May 14

I am not going to post this today but I found this interesting article from the Guardian interviewing people who are planning to continue wearing masks after the pandemic has receded.

May 17

 I wasn't too energetic for the last weekend. Not much needlework and not all that much reading. I noted the Guardian article above. It was interesting because none of the people interviewed planned to continue wearing masks for health reasons. One said the mask was like an "invisibility" cloak: people paid less attention to her and most of the interviewees were women. Another said she wore her sunglasses as well as the mask so people didn't realize she was Chinese American. Another mentioned the annoying tendency of some people to insist they "smile." 

I don't have those problems--being a female in the 70+ age group I am pretty well ignorable and ignored by our society. I have said before that we plan to keep masking because we can't be sure whether those who aren't masked are vaccinated. The politicians and talking heads keep mentioning an "honor system" but I am not confident that many of my fellow Americans have any honor. Reminds me of a woman character in a book I read who commented that her "gentleman's agreement" with her male agent was funny since neither of them were gentlemen. Also no vaccine is 100% effective in preventing any infection. The COVID vaccines are 100% in preventing serious infections/hospitalizations/deaths--so far. I'll take it--have actually. But I will keep my mask. And there is always flu and the common cold to consider. This last season has been one of the mildest flu seasons on record thanks to masking and distancing. Since either usually knock me on my back for two weeks, that provides another strong reason to keep wearing masks.

Euronews is reporting unseasonably warm weather in Siberia and the first wildfires of the season. We have already had a record setting early fire season in our West which doesn't bode well for the rest of the year.