We’re on vacation in a state in which the governor has signed an executive order saying we must wear face masks muzzles upon entry to a place of business. It’s a shore town, and it’s now off-season. We had planned to visit in April for bird migration, but two days before we were due to arrive — TWO DAYS — the same governor who forced nursing homes to take COVID positive patients, with predictable results, and now demands muzzles prohibited “short term rentals.” So, our April visit got canceled. The owner of the B&B issued us a gift certificate for the amount of the deposit we had already paid, and told me there wasn’t an expiration date on it, when I mentioned that since we normally visit during bird migration in Spring and Fall, we probably would not want to redeem it until October. Well, it’s October, we’re here, and damn near everybody is over the face muzzle thing.
Normally, the owner of the B&B commutes to work, but he’s been working from home since March, so I actually got a chance to meet him after staying here for a number of years, but only on weekdays. I got the key to our room from him in person. Neither of us wore muzzles. Nobody wore muzzles the next morning at breakfast except the woman on staff who cooks and serves the meal.
As a beach town, it’s touristy, and attracts people from all up and down the East Coast, as well as Ohio. There is a pedestrian shopping mall in the center of town. I would estimate that ~70% of people walking outside the shops wore muzzles, but they were theoretically only required to wear them to go inside to shop. There were no “Karens” screaming at anyone who didn’t bother wearing one outdoors. Nobody shot anyone else dirty looks for not wearing one. Everyone was perfectly civil.
This morning, we went over to Sunset Beach, which is sort of a town away, because it’s got a couple of gift stores that have some nice stuff, that are under the same ownership. One stocks the off-season sale stuff the main gift store couldn’t sell during the summer season. I found a couple of really nice anorak style windbreakers with hoods, kangaroo pockets, and separate velcro pockets. One for $15, or two for $25. I completely forgot to put on my muzzle, while I browsed the store, and approached the cashier to check out. Whoops! Apologized, and said I just realized I’d left it in the truck, and would go get it, if she wanted, then come back to pay.
Her response was the best thing I’ve heard in months. “Don’t worry about it. I’m soooooo over that!”
So, I paid, and turned to leave. There was one couple behind me waiting to pay, wearing their muzzles. They didn’t seem to have a problem with me not wearing one either — or if they did, they didn’t express it to me.
The cashier had it right: we are soooooo over it with the muzzles. The politicians may care, but ordinary citizens have had enough.
You’ve turned into such an idiot. Turns out the Nicky-bashing was the only thing we ever have had in common. Left on your own and after getting to know you better, it’s plain to see you’re just an asshole, and not very smart. That’s why this place is a ghost town.
Too bad. Thanks for the good days, but a pandemic really doesn’t give a shit if you’re tired of it or not. Don’t like masks? Fine. Go ahead and die of whatever you won’t and you won’t be missed, but leave everyone else out of it.
You’re a total sweetheart, too, Hildegard Hamhocker. Say “hi” to Tumbleweeds for me.
Hi Rusty.
I check on you every now and then because I think your a nice person with good basic instincts and find your tales of rustic living resonate with my hillbilly background even though I seldom comment any more.
Wow. You got a drive-by by the new KKK, a Kancel Kulture Karen. Strident judgementalism is not persuasive.
It may very well turn out that CoVid19 mask wearing may be more effective as a political symbol than as a preventative.
I do suspect a certain percentage of wearing acts as herd immunity, breaking chains of transmission without everyone having to be masked 24/7/365 and 366 on leap year.
I would support anyone who has dozens of people in their face every day (like checkout at the local supermarkets) wearing a mask. If you are not where you are breathing on people or them breathing on you, wearing a mask is useless. Especially when driving a car or being isolated or alone.
For the record, I was admitted in hospital 3 Apr and diagnosed with pneumonia, urinary tract infection, and SARS Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Pandemic CoViD19). I was put on antibiotics by IV and HydroxyChloroQuine by mouth. Sent home to house quarantine 8 Apr with 3 days on HCQ and two antibiotics by mouth 5 & 7 more days. I was visited regularly by home health care until discharged 29 Apr.
