Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XII: New Masks and Worries (Thank and Apologies to Ian Dury)

     I received two new cloth face masks in the mail a couple of days ago; that gives me 7 cloth face masks, as well as a stash of paper/filter face masks. My lovely wife Valerie Dunne also has about that many cloth face masks, and we expected to buy more. 

New masks, bought from the University of Wisconsin.

     It’s simple; we believe, and have been presented with more than enough evidence, that the best way to survive this COVID-19 pandemic is to protect ourselves and others the best way scientifically possible, by properly wearing face masks, practicing social distancing and taking other precautions. These are also some of the easiest, most elementary actions one can take to help decrease the spread and transmission of COVID-19.

      Buffalo, Erie County and New York State have stricter face mask rules than many states, and it should be no surprise that after the rough start when the coronavirus first hit New York City and the state, we have done a better job than most of the country at following face mask and social distancing rules and have more than flattened the curve of COVID-19. The reality of the national daily cases of coronavirus increasing to records of about 65,000 now, after the scary, deadly higher deaths reported from NYC and NY State, shows that states such as Arizona, Florida, Texas and even California, which did a reportedly good job at first fighting the pandemic, are not taking face masks and social distancing serious during their “reopening.”

     Nothing will flat-out stop COVID-19 in its tracks in a short period of time, and no one should be surprised if the daily cases reported continue to ruse through the holiday season. Medical professionals continue to report and fear the continued increase, and they and frontline medical personnel urge people to realize that not only are we in Buffalo and Western New York rushing reopening (with the tacit support, and sometimes urging, of way too many media outlets), but that we are not even done with the first wave of COVID-19.

     I don’t mean to sound like a downer, but even though Erie County and New York State are doing better than so much of the country, we can still do better. Sorry, but we need to slow down the reopening; too many people and businesses are not even close to being good or even improved on face mask wearing and social distancing. Just shop at any grocery store or other large store, eat at a restaurant our even go to the Rath Building, where I work, and you’ll see numerous violations as well as other issues. Just because we did well enough to slow down the curve and adhere to rules at the start doesn’t mean that we have won and are through with the coronavirus or precautions. Some people seem to think that we are past the worst and have beaten COVID-19, when we have barely begun to stop the increase of the spread. It sucks that so many people are being affected financially but you need to be alive to operate your business and customers need to be alive to spend their money there.

     Val and I will continue to get takeout food from restaurants, but there is absolutely no way at the present that we will eat at a restaurant, indoors or outdoors. We also will not be going to any concert venues, particularly indoor venues. We don’t even feel safe enough to be around people in the settings, and definitely don’t trust most people to practice social distancing, proper face mask wearing or take other precautions. We fear that COVID-19 will come back strong in Buffalo/Erie County, and while we hope we are wrong, talking actions to keep ourselves as safe as we can will continue to be taken.

     Call me repetitious, call me scared, call me cautious; as long as you can call me alive and relatively well, I’m fine with a

ll of that.

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus XI: Dignity of Work, Meet the Eternal Desire to Stay the Hell Alive a Bit Longer

     The first week Erie County, my place of employment, was back to “full” operations had some good and some bad, and a lot of it seemed to be an enlargement of what has gone on since February or so when the COVID-19/coronavirus first hit Buffalo/Western New York so hard.

     

Tools of the trade, kind of.

     I work in the Rath Building for the Erie County Department of Social Services; I’ve previously mentioned that my job is in what is basically the ECDSS accounting department, in the cashier’s office (I am the casher). It is also known as The Cage, because we have very limited access (3 people, including me, have keys to the office), it has a very old and secure safe for obvious reasons, and are kind of locked in by a very heavy, electronically locked door because we handle financial transactions daily with clients, as well as provide transportation to homeless people and clients seeking transportation to jobs, job interviews and substance abuse treatment, when approved by social workers. We have two windows with solid hard, thick plastic where we conduct transactions with both clients and other workers, and the large windows facing Franklin Street cannot be opened, at least not from the inside. Normally, 4 of use work in this “office” full-time, but since a person went to another department at the end of January, we have worked with 3 people; a planned replacement was postposed and apparently canceled after the COVID-19 crisis hit.

