What are the Rest of the Rules?

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What are the Rest of the Rules?

I just made a comment to Bag Lady that I’ve decided I want to ask a wider audience. If you have the answers, please let me know. This is an expanded version of my comment to her. If you want to see her post, click on the link above. Here is my comment:

Aside from the dangers that at any given moment, someone may shoot you because you do or don’t have a mask on, because you’ve asked how tall they are, or spray acid in your face while parked at a stoplight just because you are black, another reason I have less incentive to leave my house is because of how uncomfortable the masks are.  My glasses fog up and by the time I’m out for a half hour or so I feel wringing wet all over, with droplets hanging off the tips of my hair, as though I’m holding in all the heat usually released in my breath. I’m not using this as an excuse not to wear one. I always do, even though the tops of my ears aren’t high enough to keep the ones held in place with ear bands in place. The mask is constantly ejecting itself, and the ones that go all the way over your hair make me look even worse that I do with hair I’ve cut for myself for 4 months, no makeup and no earrings because the mask keeps catching on them. 

In spite of this, I would never go out without a mask or even have contact with someone in my house without wearing one, but I do have my questions regarding mask protocol. In a restaurant, six feet away from your companion, waiters all masked, the next table twelve feet away, what are the rules for eating and drinking. Do you replace your mask after every sip? Fanangle a straw between you and the mask? Do you lift the mask for each forkful? No one tells us these things.

And the hand washing. Does that twenty seconds include rinsing or is that just the soaping part? What are the precise rules?

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21 thoughts on “What are the Rest of the Rules?”

  2. slmret

    Rule #3 Wear a mask indoors with people other than your housemates.
    Rule #4 Wear a mask outside if you can’t distance at least 6 feet — short encounters ok like walking past somebody, but generally the rule seems to be that masks and hand washing are the two key protections for self and others.
    Rule #5 Social distance whenever and wherever possible.
    And above all, Stay Home and Stay Safe!,

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      1. slmret

        I think common sense is a large part of the rest of the rules — if you are drinking, there are masks you can get that have straw holes in them — but that sort of defeats the purpose of the mask. If you’re eating, and properly distanced, it makes sense to take off the mask until you’ve finished eating. Hand washing is a little different — the 20 seconds is just the soaping part. A pharmacist suggested that if I bought one or the other, I should buy liquid soap rather than “sanitizer” because the bubbles in soap last for 20 seconds and the alcohol in sanitizer only lasts 7 or 8 seconds. Soap is more effective, too, in that the bubbles do the work of scrubbing the dirt off.

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          1. slmret

            You’re welcome — it’s difficult, because the rules differ depending upon the county, and even on the city! I’m not sure there are any truly precise rules! That’s part of what has been so depressing for many people throughout!

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  3. robertawrites235681907

    This is a frequently asked question, Judy. When my husband and I were in Birmingham, UK, last year, we dined at an Indian restaurant. There was a group of Muslim ladies wearing face coverings at the adjuring table. I noticed that they lifted it up for each mouthful and then let it drop. Personally, I would rather eat at home without all that bother.

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    1. lifelessons Post author

      And that’s easier to do with a face covering open at the bottom. I love, however, that after all the flak muslim women have been given for wearing face coverings that now the world has joined them!!

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  6. slmret

    I just heard (on tv news) another “rule” — hand sanitizers are alcohol based. As you use them, they dry up, but there is a residue that remains. Use soap and water before moving hands close to fire or flame or fireworks to prevent the flammability from burning your hands!!!

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      1. slmret

        For me, too — but fireworks are illegal here except in major shows, which have now all been cancelled! I think this may have been one more way to put a stop to the nightly fireworks we’ve already been hearing in the neighborhoods! A good warning, though!

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            1. lifelessons Post author

              Yes. We had a man killed here a few years back when one of the fireworks landed in the wheelbarrow full of fireworks he was pushing in a parade. the entire bunch went up and killed him. They banned fireworks for one year in the religious procession, then resumed them. One year ten thousand fireworks were set off in just one week during the fiesta. LOUD bottle rockets, but set off from the hands of those designated to walk in the daily parade and set them off.

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