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Tales from a Dartmouth Costco
I just recently returned from a trip to Costco. My Meat is all sealed in freezer bags and in the freezer. My yogurt rotated in the refrigerator. My toilet paper stacked in the bottom of the linen closet. You get the picture. Today was the first time I’ve been frustrated with the “precautions” and “social distancing” and the face masks! God, don’t get me started on the face masks (spoiler, I’m about to get started).
On my first arrival at the store, there was a line up to get in. “This is fine,” I said to myself “I’m really just trading waiting in line at the cash for waiting in line to get in the store, with the added benefit of less crowded aisles”. I tell you this to assure you, the ranting to follow isn’t because I went there in a foul mood. “Wasn’t it raining in Halifax, Nova Scotia today?” you ask”. “Don’t ruin my story!” I snap back.
So after selecting my products, I’m waiting in line. “No, that’s not the line, the line’s over there.” “Oh, ok.”
So now I’m frustrated, it all just boils up on me. This has gone on long enough (too long), I’m ready for it to be over. Is because COVID-19 was essentially a non-event in my province? Yeah, that has a lot to do with it. The last time I checked the statistic, a couple of weeks ago now, I used to track them daily. then just stopped. There were about 60 deaths, in a province with a population of just under 1 million people. All but two of them were residents of nursing homes, and all but five of them were residents of one particularly poorly managed (that’s a story I can tell at another time) nursing home. There hasn’t been a positive case in this province outside of residents or staff of that nursing home in about two weeks. We’ve flattened the curve! There is no curve.
But that’s only half the story, of course. All this week there have been tons of mass public gatherings. The “experts” tell us, the benefits of these gatherings outweigh their risks? When was there ever a balancing of risks and benefits? Even the “essential workers” had to practice proper social distancing blah blah blah. Anyways, smarter people than me have written about this hypocrisy, I’ll refer you to Jonah Goldberg’s G-File for today (well those of us who still like Mr. Goldberg, I accept he’s persona non-grata with some of us).
Let’s talk about the masks: First of all, can we all please agree that unless you’re wearing an N-95 mask, you’re not fully protecting yourself by wearing one, sure you might gain some protection with a paper, surgical or cloth mask, but you’re doing more to prevent yourself from spreading than you’re doing to prevent yourself from contracting when you wear one. So to me, most of the people wearing masks are just virtue signaling.
My favorite anecdote of the day came while I was loading up my car. The couple in the parking spot next to me was loading their car at the same time. The husband, wearing a mask was teasing his wife for not being able to hear people in the store. The wife, not wearing a mask, was defending herself “how can anybody hear, it’s loud in there to begin with, they’re all wearing masks, and plastic face shields and standing behind plexiglass”.
Let’s think about them for a moment. They were far from the only couple I saw today in that same situation, one partner wearing a mask, the other not. Whatever benefit his mask provides is negated by her not wearing one. If he’s protecting himself because he has some co-morbidity or something, ok, fair enough, but I’m thinking you don’t wear your mask when you kiss your wife goodnight. And if he’s saving us from any virus he might be carrying, well, at this point, who among us thinks you have something she doesn’t.
All of this is to say, I have to go back to Costco tomorrow because I forgot to pick up the cat food.
Published in Healthcare
I noticed that you didn’t really share any bad experiences while shopping. I was hoping for that. It’s probably an indication of the truism that Canadians are nicer/more polite than Americans. Our local Costco is basically a riot without the social justice. I’ll bring a mask there. Along with pepper spray. :)
Sometimes it’s just better to spend a little more money and go to your local store for the convenience if nothing else.
You forgot the most important thing? My cat phones the store to make sure I hurry up and don’t forget anything………
I did forget the confrontation I got in at the cash register. The guy in the adjacent lane to me (He was wearing a mask – homemade cloth mask with a peace symbol) was making a fuss About how with adjacent lanes open there’s not six feet between us.
I said “come on dude, don’t be a Karen, it’s all just theatre at this point anyway.” Well that earned me a “hmmprph” and an aggressive back turn.
kind of exhilarating really. Been a while since I’ve gotten into a dust up with a stranger in public.
I went to Costco yesterday. Had to walk back to the car to get my mask because they don’t let you in without one. Still.
I’m just about up to here (use your imagination of how high “here” is) with going through all this just to salve the emotions of a bunch of soccer moms.
Emotion is part of the human condition. God made us that way, presumably for a reason. But reason is important, too. Why should emotion always rule the day? Believe it or not, emotions can sometimes lead you wrong. Look it up!
A vast Left-wing conspiracy to prevent us from smiling at each other and thus sow global discontent.
I was happy that yesterday I saw someone doing the Dracula mask. That is where you pull one shirt collar over your nose/mouth. I have done this myself and I find it a delightful mockery.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about the real reason masks are being pushed so hard. The WHO agrees, and the CDC only recently did a 180, presumably for political reasons.
Here is a great overview of the actual science (spoiler alert: masks are worthless or even bad):
https://lockdownsceptics.org/scientific-information-on-masks-against-covid-19/
And yes, it is on lockdown skeptics… But he also overviews the evidence in favor of masks.
Yup. I’ll pay extra to not be subjected to Costco’s bullspittle. I’m all for businesses doing what they see fit… I’ll do the same as a consumer.
Well if WHO says so, it must be true. I’m glad you seem to understand why some would be skeptical of an overview in something called “lockdown skeptics.” On the other hand, I’ve reading been Alex Berenson for quite awhile, and he seems to have gotten into a kerfuffle with Amazon over something he wrote critiquing the lockdown. I would recommend checking it out.
Halifax? Cape Breton? Meat Cove?
Well Dartmouth is to Halifax as say Brooklyn is to New York.
can I ask how you are familiar with the isolated community of Meat Cove on Cape Breton Island?