     I suppose the lower number of workers due to COVID-19 staffing in the Rath Building (normally in the thousands) has been good in ways. Those of us who worked at our offices, our stations, all throughout the COVID-19 crisis so far, have formed a camaraderie because we have gone through the same issues, precautions, scares, altered work spaces, environments and rules. We’ve gone through a mid-year budget reduction plan that cut some positions, left many of us worried for either our jobs or those of coworkers and friends as well as the effects on efficiency and productivity, we’ve gone from being issued paper face masks and a few bottles of hand sanitizer to being issued cloth masks, sanitizer on every desk and having work spaces sprayed several times a day by county employees. We went from having extra face masks on hand for clients who appeared sick or made us feel unsafe in any health regard to having the building require them for all employees and visitors. You can also toss in the standard municipal employee loathing too many citizens still have and direct at us.

    While some workers began to trickle back to the Rath Building in what seems to be the start of June, along withe the increase of hours worked by many employees who never stopped working, the vast majority of workers who either worked form home, were moved elsewhere or were still on very limited hours returned to the Rath Building Monday, June 29. A large number (possibly majority) of people who work in the Rath Building appear to start their shifts at 9 AM; I and much of my department start at 8:30 AM, so we get to avoid some of the normal rush. With the elevators limited to no more than 4 people riding at the same time, the earlier you get to work, the less people there are to use the elevators. I work on the 4th Floor and sometimes use the elevators, sometimes walk up the stairs, and I had no problems during the pseudo shutdown getting a ride. It didn’t appear to be too much of a problem this past week, except in Wednesday, when I had to verbally tell someone to get off the elevator because they were exceeding the capacity. There are 6 main elevators in the Rath Building, and usually 2-3 arrive and open their downs in a 30-second period of time in the morning, so there should be no problems. But…at about 8:20 AM Wednesday, July 1, a man tried to get on the elevator when four of us were already on it (several large signs saying elevator capacity is 4 are posted on the lobby at the elevators). Both I and another man on the elevator told the man he was above the capacity limit. the man got off when he looked at me and saw no smile; after the man got off the elevator, the other man who said it said to the other three of us on the elevator, “I was really half joking,” to which I replied, “I wasn’t. My health means too much to me.” The elevator was silent until I got off on my floor.

     

     Besides seeing people I haven’t seen in a while, there seem to have been few changes. Our workload barely seems to have decreased despite more people being on more of the time, and we are seeing more members of the public/clients at our windows for transportation as well as making payments, along with more workers conducting normal business such as dropping off checks to be distributed to clients, processed and deposited by us, signing for cheeks and dropping off applications for payments. And yes, our supervisor continues to be just a wee bit of a micromanager, which can even be good at times, such as when she wrapped individual plastic ware and napkin settings for and distributed the pita wedge sandwiches, fruit salad and chips for our birthday luncheon for the workers celebrating July birthdays. Or at least I think it was good; I made a point of getting my own piece of cake later, and did not eat any of the other food (not a fan of them).

     Otherwise, the week started with more violations of there face mask rules (must be worn by all workers except when eating, drinking or in your own office alone) before improving as the week proceeded. With the cashier’s office being one communal room without even cubicles, we had to make sure all of our seats at our desks were at least 6 feet apart and moved them to make sure they were more than that distance from each other. We always wear masks except for eating and drinking, and one reason we make sure of this is that there are 2 work telephones between the 3 (and sometimes 4) of us working there. With some the newly returning workers having trouble with the concept of mandatory at first, as well as some with issues over covering noses, I was one of probably many to constantly remind people to wear masks and wear them properly, and reported frequent/flagrant violation to supervisors. I don’t care if some people believe I’m being petty, annoying, a combination of these or just me on steroids; I plan to continue to survive this pandemic and help as many other coworkers survive it. I even noticed a supervisor not in my direct section (not my supervisor, in other words) who not only wore her mask off her nose several times, but was observed by me sitting directly next to an employee with her mask completely down around her lower neck as she trained or instructed her on something. We’re talking at least 10 minutes the first time and a second session later. I just don’t fucking get it; if she has a medical exemption, rare as they are, then I understand; otherwise, no.

     With so many states seeing record number of COVID-19 cases, some like California after allegedly getting things under control, I will not relax one bit or trust anyone more than they have proven they should be trusted in fighting and avoiding coronavirus infection. Christ, more than 130,000 Americans have died from it already, and we aren’t even out of its first wave, much less anywhere into the second wave. As much as I wish we could open up more of Buffalo, Erie County and New York State, the best way to fight this is to wear face masks, avoid crowds by social distancing and take precautions. I wish not one business was affected by this, but until we have flattened this virus and its reach, we have to do more and stay vigilant, not let down our guard. My lovely wife Val is working from home, and fortunately, her multiple sclerosis and its accompanying screwing with her immune system hasn’t hurt her worse than normal. Let’s keep it that way. 

