Shelter in Space
I applied to NASA last week. Now, other kinds of space are more important.
Two weeks ago, I started wearing latex gloves when I went to the grocery store or the post office, but mostly for solidarity with the workers there, all of whom wear gloves, and most of whom wear masks (as of this week, they’re all required to wear gloves and masks). Also, for the safety of elderly folks who have to run their own errands. After going to the post office, I’d even put on a new set of gloves before going to the grocery store, because I didn’t want to cross-pollinate between the handle of the post office and a shopping cart, again for the elderly. Now, it’s more because I don’t want to contaminate the steering wheel between errands, since we’ve still been driving the five minutes to Mariah’s folks’ house. I throw the gloves away at the store after putting the groceries in the car and putting the cart away. Still, I worry about COVID-19’s shelf-life (supermarkets probably prefer the term life-span) on the grocery bags or other food packaging.
“...severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was detectable in aerosols for up to three hours, up to four hours on copper, up to 24 hours on cardboard and up to two to three days on plastic and stainless steel.” -National Institutes of Health
The thing that surprised me at the grocery store is that they still allow reusable grocery bags (until yesterday). My reasoning for wanting to use reuseable bags is that their bags are sitting there with hundreds of people walking by them every day. Maybe I should wash ours though (I washed ours after my last store trip, but now probably won’t use them for months). When I get home, I put all my clothes in the wash and take a shower. I’ve considered cleaning all the outer surfaces of the groceries, or at least getting rid of most of the packaging, but I haven’t gone that far yet. I have a feeling I will though.
Since we live a ways from town, and it’s a small town, I still feel safe running with Randy (our dog), virus-wise at least. The other day, when I let him out the front door he took off barking, but didn’t go far, because the moose he was barking at was only ten feet away. I peeked around the door frame and the moose snorted and took a couple sharp steps forward. I said, “Holy shit! Randy! Come!” And Randy came in the door and I closed it and flipped the deadbolt. It would be nice if that door had a real window in it, not just some little stained-glass things.
Reading about New York City, people aren’t supposed to exercise outside anymore. Even with six-feet of social distance, there’s the hundred-story apartment buildings overhead to consider. Even if the streets are empty, the viral load is too high to go out for any recreational heavy breathing. In our neighborhood, we can barely see the closest house. Plus, there’s usually a bit of a mountain breeze, which Mariah mentioned as a good thing. If there’s a strong upslope though, I don’t know if I want to run in all that air coming up from Denver.
Running here, I’m mostly worried about slipping on the mud and ice, or postholing badly in the snow. My mantra is Don’t fall and break something bad enough that you have to go to the hospital, because it probably still won’t be worth going to a hospital and taking up a bed and risking getting infected. I don’t say my mantra out loud while I run, because I don’t want to give my neighbors anything more to worry about, and because I don’t have the lung capacity. My lung capacity is healthy, though.
Last night, we got ribs delivered by Busey Brews, a local restaurant. They deliver to a different out-of-town neighborhood every day, and Magnolia Monday includes us. The delivery lady was wearing an Eldora Ski Resort Buff. I guess since now everyone who goes anywhere is supposed to wear a mask, the resort gave them out to all the businesses in town. It’s 70-something degrees today, but it’s supposed to snow nine inches on Sunday. I was hoping to get away with not plowing again, but maybe I will so we can get another delivery come Magnolia Monday. It’s been four years since we’ve lived in a place where we could get food delivered, so we’d better take our perks where we can get them.