ignored. She indicated it is the reason they stopped doing the custard cream pies, because they couldn’t get them to come out without being burned using the new ovens.
Cheryl Rofer
I am surprised nobody has offered this up yet
SiubhanDuinne
@rikyrah:
This is absolutely wrong and infuckingfuriating.
Adam L Silverman
@Cameron: I wouldn’t believe DeSantis if he told me water was wet.
different-church-lady
@rikyrah: IF YOU CAN’T KILL A VIRUS WITH AN AIRCRAFT CARRIER WHAT GOOD ARE YOU??2?
cckids
@Cheryl Rofer: Perfect. Saved to my phone, though I probably can’t/shouldn’t show it to customers.
different-church-lady
@Cheryl Rofer: FOR THE LOVE OF GOD DON’T GIVE THEM ANY IDEAS!!1!
Adam L Silverman
@Oklahomo:
The classics!!!!
Ruckus
@low-tech cyclist:
Another point would be that paying using apple or android pay means not having to touch the same point of contact as everyone else.
JPL
@JMG: Well just lah di dah to you.
JPL
@cckids: yup best not.
guhm61
Here we go : 5 Phillies players and 3 staff at their Clearwater facility tested positive for covid according to MLB.com
Phylllis
@Benw: My husband hustles us by that department so fast, you’d think he had been frightened by a cupcake as a small child.
germy
Oklahoma Supreme Court rejects bid to stop Trump’s Tulsa rally over health concerns
Aleta
The stress in interactions is getting to me too. I was thinking yesterday I want to try to handle it better; because (I realized walking home from an encounter) in the heat of my moment the children nearby are of course not following along with my perspective. Only absorbing that another thing has gone tense in their environment, and that adults with power are suddenly unpredictable again. They don’t know which way it will go, only that a normal moment in their afternoon (in this case a peaceful time at our swimming hole) is suddenly tense.
different-church-lady
@Ruckus: I swear to god, this whole thing was cooked up by Amazon, Apple, Zoom, Netflix, GrubHub, and the plastic bag industry.
low-tech cyclist
Yeah, I’m pretty much with you here. I’ve got a ritual to minimize the possibility of contact transmission when I go to the store, which I’m gonna stick to because (a) it’s habit by now, and (b) it’s way simpler than Adam’s.
But my main thing is, if I see maskless faces, I’m turning around and heading for the door. I don’t want to breathe in whatever they’ve been breathing out.
So far, the few stores I frequent have been pretty good, at least at 6am.
Benw
@Mike in NC: visiting family in FL we’d stop at the Publix on the way from the airport to make sure we arrived with a couple pies already in hand
SiubhanDuinne
@frosty:
The Lord He knoweth I’m no mathematician, but you might want to doublecheck your addition here.
Immanentize
@Mike in NC: Some who work forces are those that burn crosses.
Obvious Russian Troll
I have two grocery stores within walking distance. One of them is taking this pretty seriously, the other one is half-assed. I go to the serious one. (Which is also the one that is not a chain.)
Good on you, Adam.
Also, my parents are long gone, my wife and I are probably moderate risks and my mother-in-law is in a nursing home a 9-hour drive away, but I am damned if I am going to be the one that gives my mother-in-law this. Or any of my elderly neighbors.
Adam L Silverman
@germy: Frankly, I’m amazed the insurance company that provides the liability coverage for the BOK Center and for the private company that manages it hasn’t pulled the plug.
Spanish Moss
So sorry to hear of so many unsafe grocery shopping experiences. Here in my corner of MA (near Concord) I haven’t seen a single unmasked person in a grocery store in 2+ months. It is a requirement by the state and people are quite good about complying and generally being respectful of other people’s space. I occasionally see someone going the wrong way down an aisle but it appears to be because they are oblivious rather than rebellious. Reusable bags can’t be used, there are plexi-glass partitions between you and the cashier, and some stores keep a counter to limit the number of people inside. All in all I feel like it is as safe as it can be made. Grateful to be living where I do right now.
Ruckus
@JoyceH:
You are asking a question that is based way too far in shitforbrains future to have any even half assed shitforbrains thought process wasted on it. IOW, more than 20 seconds.
Chief Oshkosh
Well, he’s just an excitable boy…
NotMax
Should have remembered this earlier, as it fits right in.
MomSense
I’ve been very stressed about the lack of mask wearing at work. I don’t like the odds given we are 8 hours together inside 5 days a week.
I’m wearing my mask at home now and trying to isolate as much as I can so I don’t give this to my 82 year old mom.
Mary G
Adam said it would be like this:
DC Jackals stay safe!
low-tech cyclist
@Adam L Silverman: I tried delivery once from the local Giant, using their Peapod service. It didn’t go so well either.
