Venturing Out....

[lydamorehouse]

 Yesterday, Shawn and I made a trip to her work to pick up a laptop for use at home. She'd been using an old chromebook which was sort of working, but then suddenly decided that all this video conferencing was for fools. So, off we went to deserted building. 

We decided to drive down Grand Avenue, which is an area that's full of cute little shops and restaurants. We remarked to each other about all the handwritten/computer printed signed announcing various closures, and which places were still open: the fabric store! Hooray!  So, we decided that on the way back we should stop in an support a few of the businesses, particularly the bagel shop and the bakery.  

When I went into the bagel shop, the one other customer there visibly leaped away from me. This was only amusing since we were already easily a dozen feet from each other and he clearly had been at the counter telling the employees what kind of sandwich he wanted. The employees were also within six feet of each other because there really isn't room for them behind the counter to be anything other than elbow to elbow. This same guy also did the fast back-up when I headed to the counter to pay, which again, all I could do was eye roll, because, seriously, there is currently no other way for him or anyone else to pay without touching credit cards and standing a counter length apart. But, I guess some people figure that employees have some kind of immunity? Or maybe they don't actually EXIST other than to serve you and that the only people to be worried about are the other customers?  I wanted to tell him that I see far fewer people in my daily life than these poor employees (who probably have no sick time,) but then I am actually only one step removed from a confirmed case, so, the truth is, yeah, go ahead and keep your distance. It's just that he's being dumb to assume I'm the only worry he has in that place.

Otherwise, I had a nice chat with the people working at Breadsmith about their plans to try to stay open.

In other non-plague news, I got my cover art for Unjust Cause and it's AMAZING.  I can't wait to be able to show it off to you all. 

Oh, and Bleach is getting an animation of its final arc...

Comments

[dreamshark]

It may seem silly when people who are already 6 feet away back away further, but I think it's a good sign that the public at large is internalizing the message. I don't feel that brief one:one exposures are extremely dangerous at this point, but two exposures is twice as bad as one.

Where is this "fabric store" of which you speak? I used to buy fabric at that wonderful store in Southtown (Midwest Fabric?) which then turned into a massively inferior Joann Fabric, which then closed. Almost nobody sews these days, and most of the fabric stores seem to be gone, or degenerated into crafting stores with small fabric sections. :-(

[lydamorehouse]

Oh, well, it might be a craft store. It's on Grand and... Hamline? I'm about to go out again, so I will take a look at its name.

And, yeah, I'm not mad, it was just kind of funny. And, I'm not sure how well people are internalizing if they don't imagine the servers are people who could be infected, too....

[dreamshark]

By "internalizing" I meant more developing a reflex response. Once you have decided to go into a bagel shop you have made the decision to risk exposing yourself to the server, at which point you should probably try to suppress any reflex that you might have developed to leap away from people.

But developing that reflex is HARD. I'm not in self-isolation, but have been trying to develop just a couple of new habits: avoiding handshakes and washing my hands whenever I come in from outside the house. It's surprising how hard it is to remember these two simple guidelines. I had no idea how often I normally shake hands with people. Apparently I shake hands when introduced to a new person without even thinking about it or remembering it afterwards, and it happens more often than I would have guessed. Of course, now that I am avoiding gatherings it's less likely to be a problem.

[lydamorehouse]

True. We are in semi-isolation ourselves.

[naomikritzer]

Treadle Yard Goods. Grand & Hamline. It's an extremely nice fabric store with super interesting fabrics.

[lydamorehouse]

Yes! That's it!