I was able to go to the grocery store Monday, finally, because I did not test positive and am not sick, and it had been ten days since I was with the kids. They are doing much better but still quarantining (thank you for prayers and good thoughts, it mattered), so I was shopping for them.
I double-masked, and double-checked the list Stoli gave me, in order to run in and out quickly, and safely and do the right thing for the people I love, like Papa Bob who is kind of high risk, and the other three local grandchildren that don’t have it and are too young to be vaccinated and anyone else that could get sick, and it seems right now that could be anyone. It’s alarming that the vaccinated are ill. Yet I have not heard of anyone leaving town for the hospital. That’s great.
The only news we had before this was Thursday. Haines was at 62 active cases then. Last night, they said there are 13 new cases but 16 have recovered, making the total 55 because they dropped 4 presumed positives. (I don’t understand this either, but that’s all we have been told.) Still, that’s huge for a town with 2,000 people who are all less than six degrees of separated.
The Borough announcements say transmission is high and there is community spread, and so we should wear masks in public, stay away from large gatherings, social distance and wash our hands a lot. They have required masks in Borough managed buildings (and some of them you can’t even enter with a mask right now, like the library and office.)
From my isolated home-hunker-down viewpoint, I figured everyone was listening. Being careful and smart. Kind and good. Haines Strong and all that. I mean, we are great at taking care of each other when the chips are down. I think that is now? Right?
Maybe that’s why it was such a shock to see so many maskless faces at the store. Worse, I saw some friends and neighbors who I know have some health issues on a good day, laughing and joking too close, un-masked, by the counter where I was waiting to check out. I was trying not to stand too close to the un-masked checkers, with no plexiglass shield, and not to be judge-y. Just stay in my lane and get in and out, while holding my breath in case I was carrying it or inhaling it. When one of the girls asked how I was doing, I said, clearly, and maybe a little more loudly than need be, “Well, not too good, I’m shopping for my daughter– you know Stoli and the kids have C O V I D.”
I know. It was very childish. But made me feel better anyway, to see them step back, wide-eyed, and then sanitize the checkout belt.
Then I realized it may have been for the drippy chicken.
Well, at least we won’t get salmonella.
Chip says to let it go, and to take care of ourselves and stay with the people who are doing that as well. And really? Most of us wear seatbelts (if we have rigs that have them) and wait at the 4-Way Stop on Main Street even when no one else is there. I always wear a helmet when I ride my bike, and I definitely will stay away from any place where people are not wearing masks until the transmission rates are low. And they will be. This too shall pass and all that. Our bear-proof trash can worked again last night. The bear just tipped it over, rolled it around, and left because he couldn’t open it. That lesson may save his life. I cannot explain how hopeful that made me.
