Well, it’s official. Evidence has mounted that people with no symptoms can unknowingly spread COVID-19. This week, the folks at the top shared that wearing a mask in public could reduce the risk that someone who is carrying the nasty bug will infect others in places where social distancing is difficult. Ah yes, the barrier method to counter infection.
I feel fine, but one never knows. My next grocery run is due. I’d better get with the program and equip myself to practice safe shopping.
Don’t tell anyone, but I have two surgical masks left from a package I bought before a friend who is immunocompromised came to visit a while ago. We’re supposed to leave the professional grade masks for health care workers. Best I don’t appear in public wearing contraband.
This means I need to make my own mask.
The internet has lots of patterns for home-made masks and I know how to sew. Excuses will be hard to find.
What to use? I purged my odds and ends of fabric before I moved to Vancouver. With the prohibition on non-essential trips, this means I need to make it with materials I have on hand if at all possible.
A hunt through my closets produced a torn white cotton bed sheet from the bygone era when all bed sheets, at least for simple folk like me, were white and cotton. It occasionally serves as a dust cover or drop cloth. Lots of washes have softened it. A few inches from the good side will provide enough fabric to create several multi-layer, washable, boring face masks.
I have a plan. I must stop watching every news conference and reading every post on social media so that will have time to follow through before my cupboard is completely bare.
Post script. If you, like me, have found diversion in the humour on social media, you’ve likely seen the videos of how to turn a lady’s thong…not the flip flop kind… into a face mask. Or a photo of a fetching woman modelling how one bra cup will do the job.
I had a moment of regret that I purged the psychedelic print bikini I wore for sunbathing in the early seventies. Three potential masks…gone.
I could have turned heads at the grocery store.
Post post script. I’ll leave the visual for this entry to your vivid imagination.
Mother would say, “You scamp!” I say, “Thanks for the laugh!”
Mother would say, “You scamp!” I say, “Thanks for the laugh!” Got notice I’ve already said that in the past. Well, mother said it more than once as well.
My being a scamp and being called on it goes back a long way. I got a laugh out of your comment. Thanks, Sis.