This might have been both the most familiar sort of day, and the most indicative of what new normal is going to be. I had to do basic errands, the stuff I would never have thought twice about before. But it took me hours to wind up enough to just drive to the pharmacy and the pet store. I was super nervous about it. Just to get one prescription and one bag of crickets, I had to put in self happy talk that I could go, that I would be able to enter the pet store, that they would have crickets, and that it was not illegal to try. I caught myself still wearing my mask in the car between the two locations, and then when I took it off, I had a moment of crisis, wondering whether I could catch anything just driving past people with the windows open. I don't know which is worse, the stupid paranoia, or getting over it enough to take stupid chances.
Inside stores, almost everyone was masked. I would have preferred 100% compliance. I managed not to touch anything else inside Petco, other than a jar of fish food and the credit card reader. I carried my bag of crickets next door to Lowe's, and that's where things started to feel off. I had grabbed some pepper plants and a gallon tomato, and wheeled a cart into the garden center proper. The area I thought was empty actually contained a line of people waiting to check out that stretched all the way through the Danger Zone, to the edge of the patio paver section. People were sort of spaced out, but I can't say it was all of six feet between us. Just carts and a little breathing room. Lucky for me the line moved quickly, and I did not in fact pick up one of the flowers taunting me with their existence. And when I got to the front, the cashier wasn't masked. I just can't imagine being that cavalier at a time like this. I mean, I know we were inches away from Weld County, which is getting a lot of negative press these days, deservedly. But I learned yesterday that my town had the most cases in Boulder County, something well north of 200. I would be in a freaking plastic bubble if it were me.
I forgot to take hand sanitizer with me, and had a bit of panic when I got in the car without it. I scrubbed my hands thoroughly when I got home, and still felt a twinge of fear until dark. When will that go away? I mean, it ought to last until the vaccine is ready and widespread. It even should linger for years after that point, in a PTSD sort of way. But let's be honest. People will be complacent long before then. I dread that moment.
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