That is so funny! The new symbol of the current culture is the face mask with the peace symbol….can you please explain what a Karen means? Sorry, but I grew up with the original peace symbol and Karen was just a girl’s name………..
BLM facemasks have to be just around the corner. Or are they already here?
I was not citing the WHO as authoritative, nor the CDC. The reason this is important is because these organizations have continually been cited as justifying lockdowns and mandates…
Lockdown skeptics has been very good, and provides citations for it’s claims, unlike most of the MSM. I think it is unfortunate that this is true, but alternate media is proving itself far more reliable… And at least it is open about it’s bias.
Now WHO has reversed course on masks.
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-52945210
I don’t really under stand the whole Karen thing myself. But, basically she’d like to speak to your manager.
Well, as will surprise no-one who knows me at all well, there’s a story there.
While most of my high-school and college summers were spent fishing and sunning myself on the North Shore of Prince Edward Island, my family did spend a couple of them in Nova Scotia, and as usual, we went off the beaten path when we could. Cape Breton and the Cabot Trail is beautiful, and we spent most of our time there, on fishing boats at historic sites, and on the beaches. I remember a charming group of nuns who were staying at the parish house in Dingwall, and who’d show up on the beach in very modest swimsuits. And Earl Donovan’s deep-sea fishing, where I caught what were among the the first of hundreds if not thousands of cod I’ve hauled out of the water in my life.
And one day we just went for a drive. And we found Meat Cove almost at the very tip of Cape Breton, before you fall off and into the Atlantic. It wasn’t all that easy to get to, actually.
Parts of the area are heavily wooded, and a hard-wired family memory is of driving on a barely-there gravel road, through the woods, in the back-of-beyond, wondering if we’d ever see another human being again, and then coming across, at the end of the road, deep in the forest–no idea how it got to where it was or who put it there–a huge, hand-painted sign proclaiming MCCARTHY FOR PRESIDENT!
It was 1968.
Click to embiggen, and you can just about see it:
Oh cool, I guess, being Atlantic Canadian doesn’t make me quite as exotic around these parts as I thought.
Memories are funny things. I was sure my awareness of Meat Cove stemmed from a story about the Goler Family that kind of became a little famous around the time I was in junior high. I was sure they were from Meat Cove. The childhood taunts “you’re a goler” “what? Are you from Meat Cove?” are still so ingrained in my head.
I even remember when I was in law school meeting a young lady who was doing a B.A. who basically introduced herself “I’m from Meat Cove, Cape Breton, don’t worry, I’m not like, you know, one of the Golers”.
So this morning, while I was preparing to tell the story of why I’m familiar with this small community, I did a little research to confirm my facts. It turns out the Golers were from pretty much the other end of the province, South Mountain.
Go figure.
The theater is getting on every last nerve. I used to love grocery shopping, and now when I go I’m at a low simmer by the end of it. Half the employees have the masks around their necks – and I don’t blame them, I can’t breathe in them either. It’s all a joke that only makes my life more complicated.
My father was born in Sydney, and his family was from Estmere. Other kids would go on summer vacation to the Grand Canyon, NYC, Florida, etc.
We went to CBI. We would usually rent cabins around the Orangedale area and go to Baddeck. I recall going to visit my grandmother’s family outside Orangedale and she and her siblings, cousins, etc., all spoke Gaelic. We also did the Cabot Trail and the Gaelic College to see the dancing and hear the pipes.
Not as exciting as the other kids’ vacations, but none of them had a cove named after their families. So I’ve got that going for me. Which is nice.
Jonah’s take was spot on. And if he’s persona non grata to some, that’s a shame. What he has to say is always valuable, even when I disagree. I regret that conservatives have bought into cancel culture to such an extent.
I don’t think that electing not to listen to someone is really cancel culture. Cancel culture, as practiced on the left, involves assuring that no one else will be able to listen.
Okay, wrong terminology. Let me revise: I regret that conservatives have become so willing to toss other conservatives overboard for having differences with them. Electing not to listen to someone is fine (I have elected not to read Jonah’s colleague David French for the nonce because I have been dismayed by some of his recent writings), if, as I said, regrettable. But too often aspersions are cast. Fellow cons are thrown under the ideological bus. That is not good. (I still believe French is a good guy, a good thinker, and a good writer. I hope to be able to engage with him again when I feel stronger.)
If the purpose of a non-medical mask is “to prevent yourself from spreading” the contagion, then it is not mere virtue signaling. There is a practical purpose, whether or not individuals wearing masks umderstand it.
One can argue that the slowing of infection from person to person is negligible or not worth the tradeoffs while the vast majority of COVID deaths occur in nursing homes.
If COVID-19 is genuinely an unusual threat to old people in general, beyond nursing homes, then it remains reasonable (if perhaps incorrect) to believe there is a danger of old people being exposed at a rate that stretches hospital resources in some areas. In that case, slowing the contagion can be more than virtue signaling.
We can reject most present restrictions and mandates without being dismissive.
I’m 64 and wear a mask only when the proprietor requests that I wear one. Otherwise I will not wear a mask. My 85 year old mother doesn’t wear one either. Perhaps people think I must have a death wish.
Of course, you can determine what measure of risk you are willing to accept for yourself. But the supposed risk of hospitals being overwhelmed and thereby weakening recovery outcomes is not about you.
Again, we as a society could determine that the risk of temporarily weakened medical response is low or tolerable. The wearing of masks to decrease risk of exposing others can nevertheless be a reasonable decision and not virtue signaling.
If we want to persuade reasonable people of anything, we have to treat them as reasonable parties and not accuse them of baseless posturing.
When they are just posturing, call a spade a spade.
Exactly