The local council has issued a press release. Excuse me while I run
round and round in small circles.
Here
is the link. I'm trying to decide whether it's been written very well
or very badly; it takes a long time to say very little, just "please
keep following the rules or Big Bad Government will impose further
restrictions". But it's clearly intended to be scary. ("Evil virus"?
Really?)
I think it's misguided, though. People round these parts tend either
to be determinedly sensible or determinedly stupid, and I don't
suppose many of either will change their behaviour as a result of
either reasonable requests or blatant scare tactics. OK, one small
meeting of friends that might have happened has been called off, but
that was going to be five of us indoors, at a distance, in masks,
speaking quietly… not exactly a major risk event.
Meanwhile in the shops: there was one Unmasked in Lidl who was giving
the staff a hard time about it (they hadn't tried to keep him out as
far as I can see, he just felt like a rant), one
continuous-dry-cougher (whom I don't think was the same person, but
was the first one I've heard in public for a while)… but in Morrison's
about one in twenty was Unmasked, presumably because they know that
nobody's enforcing this law and my shopping is more important than
your breathing.
(I know that there are good reasons for some people not to wear a
mask, which is why I'm not calling them "mask-deniers". Though I do
think that even if your face would explode at the first touch of a
covering it's damnably selfish still to insist on going out and mixing
with other people.)
- Posted by J Michael Cule at
12:26pm on
24 October 2020
As I said to you the people who really annoy me are those who can remember to put a mask on but then leave their nose exposed while covering their mouth.
Nothing like that to say: I'm doing this because they'll nag me if I don't but I don't really believe all this shit.
They didn't bother to nervously take my temperature at the doctors yesterday. (1) That's a sign of the times or something.
(1) Flu jab and a further diabetic review this time with the actual diabetic nurse.
- Posted by RogerBW at
12:46pm on
24 October 2020
If your mask does not cover both nose and mouth you are not wearing it.
(When I did an operating theatre holiday job, masks pushed down to be worn round the neck were absolutely forbidden: that's how you mix the outside with the inside. Either it's on or it's off.)
- Posted by Chris Suslowicz at
02:34am on
25 October 2020
I would trust (in the words of a Ngaio Marsh character) the current misgovernment "about as far as I could throw a grad piano by its stool. A concert grand, I might add."
My current position is: mask to be worn (properly) everywhere outside my house/garden; one shopping trip per week (late at night when the local Morrisons is fairly deserted) and other travel as absolutely unavoidable.
I thought I'd be OK with zero human contact, but it's not really the case; this was discovered at an ECG appointment at the local Orspitule, where having a Tech effectively administering a horizontal hug while wielding the ultrasound probe brought home how much I'd been missing human contact.
I can cope with this, but it's really not ideal. (I am not Murderbot.)
Brexit is coming, whether we like it or not, and I need to stock up on things that the nearest supermarket doesn't stock, and almost certainly buy a reasonably sized freezer for perishables. Not to mention getting a flu jab.
The world would be a better place without Perfidious Johnson and the current Conservative Party, IMAO, but on that note I'm back on Zulu time and going to bed, Good Morning!
- Posted by RogerBW at
08:44am on
25 October 2020
I am expecting at least some power interruptions (because among the many things that nobody's bothered to do is arrange to keep buying electricity from France) so I favour shelf-stable over frozen for the emergency supplies. We shall see.
- Posted by Chris Suslowicz at
09:50pm on
25 October 2020
Ditto here as regards the electricity supply. I have a couple of small UPS units that will keep the internet on (it's via BT and ADSL over copper so I just need to keep the router up).
There's a reasonable stockpile of rice, pasta, tinned food and biscuits (900g boxes of Jacob's Biscuits for cheese), plus I'm gradually increasing the long-life milk supply. The major drawback is all cookery is electric, so I may need to see about a gas ring for emergencies. (Or get a camping stove.) Bah!
(The Indian Cowboy Builders installed a worktop over the gas point for the cooker - amongst many other conspicuously fuckwitted bodge-jobs.)
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