I ordered 40 items. 2 were out of stock. They delivered 17 of the remaining 38 items.
There was no obvious place on the website to report a problem, just a phone number. Had to wait for an hour to talk to a person and list the items I didn’t get. It takes me less time than that to drive to the Giant, get my stuff, and drive home again.
Benw
@Adam L Silverman: SAD
Wyatt Salamanca
Adam,
I love this post, It’s pitch FUCKING perfect! You handled this situation in the best possible way and I wish you success in achieving your goal. Continued good health to you, your family, and your friends
Mary G
??♀️
Cameron
@Adam L Silverman: Maybe I remember this incorrectly, since I’ve only lived in FL a few years, but didn’t DeSantis run some really vile campaign ad about taking his children to go hunting for illegal immigrants? Maybe I have him confused with Sheriff Joe out west.
Uncle Cosmo
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Wear a mask, stay outdoors, keep social distance – TBH I think any 2 of those 3 will keep the risk of contagion acceptably low. Particularly outside, when the air that might be carrying virus-laden droplets can disperse into the sky.
And that is PRECISELY why the “one-way aisles” in supermarkets etc. is TOTAL BULLSHIT! NO ONE IN A GROCERY STORE LOOKS DOWN AT THEIR FEET – they’re busy scanning the aisles for whatever they’re there to buy. If the stores REALLY wanted to have people obeying the one-way signs,, they’d put them at the end of each aisle at eye level. This signs-on-the-floor crap is nothing more than easy but worthless virtue signaling.
(And yes, I have REPEATEDLY told the management this in every store where I shop.)
Wyatt Salamanca
@Cheryl Rofer:
Great picture that drives home the point perfectly!
Adam L Silverman
@Obvious Russian Troll: I could’ve handled it better.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
I learned to keep my temper by working in professional sports. One had to project a professional manner at all times because you were always in the public eye. It has stood me well and also taught me how to get across that my mood was not cordial without raising my voice or swearing, which are my normal modes. It actually gets better results.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: I’m going to officially change my name to Cassandra.
raven
@Cameron: Kemp
Baud
@Cheryl Rofer:
I’m not confident we’ll even have an unreasonable response before then.
wvng
@Adam L Silverman: could you ever have imagined, just a few months ago, saying “going to the grocery store really stresses me out?” Quite an interesting new world we live in.
I’m ok in the Food Lion, where all the staff is properly masked and there aren’t that many customers. But went into the regional chain grocery last week and NO ONE was masked. I couldn’t get out of there quickly enough.
Cameron
@raven: Oh. Thank you. Dunno why I thought it was DeSantis. Vile regardless.
raven
@low-tech cyclist: Our instantcart with Aldi has been great. You schedule it and the shopper connects with the app and lets you know what’s up and if you want a substitute for anything they don’t have. I overtip the shit out of them and they have been great. I do have to say they have all had really nice cars, maybe they are trying to make payments!
low-tech cyclist
@Ruckus:
Hey, I only graduated from a flip phone less than a year ago, and I’m still getting the hang of a smart phone.
Anyway, I decided back in March that I’m leaving the phone in the car when I shop – just one less thing to decontaminate. I’d rather take my credit card into the store, which I generally won’t need to use again for several days. And I wear plastic gloves into the store, so I’m not actually touching anything.
raven
@Cameron: He’s a fucking punk.
zeecube
@Citizen Alan:
I have been involved in those types of telephone conferences before. Even when it’s less than 10 people and everyone states their name before speaking gets difficult to keep track. Have you guys gone to Zoom yet. It seems to work well most of the time in multi-party hearings.
Adam L Silverman
@Wyatt Salamanca: I could have handled it better. I should have just move to another checkout lane when I saw the way the masks were being worn and then quietly had a word with a manager on the way out. Instead I allowed myself to escalate it unnecessarily.
Soprano2
So far pretty low incidence of COVID here, but that’s not guaranteed to last. In the places where they have marked aisle directions, no one follows them as far as I can tell. Mask wearing is voluntary, so I see lots of people not wearing them. People here seem to believe they can’t catch it. I think unless we have a big outbreak, that will continue.
Kenny-Sometime-Floridian
I went to get an alignment for my car with new tires (Costco conveniently recommends that you do this, but alas tells you to get it done elsewhere), and not a single customer or employee of the Tires Plus store in Fort Myers, FL was wearing a mask. They could give a shit. In retrospect, I should have said something. And next time, Adam, you have emboldened me, I will! I do come from assholes. My eastern European grandfather was fond of walking up to people who were smokers and letting them know that smoking was going to kill them and they shouldn’t smoke.
