Be careful out there.

Okay, this is going to be an uncheery, pre Thanksgiving Day post.  But I'm going to note it anyhow.

This is about Coronavirus nonobservance and a modicum of self protection.  

Now, what I don't mean is the topic of people who dispute wearing masks entirely or things of that type.  No, what I mean is the interesting behavior of people who acknowledge all the public warnings and the instructions, and really feel they should be observed. . . except when it comes themselves.

I've noted it a lot.

This includes nearly every kind of recommendation regarding the disease, but most particularly the "don't pack up" and "wear a mask" in groups recommendations, warnings or orders.  People who will wear masks for their daily activities and wipe stuff down, but if they regularly go to the bars simply suspend every precaution.  It's as if they feel that COVID 19 lurks office hallways and grocery stores during the day, but it takes the night off if people go to the bar.  

Or people who wring their hands in angst when a family member gets the disease, as perhaps they should, but don't see any of the precautions that they felt should be taken regarding the afflicted one anywhere else.  "Wear a mask. . .stay inside. . .don't get near Cousin Luigi. . . let's go down to Walmart and I forgot my mask. . . "

We're gong to see a lot of that over the next several days, probably the next couple of months.

There are those who wouldn't dare go out in a crowd right now who will go into crowded kitchens on Thanksgiving Day, as you can only get the disease from coworkers or strangers at the supermarket, not Cousin Harry whose day job is taking complaints at the Denver International Airport "I lost my luggage from Wuhan" department and who at night is the accordion player for Sparky Spark and the Spunky Bunch.  Some people are going to linger maskless for holiday drinks with a coworker even though the spouse of the coworker has been sick in bed with "something" for the last few days, as you can't get it from somebody you are in close association with, only strangers.  People who will spray down an work surface with every known anti viral or anti bacterial substance right up to and including DDT, Agent Orange and Zyklon B will at the same time go about their regular day even though Junior was sent home from 7th Grade "not feeling well".  Some people are going go, as they do every day, for the Massive Flapjack, Waffle and Lox Bruch Hootenanny at Gigantic Twenty Four Hour Eatery as their pals are there and you can't get it from them, only those strangers that lurk at the mall.

And as the holidays are commencing some are going to hit the mall as its the holidays on the joyless Black Friday that always follows Thanksgiving, that day after which we honor the old Christian holiday giving thanks to God for the food on our tables by going out and buying a bunch of stuff in anticipation of missing the point of Christmas.

Okay, so what am I saying.

Well, I guess I'm in part saying the same thing the old desk sergeant did n the old series Hill Street Blues; "be careful out there".  

And I'm also saying folks need to think just a bit.  I don't want all the eateries and taverns out of business by any means, and I sure want small businesses to make it, but the lesson of the Spanish Flu is one to keep in mind.  It's called that as the King of Spain got it in 1918.

You aren't the King of Spain.

King Alfonso XIII.  If a pandemic could reach him. . . it can get to you.

Be careful out there.