March 5, 2021
Dear Everyone:
“Alice” has been here since just before
“Jeannie” had her hip replaced.
“Alice” has, of course, been invaluable with helping “Jeannie”
get around, negotiating with pharmacies, keeping track of all the
medications, and so on.
I did my part by picking “Alice” up at the
airport (San Francisco International) and delivering her to “Jeannie’s”
place late one evening. I’m
not sure exactly when I realized the “Alice” had left her face mask
folded up in the side pocket of the door in my car; but there it was.
She had absently taken it off and accidentally left it in the
car. No problem.
She had brought more than one.
“Marshall” came up from Fresno last weekend and
spent some time with all of us.
And “Alice” accidentally left her face mask in “Marshall’s” car,
also.
This brings up a significant factor in the
all-important requirement of wearing face masks anywhere in public:
Accidentally losing one, or just forgetting to wear it.
It can happen to anyone.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve gone outside, “…just to
take out the garbage…”, “…just going to the mailbox…”, “…just getting
something from/to the car…”
But then I encounter one of my neighbors in “The Common Area” and have
to try and stay at least six feet away from each other, on the narrow
walkway. It’s particularly
embarrassing when the other person did remember to wear a mask.
So, what we need is some way to hang onto a
mask when we take it off, such as inside the car, or to keep it close
enough to hand to be able to slip it on when suddenly finding ourselves
around other people.
Once upon a time, w-a-a-y back in the
mid-1990’s, I had two pairs of eyeglasses to use.
One was for “general” use; the other for reading, especially when
using a computer monitor. I
tried using an eyeglass holder, or “chain”.
This attached to the temple pieces of the eyeglasses and hung
around the neck. When I took
a pair of glasses off, they hung in place until I needed to change
glasses.
Frankly, it didn’t work very well.
The glasses would bang against the desk whenever I sat down.
And they just plain got in the way in the restroom.
Eventually, I gave up on the “hanging glasses around your neck”
solution.
But I never threw out the hangers.
They were still in the back of a cupboard where I had stashed
them. One was an actual
chain, about 24” long; the other was made of dark blue cord.
Each had a slightly flexible loop at the end,
to slip over the temple stem of a pair of eyeglasses.
Using a small (1” or smaller) safety pin, I attached the ends to
the back part of the ear loop of a face mask.
Ta da!
Now I could simply loop the mask around my
neck. If I wasn’t around any
of my neighbors, I didn’t need to keep the mask actually on my face.
If I slipped one end off my ear, to breath more freely while
loading groceries into the trunk of my car, I didn’t run the risk that
the other end would blow off and land on the ground.
I needed more of these.
Normally, I would just drop in at an optician
or optometrist office. Of
course, things aren’t “normal”, or we wouldn’t need face masks to begin
with. I called my
optometrist to make an appointment.
They could let me in the door at 2:45 the following afternoon.
In the meantime, the receptionist suggested trying one of the
national drugstore chains.
I actually had already looked in my usual
drugstore, but they didn’t have anything like what I was seeking.
This time, I tried a different store and discovered that they not
only had a few, but some of them were also marketed under their own
label, a sure sign that this was something they sold frequently.
Within a few hours, I had a whole handful and
had called the optometrist’s office to cancel the 2:45 appointment.
I had enough for me, and “Jeannie” and “Alice”, and a few more
for other people.
It also occurred to me that all one really
needs is a length of cord and a means of attaching it to the mask.
Actually, a fresh pair of shoelaces would work quite well.
Especially with disposable masks.
All that’s needed is to tie the ends to the ear loops, as long as
the cord is long enough that the end doesn’t poke one in the ear.
And the mask doesn’t hang too far down on the chest.
Also, as usual, beware of the automobile’s
safety belt. One doesn’t
want to get the mask caught in the belt.
Remember Isadora Duncan.
(If you’ve never heard of Isadora Duncan, one word:
Wikipedia!)
Love, as always,
Pete
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