Cameron
@raven: Which one? No – don’t tell me, both!
raven
@Cameron: Kemp, he’s local to me.
Adam L Silverman
@Mary G: Nunes strikes again! He was Nunes’ staff counsel when Nunes was running the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. That he didn’t get this training to do that job tells you a lot about who they’re hiring.
Skepticat
Here in Abaco, the Bahamas, where there was and is no disease, every store has a “No Mask, No Entry” sign and almost everyone is masked and often gloved. They require anyone entering the country, even citizens, to have proof of a negative COVID-19 test within a few days of arrival. We’re starting to have people come in from Florida, and everyone is avoiding them like, you’ll pardon the expression, the plague.
Adam L Silverman
@Cameron: Nope, he was teaching his 1 year old how to build a wall using those big foam blocks.
mali muso
@raven: I concur with this. I’ve been ordering from Aldi via Instacart since the beginning of “the troubles” and it’s been very smooth. The shopper chooses only the swaps that I’ve pre-approved and occasionally they’ve even texted me to check to make sure I’m ok with it. I always try to tip generously. Seems the least I can do.
evodevo
@Anonymous At Work: Small watercraft air horns are nice for that lol
Adam L Silverman
@wvng: I could not.
raven
@mali muso: Yea, that’s my take too. I really load up on stuff I especially like from there so I’m only doing it about once a month.
Bill Arnold
@Obvious Russian Troll:
We should all be informing the (corporate) management of stores that we choose not to shop at because they fail to enforce masking discipline that they are losing customers who will hold a grudge.[1] They are surely hearing from the loud RWNJ anti-masker contingent.
[1] and losing some customers, literally, to COVID-19.
Cameron
@raven: Yeah, sorry, I kinda figured. And I do think in some ways he’s worse than DeSantis. For one thing, he was able to single-handedly throw the election to himself. No small feat, but I give him no credit. I don’t know how to fight this; as Dr. Silverman observes, Floriduh Man does not respond to anything rational. Don’t know what Georgia Man does, but I haven’t read many of your posts that were very encouraging.
Adam Geffen
@Adam L Silverman: you are always welcome here here in Michigan our brilliant governor is doing a great job notwithstanding the small number of cosplay warriors we have humping their rifles on the capital steps from time to time.
Seriously, I’m so grateful we here in Michigan elected sane Democratic women to positions of Governor, State attorney general and Secretary of State. ?
catclub
@Adam L Silverman:
weight is more like the cube of some dimension, so more like 1000-1500lbs
Kent
This thread still alive?
Today was the FIRST day of this pandemic that I have actually found masks for sale in a local store. Costco now has 50-pack boxes of standard surgical masks for $20. Only 2 boxes per customer. Shocking to me that it took until June 19 to find them available in bulk for sale at non-abusive prices.
Cameron
@Adam L Silverman: I guess that makes it all better. I guess……
mali muso
@raven: Dunno about where you are, but ours also includes wine and beer in the inventory that you can select. Talk about full service. :)
raven
@Cameron: The maddening thing is the young people, kids of very progressive parents, who know him and his family and say, :”he’s really not like that”!
raven
@mali muso: No booze for me but they have it.
Adam L Silverman
@Adam Geffen: If you know anyone who needs a low intensity warfare specialist who has spent a lot of time thinking about what 21st century war and warfare looks like, I would be happy to consider all respectable offers.
glc
@Adam L Silverman:
Arghhh.
I wouldn’t know, but I’ve no reason to doubt it.
SiubhanDuinne
@Cameron:
It could have been DeSantis, but I know for sure that GA Nathan Deal did when he was
a candidatestealing the election in 2018.Bill Arnold
@Adam L Silverman:
I don’t know anything about the venue, but if the ventilation is good, the number of people infected by infected attendees might be fairly low, even if most (or nearly all) people are unmasked as a visible marker of their political loyalty and personal
stupiditybravery.That is, don’t count on a mass infection event here. Might not happen, depending on various factors, including how many attendees are infected and quality of ventilation vs respiratory virus spread.
different-church-lady
@Baud: You have won all the threads for the day.
Adam L Silverman
@Cameron: It was even worse. DeSantis’s law degree is from an Ivy League law school and he was a JAG in the Navy. This would generally lead one to think he’s moderately intelligent and competent. But the reality appears to be that lack far too many people we’ve seen over the past four years, the worst and the dimmest have managed to thrive at Ive League law schools in specific and the Ivy League in general. He is none too bright and very incompetent.
low-tech cyclist
@raven: Unfortunately, I’ve never been in an Aldi. There really isn’t one at all close to where I live. And by “at all close” I mean within 45 minutes in light-to-medium traffic. From what I’ve heard about them, I’d like to check one out; people I know well online have nothing but good things to say about them.
