Currently, the nation–the world–is in the grip of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Up to this point, I‘ve been blogging about my road trip. The road trip will return, but this week I am going to relay an event that occurred this morning.

My day job is in telecommunications, a vital utility. In an attempt to limit possible exposure, my day job has become a night job.

After work this morning, I went to the grocery store to collect supplies for the coming week.  3/4 of the folks at the store — mostly older people, were wearing masks and gloves. I wasn’t.  I wish I had been.

The store was having technical issues, and only two of the checkouts were working. While waiting to check out, some guy came right-up behind me, so close that I could feel his breath on the back of my neck.

In the best of circumstances, this would have still garnered a reaction — strangers invading my personal space is something this Dude doesn’t abide. But today, I could have competed in the long jump at Olympic level. I jumped away and demanded, “What the hell?” And then something along these lines (I covered all these points but not necessarily in these exact words):  Are you not aware of what’s going on?  Do you not know there is a disease killing hundreds of people every day? Do you think these people wearing masks and gloves because It’s dress like a surgeon day?

An old-timer–waiting in line for the other checkout, wearing a WWII Veteran — USS Essex hat said, “Yeah, what the f***, man?”

The man had nothing to say for himself except “Uh, Uh, Uh.”

The manager had the security guard remove the man from the premise and apologized profusely to me.  Upon reflection, I realized the guy was huffing and wheezing like he had shortness of breath — a symptom of Covid-19.

Of course, it could have been any number of other ailments.  For example, overnight, Mother Nature had covered everything in a yellow-green layer of pollen.  My allergies are going nuts. But, still, I’m not happy right now.