social distancing

Despite my pledge not to go anywhere or do anything, I went out on two major errands today, intended to ensure that two things important to me remain in good running shape, my car and my cat.

First was taking Maia back to the vet for a teeth cleaning. This was relatively easy from a virus-safety point of view. You phone the vet when you arrive and the tech comes out to the car, takes (and brings back) the cat carrier from the passenger-side door, and conducts the paperwork from that location also. Everyone's masked except for the cat.

For the cat, however, this is not so easy. Maia is hard to pin down when a carrier is in the offing, and this time I resorted to trickery, due to the requirement that she not have any food in the morning. Both cats rushed into the bathroom, where the food is kept, ahead of me, which made it easy to shut the door behind them. Then when I opened the shower stall, revealing the cat carrier that had been secreted there the previous night, she gave a wail of dismay and huddled on the floor, but offered no resistance when I picked her up. Then I went back to the bedroom to report to a still-drowsing B. "We have capture," I said, which is what you say when the CSM docks with the LM.

Maia came through the procedure fine, and so did my car through its regular servicing. I'd last been there in July, when I could see that the pandemic restrictions were well-enforced there, and I waited over in the sales area away from the other customers. I did that again this time, hoping to avoid too much contact, even though the incidence of infection has much increased since then. But I need my car to stay in good working condition.

I'm particularly concerned about the new more contagious strand of virus. That's already in California, and has been detected as far north as San Bernardino. Since that's in the same state it may not seem very far, but California is big: that's 400 miles from here, as far as Baltimore is from Boston (6 to 8 states, depending on what route you take). So I thought it best to go now, before things get worse.

Another thing they have in places like San Bernardino that we don't have here is anti-mask protesters. What is with these people? What is so horrible about a basic and non-intrusive safety precaution? B., as a former retail clerk, is particularly incensed about the attacks on clerks for trying to enforce the house rules. If you don't like the rules, go shop somewhere else. Good luck at finding one, though.

Tomorrow I think I'll watch, or at least begin to watch, the Congressional proceedings with the electoral vote. They meet at 10 AM PST/1 PM EST, and I wonder what they will do.