But I think it would be quite a hike for an Instacart driver to haul stuff all the way out to Calvert County; I’d feel obligated to tip more than it would be worth to me to not just go to the grocery myself.
Besides, I’m an early a.m. insomniac; I rarely sleep past 5 a.m., so it’s no problem for me to be at the Giant when it opens at 6. I’m really pretty comfortable with my current coronavirus-era routine.
Adam L Silverman
@raven: A Face In the Crowd, Georgia community theater edition.
different-church-lady
@Bill Arnold: Will it matter? The virus peak is working its way into the red states. It’s gonna go up in Tulsa, and people will blame the rally whether it makes scientific sense or not.
And I say it’s kind of nice to see something like that breaking our way for a change.
Death Panel Truck
This is why we have groceries delivered or we pick them up curbside. With my underlying health problems I’m not stepping inside a store until it is safe to do so. The way things look that might be a few years from now
The Moar You Know
Bike helmets.
I used to race mountain bikes and do a bit of stunt riding. The value of a helmet in those situations was pretty self-evident to me.
Went to take a ride to the store with the guy who got me racing. He put on his helmet. I said “what the fuck dude, we’re just going to the store?” He just said “put it on and after we’re done we’re going to visit Clyde*”
*not his real name
Had no idea who Clyde was. We got our stuff at the store and then went and visited Clyde.
Clyde was in one of those giant wheelchairs you use for quadriplegics. Clyde could move his limbs just fine, but couldn’t walk. Clyde couldn’t really do much of anything, to be honest. So we visited with Clyde, long enough for me to realize just how fucked up Clyde was, and went home.
Ed told me the story on the way home: Clyde had gone out for a run to the local 7-11 on his bike. He hit a pothole and went over the bars with no helmet. Massive brain damage.
Wear the goddamn masks, people, because it’s not the extraordinary things that can fuck you, but the everyday.
Now for the very entertaining postscript:
I found out just how effective helmets were a few years later when doing stair races – go into an office building, go to the top floor, and ride down the stairs to the bottom (I had a ball in the 90s, let me tell you). Best time wins. Well, I hooked my handlebar on the railing and took an unplanned ride over the side – about seven feet down onto the next flight. Got up, took off my helmet, it was crushed on the left side to about an eighth of an inch thick. I was rung pretty good. But I wasn’t dead, and I have zero doubts that I’d have been either dead or Clyde II if I hadn’t been wearing it. So wear your bike helmets too.
Cameron
@raven: What do they think he’s like? Actions always speak louder than words, and I think people should understand that by the time they’re in junior high. Sorry – I am not trying to go off on you, I’m just baffled how all of us (not just young people and not just necessarily Americans) continue to get bamboozled by this. End of rant.
zhena gogolia
Sorry about that, Adam. That sounds stressful.
raven
@Cameron: They are friends with his kids and they think he’s just a typical Athens boy. They are probably right!
Bill Arnold
@wvng:
A letter to the CEO might be appropriate.
My father used to get action by hand-writing a letter to the CEO. Old school complaint style, with an envelope and stamp. I still need to write a letter to the mayor of Florida, NY, am slacker.
Cameron
@raven: How cynical…how utterly correct!
Gin & Tonic
@The Moar You Know: I ride a lot. Won’t go down the block without the helmet. Same for skiing – not really sure how my accident a few years ago would have turned out without it, but I had enough problems that I was happy I didn’t have to think about TBI.
raven
@The Moar You Know: I’m thinking about getting a bike since I won’t go to the Y to swim. People are telling me to get a hybrid and I really don’t know much about them. Apparently there is a big shortage so I don’t know how much choice I’m going to have.
zeecube
@Adam L Silverman: When you set up a Zoom conference, you can control who speaks and when.
Bex
@Adam L Silverman: I do meditation and had learned a bit about breathing and breathing exercises before the pandemic hit. Here’s a book that talks about how correct breathing can help with one’s physical and emotional health, especially with stress. Heard the author interviewed on Fresh Air with Terry Gross. Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor.
catclub
Well. I suspect some people will blame the rally, and some people will blame the anti-Trump protestors.
catclub
I really, really, hope they announce a vaccine about 10 days after Trump is slaughtered on election day.
Aleta
My partner has high=risk conditions as well as age so we’re not going into stores yet. We use 3 places that bring our order out and into the back of the car. It’s not stressful; pick-up has been fast and efficient; and it also seems good in that it reduces crowding, doesn’t expose workers to people coming in, supports employment and doesn’t exploit contract shoppers. We can also pick up other people’s orders for those w/o cars.
