Yesterday didn’t go as planned. I got a text from Alan asking if I wanted to go to the Knick game. I said yes. Last week I was nervous, but the COVID-19 rates are dropping fast. I was tested a few days ago and was negative so I’m not worried about infecting others. I am satisfied with my current risk reward pandemic strategy. I go out less often than I did, I don’t eat in restaurants, for now, I wear a high quality mask, and get tested frequently. The only thing I would change is seeing friends more often. I could use some hugs.
I have a confession to wait, as careful as I’ve been I have not been wearing my masks properly. How do I know? My glasses would fog up. A properly fitting mask shouldn’t. I thought it was just something about the shape of my nose or face. I tightened the wire on my nose as much as possible and my glasses would still fog to some degree. Then yesterday it hit me, maybe I’m wearing my mask too high. I have an aquiline nose. I misunderstood what that meant until sometime in my twenties. I thought it meant a well-shaped nose and so not mine. But it doesn’t, it comes from the Latin Aquila meaning eagle. Its aquiline nose is literally an eagle beak. My nose has a large bend in it. I had put the top of the mask above the bend. I thought it should go as far above my nostrils as possible. Nope, If I put it right below the bend my glasses don’t fog! If you wear glasses and they fog your mask is not sitting right. Try adjusting its position until you find a place where it doesn’t. If you don’t wear glasses, try it with sunglasses or borrow somebody else’s. This is my new crusade, getting people to wear their masks properly. Of course, many people don’t even cover their noses. I very much hope that you aren’t one of them. Your nose is the part that needs the protecting. Leaving your nose uncovered is like putting the cap next to a bottle of soda, not screwed to the top. What good do you think it’s doing? The entire purpose is filtering the air entering and leaving your lungs.
As for the Knick game, they were swallowed whole by the Pelicans. Alan has three seats, another friend of his sits with us. Last week the friend was complaining about people not wearing masks on the subway and asked how I handle it. The irony is that he keeps his nose uncovered. Very few people wear a mask at all at Madison Square Garden. I just realized, I’m still not comfortable going there. I do it for my mental health, Alan is the only friend I see regularly.
I knew it was going to be very cold when I got home, and I dressed for the weather. For the first time I wore the gaiter I bought as part of my Halloween costume for warmth. It works great. The feels like temperature was in the single digits and I was not at all cold. I might have looked a bit absurd. I’d rather be comfortable than fashionable.
Wise Madness 