Mask in Pocket

 This morning found us out of English muffins or any breadstuffs for breakfast. I thinking I might fast for the day, I decided I wanted something to put into my stomach, so I got fully dressed and headed out the door to A.J.s market. 

Before I left the apartment, I retrieved a cloth mask from the hook on my coat rack where I keep the ones that Ginger's mother has made for us over the last year. I put it in my back pocket, remembering the last time I went to A.J.s and I saw the sign that masks were now "recommended."

As I walked to the market, which is only a three-minute stroll out of the security gate, which puts you right amidst the shopping center, I thought about whether I would wear the mask in the market. 

I am rarely the kind of person who takes daring provocative actions that incite passions in others. I'm mostly a follower.

But I had seen someone in A.J.'s without a mask, so I wouldn't be the pioneer. I'd be the follower.

So when I got to the door, I went through inside without wearing the mask. It was still in my pocket. I wondered if I would get any angry stares from the other customers. There were few people there in the early morning. I saw the women standing around the bakery counter, which is a magnet to the women of North Scottsdale. All were wearing masks but all were absorbed in their business.

I got my English muffins and some half-and-half, since we were getting low on that, and there are few things more disappointing to start the day at 4:30 AM than to discover than I must drink my coffee black.

At the counter the masked employee was cheerful as she chatted to me. All was normal. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Except it wasn't normal. Nothing feels normal lately.

On the way home I thought about the comments that Patrick Gunnels had discussed in the video I included in my last post. I thought about how Donald Trump had probably saved the country when he got elected in 2016, by the Grace of God, and that had Hillary been elected, the country would probably be ended as we know it by now.

All the rest of my day is gravy, as they say.