Learned to always specify “no substitutions or replacements.” We use the places whose system is the least hassle for us with no service fees.
jnfr
I love this story, and I love YOU, Karen Silverman.
I’ve been getting groceries via pickup at King Soopers (local Krogers). It’s very low-stress, and occasionally you get odd substitutions, which is entertaining. The people (always masked) who bring the order to my car are the only people other than Mr Jnfr that I interact with in person these days, and I enjoy those five minutes a lot (I mask too!). Today we shared minutes of conversation about what to grow in summer gardens. It was nice.
If only all Karens could be like you!
Uncle Cosmo
Far more likely that Hair Furor calls a press conference 5 days before the election to announce a vaccine. And naturally the suborned MSM, led by the FTFNYT/Herrenvölkischer Beobachter, will splash it in banner headlines across all their front pages in a patent attempt to drag his flabby arse to victory. Of course it will turn out to be ineffective, expensive and/or with nasty side effects, but that won’t come out until a couple days after the vote.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you for your kind offer. I don’t have any details other than Alaska, medical, Walter Reed. And I’m not certain I could find out without asking them. I’m going to continue the stern shaming route. I like to think that I have the voice of command (it works with children and dogs).
The Moar You Know
@raven: “Hybrid” is a poor term. I’ll tell you real quick all you need to know:
it’s gotta fit you properly, and you’ve got to be in a comfortable stance. “Hybrids” tend to have you sitting up instead of being hunched over, which most people find comfortable.
Fit: #1 priority. You need to be able to stand over the bike and have at least two inches of room between the top bar and your junk. 2″-4″ is good. More and it’s too small. The reasons for this should be self-evident but I’m always amazed at how many people ride bikes that absolutely don’t fit them.
Seat height: when up on the seat and pedaling, you want your leg to extend almost all the way but not quite. Just a little bend in the leg. You don’t want to hyper-extend.
Buy a major name (Giant, Trek, Specialized, Electra) from a bike store. Avoid the Walmart/Target/Costco bikes like they’re made of COVID. They are not put together properly and most of the parts on them can’t be serviced…plus most bike shops will refuse to work on them.
Get a helmet as well and make the store fit it to you. If they won’t or don’t know how, find another store.
In addition to the racing and dumbshittery, I’ve managed two bike shops back in my pre-IT days. So I’ve got answers to everything except how to undo the back injury that ended up getting me off the bike save for once or twice a year.
raven
@The Moar You Know: Great, I’m 6ft, 200 lbs and 70 years old. Can I do ok for $500 or so?
Adam L Silverman
@jnfr: I used to live in Denver and my dad’s entire family is from there, so I am well acquainted with King Soopers.
Adam L Silverman
@Cheryl from Maryland: See if you can get a picture of the patch on their left uniform sleeve.
The Moar You Know
@raven: You’ll take somewhere between a 19″ to 21″ frame depending on the length of your legs. I’m 6′ 2″ but with short legs, I have both a 19 and 21 that fit me fine. You won’t be doing any of the shit I did that put me off the bike.
I miss riding a lot. I gained 60 pounds when I had to stop, 20 years ago and it’s never come off. It’s the only exercise I ever liked.
You can absolutely do just fine in that price range. Probably get the helmet too.
raven
@The Moar You Know: I rode back and forth to school when I was doing grad work but let it go when I started swimming. I’ve always been a little spooked but I rode motorcycles (without a helmet) for years.
Michael
@NotMax: Plastic bags are now not allowed at least in NYC, but there was a grace period to use up stock. Same thing with no dividers, one person at a time at the register. At Trader Joe’s in Chelsea or Aldi in Brooklyn you have to wait in line to get in. At TJ they already used a double line to the registers system and the registers don’t have any room for bagging your own groceries so you have to go outside where they have tables set up to do it. I don’t see this working too well in the rain. I guess in that case everyone just goes with the paper bags.
The odd thing about limiting the number of customers in the store at one time is that TJ has two or three times as many customers per square foot as Aldi (except way less than they used to), which is kind of empty. The two local chain supermarkets near me don’t do it at all. So there don’t seem to be actual city or state rules about that, or they aren’t enforced.
Michael
@The Moar You Know: How about lap swimming? Unfortunately city pools/rec centers in NYC closed completely and I have no idea when they will open. Beaches are open, but the water is too cold for the next month. So, me fat too.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
Well what about the person of many more years who isn’t comfortable speaking out and who is compromised by their age and general health? Who speaks up for them if it isn’t the guy who few want to cross? Could you have done it more tactfully? Sure but there was no mistaking the point, was there?
dimmsdale
@BruceFromOhio: I’m also partial to: “Hope you enjoy your VERY short life on the ventilator!”