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus X: Return of a Not So Minor Threat, Reopening (?) New York/Erie County

     It seems I have to catch up on a few things and quickly mention others, so let’s start:

Your author in an Ivan Gonzalez creation

     As you may know, my good friend for more than 30 years, Ivan Gonzalez, came down with and was really fighting COVID-19 hard. Ivan has returned home, is feeling much better as he continues his recovery, and you can read about his fight and initial release from the hospital in the Buffalo News. It is a goddamn pleasure to read his social media posts again, and even better to see he, his wife Colleen Flaherty Gonzalez and sons at their house or walking past ours in the neighborhood.

     In a DM to me shortly after his return home and in a social media post earlier today, Thursday, June 25, Ivan clearly and sharply advocated for both concern of the health of the medical professionals who saved his life and continue to work to save and treat others, and to keep more people alive and healthy in general, for people to keep wearing face masks, practice social distancing and take any other precautions. It is damn annoying that Gonzalez had to state this again and that they still seem quaint; wear fucking face masks, socially distance yourself from others and be safe.

     If you want to help Gonzalez continue his recovery, support a local artist (Ivan, of course) and get something cool to wear, he has t-shirts representing areas of the City of Buffalo for sale. The link to Gonzalez’s online store is https://buffalocitylimits.square.site, and you can see one of the shirts, a holiday gift from my lovely wife and photographer Val Dunne, in the selfie accompanying this entry. They’re very cool, and Gonzalez deserves to be able to retire to a life of art, husbandry of sorts and parenthood, as well as forming his own Minor Threat.

     I agree wholeheartedly with Gonzalez’s efforts to advance face mask wearing and other activities to keep people healthy, and I remain worried that the “reopening” of Buffalo, Erie County and New York State are moving too fast. It so absolutely sucks that too many businesses, so many of them small businesses, cannot either open up at all or fully, but sadly, I do not have confidence in people following face mask, social distancing and other activities to keep people as safe as possible. That so many people still whine and mewl about wearing masks, as if placing one on your face over your mouth and nose takes such a herculean effort or is a violation of Constitutional rights, is abhorrent. That too many people believe in the already proven wrong/lies of conspiracy theories that masks can kill you due to carbon dioxide issues and are breeding grounds for illnesses and killer germs, is unspeakably bad. There are an extremely limited number of illnesses/physical conditions that allow for face mask exemptions, and it certainly appears that medical professionals have been able to wear masks for years and years without killing themselves. 

     While too many people here in Buffalo/WNY are not following or believing in masks, social distancing, etc., enough of them are and we took these precautions early and seriously that New York State has fallen to be one of the lower states for COVID-19 incidence and deaths. Sadly, but also not overly surprising, states such as Florida, Arizona, Texas and even California, which allegedly reopened to varying degrees of caution, have all spiked and are now seeing scary records of coronbovilius incidence. There is no reason to let up on the COVID-19 response gas pedal, so simply, let’s not.

     I have not read or heard any comprehensive news reports on how the coronavirus crisis affected voting on Primary Day, June 23 (coincidentally, Val and my 18th wedding anniversary). Anecdotally, it appears many more people voted by absentee ballot in the districts I live in, represent and walk through, work and conduct business in; Val and I mailed in absentee ballots this electoral cycle.

     The County of Erie officially returns to 100 percent public operations (with no doubt a couple of exceptions) Monday, June 29. As most readers here know, I work for the Erie County Department of Social Services, and have been reporting to the Rath Building and working throughout the COViD-19 crisis, involving office/financial responsibilities, clients and other public contact and with other departments/employees. I am a bit skeptical that we are 100 percent prepared to return to complete functions, particularly things such as the transportation of employees and clients. The NFTA is still working on limited capacity and with alleged limitations to necessary workers and the practice of social distancing in buses and metro cars. I won’t kid you, I’ve been happy that there hasn’t been the more than 1,000 workers in the Rath Building every day; those of us who have worked throughout the COVID-19 crisis have formed bonds, a certain camaraderie and are used to following strict rules of wearing face masks at all times and social distancing, as well as cleaning work areas. This doesn’t mean that things will go to hell and that workers and the public won’t follow best practices to fight the coronavirus, but let’s say I’m less confident when I see how bad some states have done. I realize that Buffalo, Erie County and New York State have done better than many areas, but there are definitely idiots and conspiracy theorists, as well as a certain uneducated population, who I don’t trust to do the right thing. Let’s hope I’m wrong and that we do all we can to beat or at least limit the spread of COVID-19.New York State Reopening, Spikes and a County Returns toi Work

