<Take I:
The Reckoner>
<i.>
It's amazing what you find, late at night, when you're doing laundry at 3:00 a.m. Hence, this series of photos that I snapped about a week ago, in our front lobby, while heading back and forth upstairs to the second floor, where our dryers and washing machines are situated. Note the troublesome detail in front of the table, though.
Look familiar? It should, though I haven't seen people discarding their precious N95s since the summer. Well, wait. I take that back. Throughout June, July and August, I saw the odd mask scattered here or there across the ground, but nothing like spring, when I might spot three to four, or up to half a dozen, strewn across the parking lots of our two main grocery stores. What gives, people? I can't think of a better way to spread Coronavirus, or put others at risk.
<Take II>
<ii.>
Whatever their reasons, the guilty parties who are discarding their PPE (Protective Personal Equipment) this way are lifting laziness and selfish pique to a whole new level. Take our building. OK, so management removed the trash can, when COVID hit. That's no reason to just toss your mask on the ground, and leave the maintenance men to scoop it up, is it? You're leaving a potential infection point, and it's also f#cking disgusting.
Still, we can thank ourselves for one small favor: I didn't see a pair of rubber gloves tossed aside, too. Actually, I haven't seen anybody ditching them since the summer. Even then, you just saw a pair of them, here or there. I mean, it's obvious why people are wearing rubber gloves right now, so maybe dumping them is a more visible act. Then again, I'm not seeing as many people wearing since COVID struck, so that's probably another reason. Anyway, read the links below to get the feeling out there.
<Take III>
<iii.>
I'd just come back from a run to Walgreens, because we'd run out of a lot of food, and hell, I was starving. So I grabbed an off-brand thin crust pizza for four bucks. All the ingredients you need are right there, no muss, no fuss, no nonsense, which sold me. It wasn't Home Run, my go-to brand, but it filled me up. It did the job, and for Sunday night, that was enough.Judging by what I saw during my Walgreens run, panic buying seems to have slowly ramped up again. I noticed a particularly conspicuous gap in the bath tissue section (for paper towels and toilet paper). Once again, management had posted signs stipulating a two-package limit on those items. if that what's we're seeing before Thanksgiving, we're definitely in for a long, cold winter.
<Take IV>
<iv.>
Once more, here's a closeup of the offending mask. Judging by the facial indentations, this particular mask had already gone through a few go-rounds of wear and tear, leaving the owner apparently feeling confident enough to ditch it so conspicuously, without a care in the world. This is how people operate nowadays. They can't be bothered to, and they pass the stresses onto everyone else.Lately, the Squawker and I have also noticed people getting lax with how they're wearing their masks. The most common variation I see is the mask pulled below the nose bit, followed by a few who lodge it under their chin, and the odd freak or two who lets it hang off their earlobe, even as they enter the same store that you do, without a care in the world, apparently.
People are burned out, exhausted, feeling straight up isolated and socially stunted, from spending so many months indoors. I get it, all of it. But even with the promise of two vaccines, we can't drop our guard. We don't have them yet. And until we do, I'm not bonding with any of those halfhearted mask wearers I've just described, in living color.
<Take V>
<v.>
Here we go, with my last photo. This is the long view, as you head past the table (out of shot, right), and prepare to open the main entrance door, with your key.
Come Monday, none of this will look like it does here. The maintenance men will sweep the stray leaves that have blown in, with each visitor's comings and goings. They'll slip on their own gloves to dispose of the mask, and the mound of weekly shoppers scattered across the table will vanish with it.
However, while it's never hard to stumble across an unsettling reminder of our never-ending crisis, signs of the "new normal" -- whatever that means -- seem more distant than ever. Happy Thanksgiving, such as it is. We'll see what winter brings, I guess. --The Reckoner
Links To Go (Hurry, Hurry,
Before That N95 Kisses The Concrete):
The Huffington Post:
No comments:
Post a Comment