BruceFromOhio
@Cameron: Wow, noted, have to try that next time.
frosty
@raven: @The Moar You Know: Definition of a hybrid: not a road bike so it doesn’t have drop handlebars and skinny tires. Not a mountain bike so it doesn’t have big knobby tires and crazy suspension. I bought a Schwinn Criss Cross at a pawn shop in 1994 for $140. Still using it.
Also called cross bikes. You’re using it for exercise so ultra light weight isn’t an issue.
http://fairweatherkennys.blogspot.com/2008/08/tale-of-bike-schwinn-crisscross.html?m=1
debbie
And this is why I use self-checkout.
Michael
@RPorrofatto: I live in a half Chinese neighborhood in Brooklyn and they’ve been wearing masks a lot for years, either because they had a cold or think other people do. Same thing in Japan. So here or in Hong Kong everyone probably already had a mask stockpile and were used to the idea.
Michael
@The Moar You Know: If you have a giant Irish melon head look for Giro helmets in giant Irish melon head size.
Ruckus
@raven:
Mass produced bikes are built in China or higher priced in Taiwan. A current shortage right now is to be expected.
Michael
In case you didn’t catch the Costo masked manager video:
@raven: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8fkVqEZGRA
James E Powell
Out here in Riverside County CA most people appear to have given up on those two. Last Sunday I went for a long drive just to get out of the house. I didn’t stop anywhere, just drove around for two hours with the music up loud. Every place I drove by was crowded. In Idyllwild there was an arts & crafts fair. Maybe one out of five wearing masks and most not wearing them properly.
TerryC
@Roger Moore:
My son has had one ADA-complaining customer about masks at his disc golf pro shop. He accommodated by personal shopping for them and all was well.
NotMax
@Uncle Cosmo
Thumbs up to the stores here, not a one of which I’ve been to has introduced the safety theater of one way aisles.
@raven
Keeping in mind your leg problems, you might want to take a look at (admittedly pricier) e-bikes.
Aleta
@Adam L Silverman: Yeah, to make it work w/o just adding a different kind of stress to the mix, we scoped 5-6 places out (over time) and did a small trial run on 3 to see how smooth they were and what didn’t work for us. Each place is different, even for chains. Employees who are overworked and individual managers make a big difference. Avoided one because too complicated; avoided two because of policies we read on their site; avoided one because they were hiring a lot of people so might be understaffed or buggy for a while.
One store we use is a small local natural foods/international food place that doesn’t advertise it —I just called and asked. We order over the phone and try to make it easy and specific for them, and not too big. They call back w/ the total, we call when we get to the parking lot.
Locally owned food coops are also doing it, and Asian and Arab and Spanish-speaking groceries.
For the first two months no one around here did it, so we ordered from Eden foods, Bob’s Red Mill, Italian groceries in NYC, and a place with reasonable Mediterranean and Scottish products. I also looked into Zabars-like places. At the time, the ones I used all had free shipping over a price. (Not Eden any more.) The prices of what I bought were about the same or less than prices here.
Aleta
@Aleta:
Also quickly learned to always say no substitutions, not even different brands. The two big chains we use now let one specify that online with the order. We tell the smaller places the same thing.
The Pale Scot
@Adam L Silverman: but I have no idea what is going on in the kitchen with the people preparing the food.
yep
Here in Port Charlotte FL the Publix employees are good about how to wear masks, it’s the idiot gammons that don’t wear them. The crackers are stressing out. Twice in Publix parking lots we’ve been subjected to tirades from the drivers of penis extension trucks for not moving fast enough, obviously trying to pick a fight. Really? We’re driving a car with Marine, NRA and Sheriff FO stickers. But it was the first time I got called an “old fuck”, so I got that going for me.
Which got me to thinking. Since the FL SC has decreed that just believing that your life or property is threatened, regardless of the objective reality, is grounds for dismissing murder charges in stand your ground cases. How could I possibly be charged if I smoke some idiots not wearing masks? The FLSC set the ground rules, just the perception of danger is reasonable cause for lighting someone up. Of course the intent was it’s OK to shoot black people, but you can’t put that into decision, it’s just a nudge is as good as a wink to a blind bat, uh ha.
Some days I get close to testing that hypotheses.
Drdavechemist
@frosty: I’m partial to what Trek calls a “fitness” bike. Tires not knobby but can handle an unpaved surface as long as you’re careful. Flattish handlebars and a bit of angle to the top tube, so straddling is comfortable. Usually a wide enough range of gears to handle almost anything except a flat-out sprint. If I ever replace my old Cannondale “hybrid” that’s what I’m going with.
