Folly in the Time of Coronavirus
It’s more than a month since I last went out. (I’m considered high risk.) I realised my podiatrist, whom I see for medical reasons, might close. I phoned. Yes they would, the following week, but could fit me in today. I arrived masked and gloved. So were the staff. They had a chair outside for me so I didn’t have to sit near another client in the tiny waiting-room.
Afterwards, needing a few supplies, I ducked into a supermarket – not the big, busy one but the little old place on Main Street. It was late afternoon, few people in there, some others masked too. We all kept distance.
In the fruit section, I pulled one of those flimsy plastic bags off a roll, for my bananas. But my gloves were cotton (all I had); I couldn’t prise the bag open.
‘Oh well,’ I thought, ‘I’m going straight home. I’ll have a good wash,’ and took off one glove.
But you know how sticky those damn bags are. It still wouldn’t open. Impatient, from habit, I licked my fingers – shifting the mask just a moment – and tried again. Yes! It never fails.
Then everything went still. Oh. My. God. I LICKED MY FINGERS!!!
Nothing to be done just then. Don’t react, don’t draw attention. Glove back on, finish shopping, get out quick, get home. Scour hands. Rinse mouth with hot, salty water (well I didn’t have Listerine). Pray.
No, I didn’t get sick. It’s been over four weeks. Whew!
So, so easy to slip from a vigilance we’ve never had to learn before.
I get deliveries now. I haven’t been out since.
Packages.
Collect from doorstep.
Wash outsides.
Wait three hours. Unpack.
Wash hands while singing.
Written (simultaneously) for Weekly Scribblings #15: Ink COVID-19 at 'Poets and Storytellers United' and April 2020 Day 15: Folly at 'imaginary garden with real toads'. (This is more about a moment of folly than the major construction the toads were after – but it could have had major repercussions even so.)
Note: I guess everyone knows that singing 'Happy Birthday' twice takes 20 seconds – the recommended minimum time for hand washing?
We who with songs beguile your pilgrimage /
And swear that Beauty lives though lilies die, /
We Poets of the proud old lineage /
Who sing to find your hearts, we know not why ...
(James Elroy Flecker)
We are so accustomed to doing particular things that at times we don't realize (such as nowadays) that we are to refrain from doing them. I enjoyed reading and visualizing each scene, and am so relieved that you didn't get sick! I too am having groceries delivered at my doorstep. 💘💘
ReplyDeleteThis is all so familiar, Rosemary. I’ve been so careful about not going out (I’m also high risk), about keeping surfaces clean after my husband has unpacked the shopping, and singing ‘If you’re happy and you know it, wash your hands’ twice – my daughter sings this with Lucas as he was confused by singing ‘Happy birthday’! And now I have suspected shingles – all the pain but no rash yet. Thankfully, I have no experience of shopping in supermarkets, or keeping social distance, as there has been nobody around when I went for my daily walks, which stopped on Sunday when the pain started. But I know what you mean about the flimsy plastic bags – I can’t get them open without gloves!
ReplyDeletei am sure we have all had those awful moments when our lifelong habits seem to sabotage our best efforts. Don't even get me started on the manic washing of groceries...
ReplyDeleteThe first time I went out to the supermarket after realizing covid-19 was going to be a thing, I almost did exactly the same thing! I'm a lot more hyper-vigilant now, as the one who does the bulk of the shopping for my family (the hubby has diabetes). My next excursion out is this Friday. I dread those, just wanting to get back fast and reduce my risk of bringing anything home.
ReplyDeleteEven though we are "plagued," we often forget to change our behavior to accommodate the "new normal." Licking a finger, rubbing an eye, scratching our nose--we all do it, and then think, "Oops!" Glad that you're well and still writing, Rosemary!
ReplyDeleteWhen I got to the licked finger part, I burst into terrified laughter. Which explain why I don't attend funerals of people I don't know (with relatives who don't know me well). No, not because there will be finger licking, but because terror tends to turn into laughter in my mouth. No idea why. But there you have it.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you are doing well.
Goodness those plastic bags are a terror to open in and out of Covid seaso
ReplyDeleteEaster Blessings
Much🌼long
Rosemary, this is a delightful tidbit, your shopping. It is the real you, not embellished as we tend to do on these pages. Nothing was funny but I mentally kick myself when I lick my fingers to open the bags. I wonder who all else is doing that too.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Jim and are high risks also. I'm a bit older than you, she's a bit younger. She has developed asthma in her old age to keep company with her arthritis. I have coronary developments, all repaired. But I puff going up stairs.
Again, thank you for sharing!!
Stay Well
..
so intensely dramatic set in realism and amalgamated with typical actions and added humor-a lovely flowing gripping natural story- we all are human. Really enjoyed the story-Stay Safe Stay Well amen
ReplyDeleteWhat gets me is that in supermarkets there are hand sanitisers to use before you shop but nobody cleans it before you touch it after the previous person! Then I put some on the trolleys push bar If I am going to hold that as well!
ReplyDeleteAfter I wash my hands, I then put them, still soapy, on the taps and wash them too! (The taps at home, that is. Not going out to have to wash them elsewhere. It's me I'm protecting.)
DeleteI have just this minute returned from "old person" shopping at my close by supermarket. I have not stopped laughing at this timely description of the dreaded plastic bag maneuver.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how many more of these tales I can bear to read... Well told, this one, though!
ReplyDeleteI agree.
DeleteWonderful writing! I can so relate. Alas, the thing about we humans is … we're human. ~ smiles ~
ReplyDeleteEverything is changing and habits die hard. I refuse to give in, not because I'm impervious to those little virus %*!$@, it's that I have work to do, trees to plant and a crop to get into the ground. I'm in the at-risk group as well as my wife. We are all in the same situation, just different places. Please be of good cheer, Rosemary!
ReplyDeleteI hope you can do your work with enough distance from other people, Joel.
DeleteThank you, Rosemary. We're mostly alone in our work, my wife and I. (I've been avoiding people for decades, actually.) I believe there's power in solitary work as well. I wish you and all your friends and family safekeeping.
DeleteThis is how to make humorous, an otherwise catastrophic time. That description of the plastic bags had me laughing out loud. I can never open them, even with both hands and no gloves. Stay well.
ReplyDeleteWell Rosemary, like me you are a survivor. Thankfully we finger lockers will continue to tell the tale of fingers licked. I carry my own tiny bottle of sanitizer on my purse and refill it from my huge at home bottle. Because Brad was immuno supprrssed long before, I kept a huge bottle of santizer and kept tiny bottles in purse and cars and disinfectant spray and sani wipes on hand.
ReplyDeleteNow the rest of us have had to learn these good habits too.
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