{Mounting soap box}
Who would have thought that such a simple thing would end up so complicated? I know I’m deviating from my current music theme, but lately I have been simply amazed at the way people are reacting to a simple precautionary measure. The government is not telling you what to do and disposable masks do not limit air flow (Some of the cloth ones do).
Doctors and nurses have been wearing masks all day long for hundreds of years. You can do this.
The instructions seem simple enough:
- I wear a mask to protect you.
- You wear a mask to protect me. (Thank you for that by the way!!)
- Wash you hands and try to not touch your face.
- The mask has to cover your nose and mouth.
That’s basically it, but for some reason people especially don’t get that last bullet.
I went to a local Italian restaurant outdoor patio on Saturday night. The servers were all wearing masks but one of the servers masks kept slipping down so his nose was sticking out. Between that and his desire to rearrange everything on the table when he brought our food, we all felt like our attempt to protect him was a waste of time. By the end of the night several of the servers were walking around cleaning up tables with no masks. That in itself would have been ok, if they hadn’t stopped to talk to everyone.
Today I was in a hardware store checkout line and there was a lady in front of me wearing a home made mask with (I assume) her grand daughter. She had a really big nose and it stuck out over the mask potentially showering everything around her with germs. Based on the size of her nose and her height, I figured it could be a four block radius. Her grand daughter was maybe 6, but her mask was designed exactly the same way. I guess they were following the instructions posted on the door as they were wearing a mask inside the store, but what happens next week when her grand daughter wears that mask back to school?
Don’t get me started on what a great idea sending kids back to school is… {sigh}
Just prior to that incident, I was in a line at service Ontario with my son who was getting plates for his first car. We both had masks on in the line, but more than half of the rest of the people were carrying them because they were outside. At different points the line moved in ways that cause us to almost bump into each other. If you’re carrying a mask, why not put it on? There was an elderly lady in line and a young man snagged a chair from a local restaurant and brought it to her. She was wearing a mask but he was carrying his. So she was protecting him and he could very well be killing her with his act of kindness.
I’d like to think that people are trying to do their bit to stop Covid, but they just don’t seem to understand the four bullets. If you want to be part of the solution, wear a mask but wear it properly! You’re not protecting yourself or anyone else with you nose hanging out.
If we work together we can beat this thing without loosing a generation in the process.
{Dismounting soap box}
P.S. Watch for the song “Stupid” on the next album and if you haven’t checked out the current album, you can find it here: