I went out Friday afternoon and drove to the city to pick up something that could not be delivered. I noticed a few things right away:
First, I don’t care what the governor says, things are definitely reopening. About the only thing that looked closed were the restaurants. The streets were noticeably more crowded and there was a buzz that had been missing. Some of the shopping centers I passed had less cars than normal, but the business district looked busy. It was a warm spring day after a period of rain, so people were probably happy to get outside, but there was far more foot traffic than I had seen several weeks ago.
Second, people are only social distancing when the stores insist on it. The first store I went to had a sign that said only 25 people are allowed inside the store at a time for social distancing reasons. I bet there were more than 40 in there, but no one was counting. They had closed off every other register, so there were long lines of people trying to stay six feet part going halfway back into the store. I’d say not even half of the people were wearing masks and even some of the employees who were had their masks around their chin rather than covering up their mouth and nose.
Later, I went to a Sherwin-Williams paint store and they were running a tight ship with places marked on the floor where to stand and everyone wearing a mask. Of course, it was a much smaller store.
Third, lots of people either have no clue how to wear a mask or just don’t care. First off, about half didn’t bother, even though is technically required. Second, quite a few people wear them incorrectly, often leaving their nose poking out the top. I also saw people drive alone in their car with their mask on. This is unnecessary, although I guess if you are running from place to place, it might be easier or safer. I also passed people walking and biking, with no masks.
There are still cases around here, so we’re playing it pretty safe, sticking with our quarantine and staying at home. We’re not scared, but we’re not relaxed yet.
We’ve been in quarantine 10 weeks. It would truly suck to get sick now!
We publish our prepper diary a couple times per week, sharing insight to what we are doing as preppers. You can see all the entries in chronological order.