So I don’t take CoViD lightly. Younger family members had “the flu” first and recovered then I came down with “the flu” but it led to complxxations on my 72 y.o. wreck of a body.
Personally I feel the political responses are often just political theater. Occasionally over-precaution in the face of the unknown. Or exploitation. “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.” — Rahm Emanuel. Fear and panic enable politicians to push policies that would never pass the smell taste of a calm mind and nose.
Sorry to hear that, but I’m also thrilled to hear you recovered. My mom’s 90, so we do not enter her home w/o wearing face masks, only take them off to eat our own lunch we packed to bring with us, and we don’t even sit at the table while she’s still there eating her own lunch. We’re not cavalier about it around people who are in high risk groups, or have to deal with customers all day.
Y’know, I was going to leave this as is, because Rusty’s right — it’s her blog, she can write whatever she wants on it, and I don’t have to read it. Absolutely right and fair enough. I should never have inflicted this place on myself once its real purpose of tracking the Nicky shit-show was over. That’s my bad.
But, Naaman, you wanted to come in and play “white knight to the rescue,” and pontificate on your theories, and all you did was just pour another round for the house. Okay then. Let’s hurt some feelings.
I’ve lost several people I care about to COVID. I may lose more, because in the malicious leadership void we’re enduring the national response has been absolute shit and this thing’s just getting revved up. I have a lot more loved ones who recovered but may now have damage that’ll plague them the rest of their lives. This thing doesn’t only kill, y’know — it also maims, and a LOT more often than it kills. Maybe it’ll get me, too, because I have to work to keep my small part of society going, but you do what you have to. I don’t take it lightly, I do what I can to protect myself and others, and it’s not much fun but I see it as a duty, not a burden. It’s not all about me, and the mask is mostly there to protect others. If it helps, okay, sign me up, call me “muzzled” or whatever you want.
Anyway, right before I came in here and saw this really excellent “my lovely trip to watch the pretty birds has just been absolutely *ruined* by having a modicum of respect for others during a national crisis expected of me, waaaah!” post, I’d gotten news that one of the nurses who did a wonderful, compassionate job looking after my dad in his last days had died of COVID. She was one of the nicest people I ever met, only in her mid-50’s, left several kids and a lot of friends behind. I don’t know how she caught it (she was retired from nursing) but it wouldn’t surprise me if some yee-haw Billy Badass was showing what a rebel he is by not wearing a mask spread it around. That kind of ignorance is prevalent around here. It makes me sad, and it makes me really fucking angry.
Usually Rusty’s repulsive pattern of vapid self-pampering and attitude of endless entitlement while she complains about everyone who mildly inconveniences her as though they’re not serving their purpose in the universe is something I can shrug off. Some people you just can’t like, but they have to live too, so you grit your teeth and endure them. But after getting the news I’d just gotten and then coming here and seeing this… well, it was just a little too much to stomach. I don’t expect much from people, but, shit. Being PROUD of yourself because you’re so selfish and discourteous, while scorning those who are at least *trying* to help their fellow citizens seems like a really fucking weird way to be “patriotic,” much less basic entry-level human. Whatever it is, it sure as hell isn’t anything to be PROUD about. Posting this shit, I figured she was expecting a “gee, ain’t Rusty great?” response. I thought perhaps it would be instructive to say, “No.” If not instructive, at least warranted. She deserves to hear it at least once in her life.
If someone resents having to bear a little inconvenience to help protect the lives of those around them — like my dad’s former nurse, who SHOULD still be here making the world a better place — then I really don’t want to hear about the pretty flowers they bought to pamper themselves. Because they don’t deserve ’em. Sometimes, when people are being ugly, I think it’s good to confront them with a mirror, because maybe they just didn’t know. So, that’s what I finally did. Know that I’ve read you, I kind of know you, and… I really don’t like you, I don’t think you’re a good person. Ya don’t like political correctness? Well, this is what it’s like without it, you got the kind of world you wanted, congratchagoddamnlations to you.
