Mask on, mask off.

On Saturday I had to pick up a medicine for large economy size dog Tralfaz. The vet's office is closed to hoomans (as the dogs supposedly say) but you can drop off dogs for exams and things. If you're picking up meds or special foods, you can use the courtesy walk-up window. You call to say you're there, give them a credit card number, and they slide the receipt and package to you along the table.

Of course I put the ol' mask on to pick up my package. I don't think it matters much at this point, even in southern New York, but I am willing to do it as a courtesy. Of course, Governor Corleone insists on it. The day before I was on the highway and these signs appeared every fifteen miles or so:

Hey, if I had his face I'd cover it all the time. And look, I could even get official MLB face coverings with the logos of my favorite team! Which is kind of weird, since there's no baseball because of this damn Chinese death virus.

However, Saturday was a lovely day, and when I passed by the park I noticed it was crowded with people walking the trails. And guess what? The majority were not complying with the state edict. Maybe a quarter or an eighth had masks over their noses and mouths. Some had them askew somewhere on their heads, but most wore nothing over their faces. As Instapundit noted, most people started staying home before the government told them to, and now most of them are breaking out before the government tells them to. It's not an angry protest; quarantine fatigue is a real thing. Americans are good and caring people on the whole, but our institutions are throwing away our trust in them at a fast pace these days. With each day the "stay-at-home" orders get harder to obey, financially, psychologically, socially.

It certainly doesn't help me when I see propaganda based on old Soviet artwork, either. Have you encountered this thing? Drippy girl with torch in peasant hat? I have never seen a poster more calculated to elicit the romance of Soviet butchery. Who the hell thought this was a good idea?

I want to grab her little torch and stomp it out, rip off her phony wings, Frisbee her peasant hat, and send her home crying with her juice box. Of all the annoying commercials with sad piano music, the messages that people who don't give a damn about me are here for me, the moronic celebrity videos filmed in the part of the house where the help lives (so as to not be too showy) to say we're all in this together, of all these things, none of them makes me want to go running through the streets unmasked, ungloved, coughing and sneezing and spitting everywhere, more than this stupid, creepy poster. Nice job, Ad Council, you pinko wankers.

When, where, and how will this all end I do not know. I'm usually happy to do as requested; I continue to put out my bottles and paper on recycling day even though I am 90% sure it all goes to the landfill. But I'm not doing this shelter-in-place crap into July.