So far this week has been my “housework week.” Yesterday I cleaned bathrooms (we have 2 full and 2 half ones), dust mopped the wood floors and washed bath mats. I really don’t mind housework. While it is labor-intensive it also gives me a chance to casually think while I work, which isn’t the case with most of the things I do, so I enjoy it.
I designated today as “laundry day” and I’ve pretty much been making frequent trips to the laundry room, arms loaded with laundry baskets brimming with towels and clothes since early this morning. Our cat, Phoebe was lying at the top of the stairs of the bedroom level when I was on my way down with a basket full of towels. They’re the over-sized, fluffy kind that are heavier so it was a struggle.
Those of you that share your lives and homes with cats know that they simply don’t move unless a Mack Truck is headed directly for them AND is making an awful noise. I’m not sure most would do more than glance in the direction of the grill and go back to their nap if it weren’t for the noise. So as I struggled to get around the cat and make a strategic landing on the first step after stepping over her head, I wondered just how many deaths have been attributed to accidentally falling down the steps while carrying a fully loaded laundry basket. Or, worst case scenario, having that untimely death blamed on the spouse who was fifteen miles away at work at the time of the incident. Thoughtfully and carefully negotiating around the cat and trying to skillfully plant my remaining foot on the second step, I wondered farther about just how many of those accidental fall-related deaths have been due to tripping over an unmoving cat.
After finally getting past that small body that seemed so much larger when my life depended totally on getting around it, I started thinking about masks. Its two floors down from the bedroom level to the basement laundry room so I had time to think.
Masks were something I seldom thought about when they were so much a part of my daily professional life as an operating room RN. I went to work, changed into scrubs, wrapped my head up in a rag (that’s what I called our scrub caps), put on my shoe covers and mask and went about the job of making people well and saving lives. My surgical mask was as much a part of my professional life as the vast amount of medical knowledge I carried around with me in my head. You didn’t go to work in the OR without both.
As I made it to the bottom of the basement steps unscathed (we only have one cat) and being thankful I’m not yet dependent upon a Life Alert necklace, I thought about how my definition of masks has broadened since the world belched us all into that black hole that is COVID-19 several months ago. Masks now include a wide variety of things I hadn’t considered during those many years as an OR nurse.
By the time the first load of towels was being transferred from the washer to the dryer I’d come up with a lot of different thoughts about masks that I decided to write down, make into a blog entry and share with the world … or at least those people that routinely read my blog.
If you’ve gotten this far, maybe you will be able to relate to the many facets of masks that are now a part of my world since wearing them to Walmart, doctor’s appointments, hair appointments and church. Let me know if you find similarities in your OWN ‘life of masks’ and maybe we can laugh about it together … on Facetime on the phone or on ZOOM where we can see each other’s faces instead of face-to-face where we can’t because we’d be wearing masks … sigh. Here they are.
- After a 38 year career as an Operating Room Registered Nurse I never expected to be wearing masks again – especially not to Walmart, Food Lion, church and club meetings.
- I’ve spent a small fortune ordering medical masks so my husband and I will be part of the COVID-19 solution and not part of the problem.
- I’ve spent a number of hours dragging out the sewing machine and MAKING masks so my husband and I will have back-up cloth ones in the event that the disposable ones I’ve been ordering become a scarce commodity like toilet paper and hen’s teeth.
- For the time being and currently you can buy masks almost anywhere … Walmart, Café Press, CVS and even CATO.
- Will Halloween be special this year if we’ve been wearing masks every day, all year long? Will there BE Halloween this year?
- Wearing masks has saved me a considerable amount of money on cosmetics. I only have to wear make-up from my eyes UP.
- Wearing lipstick is a forgotten art. It just messes up the inside of your mask.
- I haven’t gotten to the point that I wear masks to match my outfits. If I ever start going places again that possibility is not off the table.
- People NOT wearing masks make me angry. It’s such a simple thing to do to help save lives. My husband is fearful that I’m going to speak my mind to some hulking non-masked person in Walmart and get us shot.
- People that DON’T wear masks have an attitude.
- We can’t make other people wear masks but we don’t have to socialize with them … or even LIKE them.
- We have an unlisted phone number but still get a huge amount of unwanted calls. My husband wears a mask, answers the phone and speaks with a foreign accent (“Ha yo?” he answers). The annoying callers hang up on HIM.
- Playing Paintball is probably the safest sport. You wear a mask, you’re outside and to avoid getting shot with paintballs you social distance.
- I’m fed up with Facebook posts saying wearing masks cause’s diseases. I wore a mask at least 8 hours a day, at least 5 days a week working in the OR for 38 years. I don’t have carbon monoxide poisoning, carbon dioxide poisoning, facial deformities, brain damage, Ricketts or fleas.
- When / IF we ever get past this nasty virus and stop wearing masks I wonder if we will be recognizable.
- In this time of the mask it would be great to have dental work done while no one can see our teeth. Just my luck … I got a sty.
- There’s no way you can eat and drink while wearing a mask.
- When we leave the house wearing a mask I don’t have to be as careful to be sure I don’t have a piece of spinach or a floret of broccoli stuck between my front teeth.
- We no longer scare our cat when we’re wearing our masks. She recognizes us in them now and I wonder if that’s a GOOD thing. While she isn’t a Guard Cat, I wonder if she will be friendly and purring if someone armed, dangerous and wearing a mask breaks into the house.
- A friend that has a hearing disability that he’s kept pretty much to himself is having problems reading lips with everyone wearing masks. He’s been making some pretty obvious mistakes and peculiar comments.
- Egg, chocolate or mud … it doesn’t matter what you have on your face when you’re wearing a mask.
- A few menopausal friends that have trouble wearing clothes during a hot flash are having real difficulties wearing a mask during those “tropical” moments AND clothes.
- My husband is planning to recycle his masks as underwear after COVID-19 is behind us. He has a few black ones with vents.
- Wearing masks out in the sun leave curious tan lines
- If you’re wearing a mask, avoid the urge to spit … or vomit.
- People that wear a mask UNDER their noses are defeating the purpose of wearing the mask. I wonder how they wear their underwear.
- Bad breath, yours or anyone else’s, is no longer a problem when wearing a mask … except yours from the “blowback.”
- In a mask I can smile with my eyes and stick my tongue out at the same time at someone that annoys me.
- In a mask we seldom embarrass ourselves by realizing too late we have a green-black booger working its way out of our nose onto our upper lip.
And last and probably the best of all comes from my friend, Tab who shares with us probably the greatest mask-truth in this “time of the virus.” He says:
- On the positive side of mask wearing, if everyone wears one we can all fart any time we want or need to and no one will “be aware.” We no longer have to blame it on cows and methane.
heimdalco 