And now that she has that knowledge she can take it and maybe work on being a better person for the rest of us to live with, or she can “fuck-you” me and name me after some comic strip character I had to look up (wow, was that corny, and I’m a Henry, not a Hildegarde, by the way and if it matters), or she can ignore it entirely, whatever. How she takes it is all up to her and I really don’t care. I’d just lost a good friend and then ran into the kind of person whose stinky selfish and self-righteous attitude made me lose ’em, and I wanted ’em to know “you really aren’t appreciated.” That’s it. If it makes me an asshole, then I’m an asshole.
Anyway, Naaman, you seem to be bringing in side issues that have fuck-all to do with the topic at hand, but, let’s address ’em. First of all, I’m not “cancelling” anybody — I’m just telling them what I think of ’em. What’s “cancelling” about it? Carry on with the blog as you wish, I am not stopping you, I don’t have that power and wouldn’t use it if I did. And there’s definitely nothing “KKK” about it, so that’s just a weird thing for you to bring up. It’s odd that a very reasonable complaint — “wear a mask in public settings to protect others during a fucking pandemic” — has you going off on politics, but I guess that’s what politics has turned into now, the “I’m gonna be a danger to myself an others to own the libtards.” Anytime asshole-behavior-in-general gets called out, Republicans seem to assume it’s an attack on them as a party. Wonder why that is? 🙂 But what-fucking-ever, dude, I just don’t care anymore about politics. Join whatever nasty moron-cult you want and march toward the cliff of your choice, singing all the way, but know, and know full-well, that a response to a public health crisis isn’t a political statement. At least it shouldn’t be. Herd-immunity doesn’t seem to work very well with this illness, since it often causes debilitating conditions even if survived, and people have gotten it twice so “immunity” may not be a thing at all… but herd-conformity? That definitely is a thing. Somehow, a lot of people have been made to buy the very-deeply-weird idea that basic concern for yourself and others is now less important than flipping off somebody with different economic ideas or whatever. That’s a sillyshit game, and I’m not gonna play it with you. I’m not asking you to vote, I’m asking you to exercise common decency, and, hopefully, to do it joyfully.
I don’t think anybody’s expecting anybody to wear a mask while driving their car or while they’re alone. Your “24/7/365” argument is hogwash because absolutely nobody is saying we need to do that. You’re bringing up ridiculous extreme scenarios in an attempt to make the whole argument for masks look like a silly thing. That’s dumb and it’s weak and it’s dishonest. I’m not asking anyone to take any precaution except the ones that are helpful, easy, and reasonable. When around other people, wear a mask so if you have the germ, you won’t spread it to them. Do it gladly as a decent person would. Wish others well and bear whatever minor inconvenience you must to bring that about. And, while we’re at it, return your shopping carts to the stall instead of making someone else do it, and open the door for whoever’s coming behind you, and saying please and thanks would be nice. That’s it. That’s about the size of the request. It’s not a big thing. Want to argue against THAT? After you apparently almost died of this thing (and may still) because someone was too careless with YOU?
Right now what I’m seeing are a lot of people who are treating basic courtesy as some “gesture of defiance,” and it’s stupid. Do you know anything about how a war works? War is mostly about cutting off supply lines… and you’re aiding and abetting your enemy with this childish willful “I won’t do it!” shit. Y’all can be “tired of it” all you want, but COVID absolutely doesn’t give a damn about your feelings. Y’all are going to fuck around and find out that when you overtax the hospitals with sick people and you get the grocery store workers and delivery people sick and the supply lines start coming down, it’ll breed REAL chaos. You’ll have a lot more to whine about than your imperfect bed-and-breakfast vacays then. People are trying to stop it from getting to that point. It’s really not much to ask of any of you to help instead of hinder. But, apparently, y’all think it is.
Nobody’s trying to create fear and panic and push policies on you. They’re just trying to keep you — or at least the people you’d infect — from dying or getting stuck with possible lifetime maladies. That’s it. It’s a pandemic. It isn’t partisan. You went through all that misery and you STILL think it’s “political theater”? My god, Naaman, how deeply have you been trained? You’ve been fooled into having your response to your own health and the health of others determined by who you vote for. That’s seriously stupid.
Now, enough of my wordiness. Have fun misrepresenting it as you wish. Bye.