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus IX: Everything Counts in Large Amounts...Especially Toilet Paper

     Remember when one of the worst parts of the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis was a lack of toilet paper available in many stores? Talk about your simpler, more innocent days, as the pandemic’s toll approaches 110,000 deaths in the USA and too many people still don’t take it seriously or believe in one of the many conspiracy theories about it. But I want to keep one entry of “Dispatches from the Time of the Virus” a little lighter, so here is the story of toilet paper and good things coming in large packages.

It's a beauty, isn't it?

     Sometime in April, I was planning on buying some toilet paper during my weekly grocery shopping at Wegmans on Amherst Street in Buffalo. While toilet paper shortages had begun to be reported, in Buffalo and Western New York, it was mostly a shortage of two-ply toilet paper and in packages of 4, 6 and more rolls. My lovely wife Val and I live and own our home in Buffalo’ Elmwood Village/West Side neighborhood; the house was built in 1900, and it still has a good amount of its original plumbing, so we are a serious single-play household. When you combine that with my anal nature of never wanting to be low nothing’s like toilet paper, we always have several rolls own the house, and I probably get itchy when we get below six rolls on hand.

     Wegmans and most grocery and department stores I have checked established policies early on of allowing only one package of toilet paper per purchase; with single-ply toilet paper sold only in single rolls (or so I thought), as I found out on previous occasions at Wegmans, I had to buy one roll a week and hope our usage didn’t surpass that. There were even a couple weeks when Wegmans had no single-ply rolls for sale. I was hoping for four or six packs of one-ply to be sold, but never saw them. So, this week in April, I went down the aisle where the toilet paper was stocked, and saw they had a display of single roll, single-ply, and grabbed one.

     Suddenly, I heard angels, looked up and to my left, and there, on the shelf, was…a display of about 15 packages of 20 rolls each of single-ply toilet paper. It was the best I had felt after seeing something unexpected since my sister-in-law Tricia pointed out my wedding ring at the bottom of the deep send of a swimming pool at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas the day after Val and I got married there in 2002. I may have actually thrown the single roll of toilet paper back on the shelf before I grabbed the package calling me and got in the checkout line. I knew that it would be its own package in the shopping cart and the car on the drive home, but I forgot that the previously largest package of toilet paper ever in our house was six rolls. Even though we have a cupboard with shelves above the toilet in our half-bath on the bottom floor of our house, I soon found out that there was no way this package would fit on any of the shelves, even after I rearranged things. So, the sizable package was placed next to our bullet garbage can in the kitchen, where it remains, until we use just a bit

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus VIII: I've Got a New Mask, Ooh Wee Ooh, Not Something Too Demanding

     So, I bought/ordered a new mask last week and it was delivered Tuesday; you can see me wearing it in the accompanying photograph here. Pretty cool, isn’t it? This gives me three cloth masks, this one and two white ones issued by Erie County that all employees actually working received in April. I also have a small stash of one-use surgical masks.

     I plan to buy at least one more cloth mask. Why the multiple masks? Because I do not believe for a moment that we are out of the woods from the dangers and effects of the coronavirus/COVID-19 crisis, and I most certainly do not trust too many people who want to open up Buffalo, Erie
County and Western New York fast, way too fast in my opinion, before we have really gotten the virus under control and reduced the deaths and hospitalizations to a better, as in lower, level.