The Pale Scot
@HumboldtBlue:
“Pipelinefunk” Armin Küpper
That was cool
Yutsano
We gonna get Adam a Tbogg?
Bill Arnold
@The Pale Scot:
If they’re not breathing, they’re not breathing on you.
Fans of Zombie Apocalypse movies/shows know what to do with suspected plague spreaders. (Many(most?) of those fans are right-wing, too.)
Adam L Silverman
@Ruckus: There’s one thing to speak up, there’s another to escalate something that could’ve been handled better.
Adam L Silverman
@Michael: But do they come in John Cole sizing?
Adam L Silverman
@The Pale Scot: The parking lot at the Publix I go to is more stressful to navigate than driving around Baghdad was.
Adam L Silverman
@The Pale Scot: I had that Stand Your Ground conversation with a close friend who is a cop. As we were going back and forth by email, it turns out the Feds have charged a NJ man with a biochemical attack for spitting on a woman in a grocery store there when he was asked to put a mask on and keep social distance. So if the Feds treat this sort of thing as a chargeable felony linked to biological terrorism, then you should be good to stand your ground.
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: He’s not really my type.//
Yutsano
@Adam L Silverman: But bassetts…
Adam L Silverman
@Yutsano: I’ll take the bassets. Especially if they’re the petite blue!
Gin & Tonic
@frosty: A cross bike is technically something different. “Cross” is short for cyclocross, which is what some road weenies do in the winter after the road racing season is over. Think riding on dirt/mud/snow using a drop-bar road-racing bike. There’s a lot of getting off, hiking the bike up onto your shoulder and running with it. It’s a niche sport, popular in Europe.
Steeplejack
@David Anderson:
What is the “26.2 miler” thing? All I can think of is a marathon, and surely it can’t be that.
Kelly
@Adam L Silverman: Very late to the thread but this is my favorite difficult people story. When I moved here on of my neighbors was a retired Oregon Game Officer. Spent his career enforcing hunting and fishing laws far from any backup. He had the most amazing skill at defusing difficult people. He could always find something they had in common to talk about. Boats, pickups, sports teams, fishing always something. The rude drunks would calm down and leave as new friends. I once complemented him on his patience after he drove a trespassing rude drunk home. He replied “I learned real early you can talk to people or roll around in the dirt with them. I don’t like to roll around in the dirt.”
Amir Khalid
@Cheryl Rofer:
My response to the Hashtags: Malaysia Boleh!
Mohagan
@SFBayAreaGal: Here in Ukiah (Mendocino Co) masks were required in stores as of May 1st. Pretty good compliance as far as I can tell.
Gravenstone
@Steeplejack: It is exactly that. You occasionally see multiples of the stickers for each marathon (or 13.1 for halves) as the runner has completed.
The Pale Scot
@Citizen Alan:
In my mind Adam’s cuddly Sid Caesar
Whereaway
@Barbara:
As a health care IT person … thank you!
And thank you for being the pendant, so I don’t have to be :)
The Pale Scot
@Adam L Silverman:
About wiping groceries down. you can buy gallons of alcohol at outrageous prices online, little hairdresser spritz bottles at the dollar store. I’ve just been hosing everything down before it comes into the house
Brian
@catclub: When you increase a solid shape’s linear dimension 2X, the surface area increases 4X and the volume (and hence mass) increases 8x. Making Adam 12′ tall and isomorphic increases his weight from 250 lbs to 2000 lbs. Also, makes him non bipedal.
dc
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The irony is that the employees of these places run the highest risk of infection because it’s not just about distance, it’s about time and environment. They are inside with lots of breathing, talking, sneezing, coughing and sometimes yelling people for hours. Customers, on the other hand, are in and out relatively fast. It makes me angry when customers don’t wear masks because they are endangering the workers who in most cases don’t have a choice of being in a high risk situation if they want to eat and pay the rent. This young man was much more at risk than Adam, yet he didn’t appreciate that all the mask wearing customers were protecting him. And on top of that, he was leaving himself more at risk by not wearing his mask correctly and thereby also putting his coworkers and customers at risk should he be infected without knowing it.
The Pale Scot
@Cameron:
https://floridacovidaction.com
Charlotte county has 15 available ICU beds. WTF!!!!!!
Brian
@The Moar You Know: Raven is in metro LA like me, and all my local bike shops are cleaned out of budget commuters. Also, I periodically peruse Craigslist here, and it looks like asking prices for used bikes have jumped considerably from a year ago. My main LBS is quoting me 2 weeks turnaround for a bottom bracket replacement (elective so NBD) and have moved some of their repair work to an outside table since the inside of the shop has so many repairs waiting to be picked up.
