How do I know?
The price of everything is going up, and Stop and Shop is unloading hand sanitizer for a dime a bottle. Another supermarket near me was literally giving away big bottles of hand soap.
There are a couple of caveats to this hand-sanitizer deal. For one, they'd been hanging around for a while and were due to hit their expiration date soon. However, the fact that they'd been hanging around at all is more proof that it's over -- you couldn't find this stuff at any price two years ago. For another, you had to have a loyalty card to get it for this price. Big deal -- it's not a club card, it's just the free store discount card. I've seen cashiers scan one for people that forgot their cards. Most people have them on their phones now anyway.
That's not all. In May 2020, Time magazine solemnly declared "COVID-19 Killed the Handshake. What Will Replace It?" Well, it's back, baby! I'm greeting friends with handshakes and/or hugs, and I'm seeing that everywhere.
There are still the holdouts, of course. Quite a number of people are still walking around wearing face masks. My church is still dividing the seating--freedom on one side, masks/social distancing on the other. Which is probably about as effective as the old no-smoking areas were in restaurants and airplanes. We also don't shake hands at the sign of peace; we just kind of wave at one another like people in on parade floats. Lots of guys have gone to the fist-bump and don't want to go back. My vet's office, of all places, still demands face masks -- but it's the only place I know around here that does.
At this point it is all kabuki healthcare, and maybe that's all these precautions ever were.
As for me, no, I do not want to get the Chinese COVID death virus, because I don't like being sick, I can't afford the hospital, and I don't like losing my ability to taste delicious food. But this is about the least you can ask of someone like me who says Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death. I've had it and I'm not playing along anymore.
It's over, people. We have got to try to move on.
I'm pretty sure ALL of our government is Kabuki theater any more. Probably always was...
ReplyDeleteI feel sorry for most of the people still wearing masks, especially the ones wearing them while driving alone.
ReplyDeleteIn deep blue Northern Virginia on a typical weekend at the Safeway, the number of unmasked first exceeded the number of masked just two or three weeks ago.
Meanwhile Bill Gates is out there trying to scare people about yet-to-come variants that may be even more deadly!! What a putz.
The veterinarians are still doing the curbside service. Starting to feel they never wanted people in the office to begin with, that they just put up with it before.
ReplyDeleteWent to the vets today to pick up the terrorists medicine. Hooray, no more masks. They still required them in March.
ReplyDeleterbj