     I’m pretty sure no one is happy that people are out of work, operate businesses, unable to work, fully participate in their educations, family and social lives, and sadly, some may be trapped with abusers. But due to the sometimes vehement disagreement with New York State’s Pause, advocated by Governor Andrew Cuomo in the face of wrong-minded, fact-free and often vile opposition, along with the too frequent and often intentional not following of mask wearing, social distancing and gathering rules, I don’t trust that enough people in Buffalo and Western New York will act lawfully or in healthful manners for me to be safe. Good lord, phase I of the reopening of Buffalo and WNY just started a few days ago, and some people are trying to rush phases 2-4 as well as jump activities scheduled in certain phases ahead. We don’t even know how well this area and its residents will do in phase 1 and we want to just plunge ahead? It’s been in effect a few days, people; slow the fuck down and let’s see through facts and actual events what happens. It should be no surprise to realize that at least one local television station and radio station are working the rush to reopen trap; you can probably figure out who this is.

     I’ve been working through the COVID-19 crisis as well as doing the family grocery shopping and pharmacy visits, and walking Harold, our dog, and I have been taking in everyday incidents, good and bad. I’ve seen people adhering to the mask wearing and social distancing rules. Kudos to Trader Joe’s for doing a good job here, as well as Elmwood Pet Supplies and Rite Aid, and a host of restaurants. But yes, sometimes people don’t follow rules, in these areas and at work, both which I previously mentioned. I forgot to note another recent work situation: I have to visit the office of an elected Erie County official (not the county executive) in the Rath Building on regular business. That has changed during the COVID-19 crisis, and the business on the visits is now handled via email. But when we received a check that had to be hand delivered, I took it up to the office. The receptionist, who was on the telephone, not only did not have a mask over her face, it was not even around her neck, but laid on the desk. I stood back about 15 feet while she was on the telephone, and when she was done, she noted she had left her mask on the desk without putting it on’ I placed the check on top of the Manila folder I carried it in and reached it over to her as far as my arms would reach, then quickly left.

     Since the above was written, early Saturday night, May 23, Val, Harold and I visited Front Park on Buffalo’s West Side near the Peace Bridge, wearing masks. It’s a site we regularly visit which is never crowded, most people follow the mask rules and there is enough room that social distancing is easy. While the walking part around the track near the Columbus Parkway neighborhood and some other parts was not busy, there was a large number of cars parked near the cannons facing the I-190 holding what appeared to be a prearranged party. I counted 27 cars parked in this area, playing music with people standing in a few groups, and 5-7 more cars joined them. “So much for social distancing,” Val said, as we changed our route from that part of the park and headed back to our car.

      I may stop ending these entries with conclusions, because it is redundant to note we have to avoid stupid, mean spirited and startlingly uneducated people and hope that a modicum of respect and caring for others returns to help fight this coronavirus.  

Dispatches From the Time of the Virus VII: I'm Going Down to Canalside to Do Nothing All the Days...

Canalside, Buffalo, 1:30 PM Friday, May 15, 2020. insanely quiet.

     Some aspects of the everyday effects of the coronavirus/COVID-19 become closer to normal than expected, but still don’t totally sit right with me. One that I witness is the daily lower amount of pedestrian and vehicular traffic, for me mainly in downtown Buffalo and Buffalo’s Elmwood Village/West Side.

     As I previously stated in this series, driving to where I park on my way to work, and walking the rest of the way in downtown Buffalo to the Rath Building for my job at the Erie County Department of Social Services, remains scarily quiet. Not only is there way less vehicular traffic and swaths of empty parking spaces, but barely any pedestrian traffic when I walk from my parking to work at about 7:55-8:20 AM, depending on my promptness. I can basically cross against the light at any intersection I walk across on my 3/4-mile walk (I could shorten it but enjoy the exercise), something I wouldn’t consider doing during pre-COVID-19 times. It is exactly the same on my walk back to the car at the end of the day, about the only interruptions of normalcy the construction work at the proposed grocery store/residence/mixed-use development on Clinton Street next to the Buffalo and Erie County Public Libraries main library and NFTA Metro buses, although they have way less passengers. The Metro rapid transit line, which I cross on my way to work, also remains at about 10-20 percent of its normal passenger load.

     Depicting this remains difficult, as I previously wrote, because it is hard to show if these occurrences are just off-times or weekend events or actual desolation during the coronavirus, But as the weather improves and my lunchtime walks increase in distance and variety, I am finding other ways to try to show people this. Last week Wednesday and Friday, I changed my walk route to go toward the water (Lake Erie) and ended up at Canalside at the foot of Pearl Street. Canalside has somehow, despite Buffalo’s reputation for previously not being able to utilize a natural setting such as a Great Lake, become a destination and the site of the Buffalo Naval and Servicemen’s Park, featuring ships, aircraft and other military items, as well as the Explore & More Children’s Museum, a skating rink and a summer concert series of the same name.