The Pale Scot
@Kelly: I use to be well versed in NJ riparian law. Generally boaters are allowed up to the high water mark. Get some crime scene tape and no trespassing signs. (And an aggressive dog on a long leash)
The Pale Scot
@Adam L Silverman:
Having to buy pie from a supermarket (because they’ve run local bakeries out of business) is an abomination. In a righteous world you go to the Portuguese bakery for bread, the Italian bakery for cookies, the Polish bakery for donuts, the German bakery for ridiculously rich chocolate cakes
Miss Bianca
@TaMara (HFG): I’m not quite as psyched living in a red area of the state, where Assholes Gotta Asshole. We’ve only had two positive tests so far, so people here seem to think that justifies trying to open everything up and go around maskless. Now, some businesses and organizations are trying to be responsible, but not a lot.
Super glad that AMC has mandated mask use in its theaters. Going to make my insistence that we do the same a little easier to sell.
randy
@Drdavechemist: I thought my back wouldn’t let me bike anymore, just discovered that fartlek style works for me, one minute on, one minute off walking.
MoxieM
@cckids: Some of us–like me–have mobility or other non-visible spine issues. (Yes I have a Handicapped hang tag.) I can just about make a trip through the store (the walking, that is.) On a good day, I can help bag my groceries, and I do. On a bad day, I am leaning on the cart so I don’t collapse from the pain. I don’t bitch about it, but you really never know what other people are dealing with.
Oh, and I always wear a mask! I find my glasses slip down over the front, and suddenly I can’t see so well. Oops.
Ruckus
@different-church-lady:
I’m just a bit skeptical about that. IOW I probably could be talked into not being skeptical at all.
Ruckus
@Adam L Silverman:
Didn’t I say that? He asked meekly.
mrmoshpotato
A-FUCKING-MEN! THANK YOU, ADAM!
I don’t even walk out of my apartment to check my mail (half flight down) without putting on a mask and gloves. And then I wash my hands after I’m done going through the mail (even if there’s no mail).
Late night (11 or later) walks are also done wearing a mask and gloves – and always looking ahead to see if I need to walk in the street, or up someone’s front walk for a bit to let someone pass.
I just got back from grocery shopping, and the store has alternating direction aisles, and of course there were people walking the wrong way! How were some people ever given driver’s licenses!
A few weeks ago, some guy was standing right next to me while I was bagging up my groceries. Took a lot to not grab him by the shoulder, turn him and put my other hand into his chest while yelling “I SHOULDN’T BE ABLE TO DO THIS! BACK UP!”
It has floored me what inconsiderate asses so many people can be because they don’t want to be mildly inconvenienced!
HumboldtBlue
Fuck it, I’m just commenting now to get this over 400.
I’m chuffed, Roy Edroso and I had a short Twitter exchange.
Cameron
@The Pale Scot: I live in Manatee County. Not quite as screwed as south Florida, but pretty thoroughly screwed nonetheless.
Bill Arnold
@mrmoshpotato:
Was talking with a young (30s) HVAC guy today (Southern NY State) briefly about masks. I thought he was a wingnut and maybe he is, but he was quite happily a masker, and first started wearing a mas in early March, soon as he heard it was respiratory. He also started telling me that he didn’t believe the hand-washing stuff was important. (I’m in the same camp, due to available science.) I was so surprised; this was a young person basically advocating for the Japanese model of mask up inside including shared transportation, don’t do much closing of anything, and be a little more careful than usual. I repeated the usual about how young people should not assume that since it probably won’t kill them that it’s OK, that there may be long term damage to lungs, kidneys, heart, brain, etc. But it wasn’t really necessary.
Bill Arnold
@Ruckus:
Nah, Occam’s razor: it was a Deep Green[1] tactical exercise to indirectly reduce global GHG emissions, both short-term and mid-term, and with some concurrent breakage of consensus sentiments about the virtues of consumer capitalism and work. With a side of providing opportunities for political change in certain major authoritarian and proto-authoritarian(or proto-fascist) states; failed national-level responses were probable not surprising.
—
This was mentioned upthread. (I had this bookmarked.) Wikipedia also covers it.
Anti-Mask League: San Francisco had its own shutdown protests during 1918 pandemic (Peter Hartlaub, May 8, 2020)
[1] e.g. aligned with Arne Næss (RIP)
cckids
@MoxieM: Hi, I know this is long dead, but to respond – I understand living with a disability very, very well. I have some customers with similar issues to yours; my accommodation is to have them open the bags & place them (empty) in their carts; I can then bag their groceries without too much touching of the bags.
My irritation is with the people who apparently just want to complain.
Ransom
Coming to this a month later, yet again you are way ahead of the curve