I say the following with the proviso that I believe Governor Tim Walz is doing a very good job. I wish he would do more, but I know that those Republican fuckers in the Minnesota Legislature would just piss and moan about more safety measures, and the stupid people in outstate Minnesota (and crazy-ass anti-maskers living in the metro area) will really get pissy about it. Besides, what really should be done -- shut everything down and pay everybody money to stay home -- can't be done without money from the federal government, and that sure as shit ain't happening because of those Republican fuckers in the United States Senate.
I was pulling in a half-day at work on Sunday. I usually buy something for myself -- coffee, maybe breakfast -- and I had a bevy of choices. I decided I finally would bite the bullet and use the Starbucks gift card I got from Mother (she went to have outpatient surgery and the doctor gave them to her). Also, Starbucks began advertising their new holiday mochas, and this time, commercials worked to influence me. So sue me.
There's a Starbucks on the way to work. I wanted to walk in and take out the mocha (as well as a cranberry orange scone that they said was new for the season), and the website said I could do such from this location. But as I parked and went up to the front door, I saw a handmade sign that, and I'm paraphrasing, they were going to be drive-thru only for that day, as well as, for some reason, Friday/two days ago, even though the sign said nothing about Saturday/the day before. I was sort of irked, but the pandemic has reached its third, deadliest wave, and this Starbucks is closing down its store out of an abundance of caution.
I didn't want to go directly home after work. After I filled out the gas tank of my car, I went to Dairy Queen to use an app coupon. So I parked and went to open the front door ... and it wouldn't open. What, DQ is closing its storefront, too? I eventually went to jones out on eating food I decided to eat for myself at the closest Taco Bell. It was open on the inside, but that's because it's connected to a gas station. And after I ordered one of its new items I ate it in the car.
I very initially thought that those two places were being over the top when it came to safety in the midst of the pandemic. And I could be wrong, but when the Governor issued new rules closing down bars and restaurants at 10, I don't think there was a concurrent rule that fast food restaurants had to shut its doors to dine-in diners. Those businesses appear to be doing it on their own.
And you know what? I think they're doing the right thing. I said when this pandemic began that I was freaking out because I was thinking that the coronavirus was literally in the air around us. I could have been paranoid then. I even caught myself holding my breath many times. But with the exponential spike in infections, here and in the country, I might not be wrong now. It could literally be around us, right now. The Wall Street Journal has a story up (but you'll have to be a subscriber) literally saying that. Before, where COVID-19 was spreading mainly in super-spreader events such as Sturgis, it is now also spreading in day-to-day situations, such as family dinner. It is not readily being transmitted from, say, work to home. And when you can't even do routine things without transmitted the coronavirus, that's pretty fucking pervasive.
So in an effort to do all they can to cut off that method of transmission, it looks as though restaurants, and not just the ones I went to on Sunday, are just taking it upon themselves to shut down their indoor spaces. That may not be paranoia. And they would be private businesses taking a step farther than what even the government now mandates. That's 2020 in a nutshell.
Finally, can I confess something? I have to admit that if I was able to go into Dairy Queen, I was going to get a cone and eat it there, inside -- quickly, but inside. Also, it would have been the third time in, oh, as many weeks where I did that. I just wanted the peace of enjoying a meal at a proper table and not in my damn car seat. Now, this may be a rationalization, but the previous two times at DQ there was no one else eating in the dining area. Still, I realized I was taking a risk, as low-risk as I talked myself into thinking it was. Now that DQ decided it was not safe enough for anyone to stay even for a quick bite, it makes me think I made a big mistake in eating indoors. Please don't tell anyone.
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