thank you all for sharing your personal stories here; i have enjoyed reading them all! this mandatory mask business has been a real PITA so hearing you all resisting as well as you can has really been great to read.
as all of you, i have been playing the game and resisting as much as possible. i'm lucky at work, as i do not have to deal directly with customers! part of my work is in the parts department of the dealership and the boys back there do not care about not wearing a mask and were in fact quite outraged! same applies to the mechanics and service advisors. don't know how they feel about it in sales but they are a bit different up front. i'm sure some of them are based but wouldn't be surprised if most of them aren't.
masks are required to be in the showroom and they are requiring all customers to wear one as well! oof. employees dealing with customers must wear one but i am very blessed in that i very rarely have to. in the odd case i have to deliver a car to a customer.. i will not wear one. if asked, i will tell them i can't install your window tint if i cannot breathe! lmao. i avoid the sales floor like the plague, always cutting through the shop (masks not required back there) or taking the long way around the building. i have yet to put one on at work lmao.
in terms of running errands, the ol lady and i wear one in the grocery stores. she tends to keep hers up but anytime an isle is empty or there is plenty of free space surrounding us, i slip my mask off my nose and mouth lmao. and just walk around like that. i will slip it back up if we are getting close to others, especially the elderly! i reckon it is a little more considering. 75% of the time i'm not even wearing it properly lmao. idc tho. and i'm not embarrassing her either! i reckon that is my middle ground. MOST people are wearing them now though. the numbers of individuals not wearing them seems to be dwindling.
i went to the quiktrip (gas station) on friday. i have been going to this QT for years on a daily basis and they know me there. i never wear a mask lmao. in fact, i was standing there thinking of what to get when this dude's girlfriend walked past me (no mask) and he (no mask) was following her. when he saw me.. he stopped, we made eye contact, he smiled, i smiled, and he started nodding in approval saying yeaaah man, yeah. i did the same and said i'm with you brother and then we did a little fist pound lmao.
i don't understand where 'they' say all this racism exists cause the dude was black and i am white lmao. (i'm not even full white, i'm half chinese as well). if anything i've encountered more racism through slurs like chink and slant eyes! anyways, i won't digress from there as i am not bitter about it.
for those of us that are not self sufficient and rely on institutions like supermarkets and the like, continue retaining your free will as best you can! keep resisting in ways that leave you feeling in control to the best of your ability because it is very easy these days to feel like we are losing control. do not let them get you down!
i have to throw in the fact that all this business does make me a bit sad so i try not to dwell on it too much. i can no longer see the full faces of individuals.. those i love, those i've worked with for years, and even strangers! all i see above the masks are scared eyes, like those of a deer in headlights! i keep seeing this elderly woman from walmart in my mind. pushing a full sized cart, full of groceries, by herself, her mask on, and eyes full of confusion and fear. it hurts on a soul level so i try my best not to dwell.
as a side note, i have been rewatching the original twilight zone (the BEST one, of course!) and rewatched the obsolete man last night. it gave me chills as the parallels to today's times are uncanny!
anyways, stay safe, stay true blue, and as always much love to all of you, my brothers and sisters.