     My Wednesday visit really surprised me, because I was expecting at least a good number of walkers or runners to be at Canalside or at least the streets leading to it. But Canalside itself was basically deserted; I counted two people on the massive grounds and less than 10 runners or walkers going to and from it. This was despite temperatures in the upper 50s or lower 60s and no rain. When I returned Friday, I went to the first area I visited Wednesday and it was deserted again, but I went further into and around Canalside, and it remained a ghost town. I took the accompanying photo during Friday’s visit, with no worry of it being interrupted. I found two people sitting at opposing ends of a bench at one of the walkways near a drained canal, kind of just staring at the water.

     As deserted and strange as things are, I was more than glad to see Canalside empty, because I believe that things are not even a tenth of the way back to normal, with way too many people being sick and dying of COVID-19, as well as about to get sick. Some idiots are endangering everybody, from doctors, nurses, medical professional, police, firefighters, EMTs and other first responders, by not wearing masks and not staying home when it’s not necessary to be out. Being “essential” personnel myself and still seeing clients/the public as well as conducting other aspects of our job, I am glad we have a mandatory face mask policy at Erie County/the Rath Building. This does not mean that the policy is not violated at times; I was trapped on an elevator for three floors with two workers not wearing masks/not wearing them properly last week when my glasses were fogged up and I couldn’t see this right away; my mask was fortunately properly on. Nobody wants to see businesses and workers hurt and out of jobs/losing money, but I don’t want to see anyone contract COVID-19 and die in a rush to return to “normal.”

     My across the street neighbor, who I won’t name for good reasons, made a wise comment last week: “I can’t stand this term, the ‘new normal.’ I don’t want this to be normal; we shouldn’t have people dying, people getting sick and having to take all of these precautions forever and closing businesses forever. But we have to take this all seriously and flatten the curve, at the very least.” He and his wife were in home quarantine for 14 days in late March and early April because his wife, an ICU nurse at a well-known and regarded local hospital, came into direct contact with a patient who has COVID-19. Fortunately, she, he and their young child all tested negative for COVID-19.

     Be smart, stay healthy, be careful and wear masks, everybody.

Dispatches from the Time of the Virus VI: The Stupid and Dangerous Are Strong with This One...and Many Others

Wear your masks and I'll stop with the selfies...

     Sometimes, when I recite events through dialogue, some people wonder how much embellishment occurs; I can guarantee that 98-100 percent of the dialogue quoted here is accurate/verbatim.

     Saturday, May 9, I picked up dinner for my lovely wife Val from a Vietnamese restaurant on Buffalo’s West Side on my way home from grocery shopping; I will not name it here because it was the victim of the following douche nozzle’s actions and did not cause/precipitate them.

     As I entered the restaurant, a sign in the now-deserted downstairs bar/serving area told people to go upstairs to pick up their meals; as I headed to the stairs, I could hear that someone was already up there. It turned out to be a man, about age 65, working for one of those food-delivery businesses, picking up two or three orders. He was talking to a staffer of the restaurant, so I stayed on the stairs to leave some distance; this turned out to be a good choice.

     “I know it wasn’t you people, but remember, the USA fought and beat the Japanese in the Pacific as well as Germany in Europe in World War II,” this genius said. “What I mean is that we need to fight this alleged virus. We need to fight and attack it, and not wear masks and gloves and stay separate and be afraid of it.”  He expounded on a few more similar topics, with lots of “you know?” tossed in. He then noted the orders he was picking up said they were for “John,” and that his name was “Joe,” and he proceeded to recite each order from memory to confirm that he was the proper person to pick up these deliveries.

     All the while, I kept hoping for him to just pick up the food and leave; when he did, just as I had feared, he was not wearing a mask. He noticed me for the first time, smiled, lowered his voice a bit and said, “Hey, how are you doing?” “FINE,” I spit back through gritted teeth, and I think he got the message, because he slinked against the wall and virtually ran out of the restaurant, probably not even hearing me call after him,” “Nice mask, idiot.”

     I’d like to write that I commiserated with the restaurant staff over this idiot, but it turns out that they forgot to check the online ordering account and hadn’t started Val’s dinner yet, so I went back downstairs for 5 minutes or so while they made it and I finally left for home.