CoronaQuarantine, Day 41
Okay, well, I did hang out with someone yesterday, and it was in-person. With our neighbor, Alexia. But! Several caveats to this revelation: We were never in each other's homes; we were outside the entire time, save for about three minutes; and we both had face masks on for the duration.
Probably the most important part was that we both had masks on. In both cases, that would be for the other person's protection. We already know that masks are largely ineffective at blocking outside contamination from getting in—but, it does provide a massive barrier for anything exiting someone's mouth. We still kept a distance from each other the whole time we were walking, which remains recommended even with masks on. The point is, even though a mask wouldn't necessarily keep germs from getting out at all, it would certainly slow it down to a huge degree, from getting, say, six feet away.
None of this is foolproof of course. So honestly, I have no idea how reckless even this was. But I felt better doing it, just having the masks on. We never did try talking via phone, and perhaps we will with future walks. There were several moments when city noises and traffic (even with traffic far lighter than normal) made it difficult to hear each other, especially with masks over our noses and mouths.
We passed plenty of other people who did not have masks on, and with them I always gave a wide berth when passing. This was no different than if I had gone to the office to swap out paperwork by myself, though. I would otherwise have ridden my bike, but Alexia was happy to join me for walking, and she told me she tries to get out every day. If nothing else, she walks north on 15th Avenue to Volunteer Park and back, which is about two miles round-trip. The distance one-way to my office is 2.4 miles, so that was a 4.8-mile walk round-trip, but she was happy to do that as well.
Now. The "social distancing" aspect was not quite as ideal as it could have been. I'd say we managed the minimum of 6 feet apart, maybe, 75% of the time. I've seen videos that show it's safer for people jogging together to be side-by-side than in single file, though, because of the same kind of "slipstream" from mouths that Gabriel had told me about—that trails behind you, not to the side—so whenever possible I stayed to her side, usually at the far edge of the sidewalk by parked cars and such. Wherever I could, I tried to keep even more than six feet, maybe closer to eight, between us. Sometimes the space we were walking through made that impossible. And when I had to get out of the way to let someone coming the opposite way pass by, I moved to walk behind her for a moment. I would guess we at the very least averaged six feet apart the whole way. Of course, that was one point Gabriel had mentioned about it being a pretty arbitrary figure. Hence my insistence on us both wearing masks.
I have no idea what level of risk I was taking by having Alexia walk with me at all, but I feel confident it was significantly reduced by the masks. I have cloth ones from Amazon arriving tomorrow so the next time we walk I'll wear one of those. And it was a really nice walk, and it passed quickly with someone to visit with as we moved along.
She waited in the south courtyard outside my work building as I went in to swap out the receiver paperwork. I wasn't inside long, and for the first time I was in there for this purpose and did not see anyone else there—unlike when I ride my bike and usually get there by around 5:00 and even the receptionist is still there, this time we didn't even leave until 5:00 and it was nearly 6:00 when we got there. I could hear at least one person cleaning in the kitchen, presumably a janitor. I was only inside long enough to raid the front desk candy jar for an Alter Eco Chocolate Truffle after filing my paperwork in the proper store folders and grabbing the next stack, and then I was putting my mask back on and leaving again. As always, I washed my hands in the men's room when I arrived and again right before leaving.
Alexia had her cloth mask a friend had made for her off when I came back, but she put it on as soon as she spied me walking toward her. At my suggestion, we cut through the Olympic Sculpture Park, then walked on Western Avenue up to Pike Place Market where we turned left up Pine straight back up to our building. It was during this walk that although her name is spelled "Alexia," with an I, it's pronounced by her family as "Alexa," and that was how she pronounced it when she said her name. I've been pronouncing it with an I all this time. She told me about half the people she knows pronounces it one way and half the other, and she's good with either. Plenty of people use their own nicknames for her which she doesn't seem to mind either, like "Lex" or even "Alex." I think maybe even "Lexa" was in the mix. It seemed clear though that if she randomly tells someone her own name, she herself pronounces it "Alexa," as though there is no I. Even though she said she has actually tried starting to pronounce it with an I.
She's also really interested in seeing photos from our trip to Australia, so sometime soon we will just get on Skype or Zoom in our respective apartments (she's literally on the other side of my bedroom wall) and I'll "share screen" to show her. I'm guessing we'll do that within the next week or two.
Shobhit worked until 8:15 at Total Wine & More yesterday so this was plenty of time for Alexia and me to walk for roughly two hours. She did not come inside the building when we got back, as she wanted to go get some takeout. So, the only time we were inside together was when she came to my condo door and we went down the stairwell together—her much closer to me than I preferred, but, whatever. At least we had masks on.
Shobhit had made a zucchini dish before he left for his shift that did not start until 1:00, and so I made rice and had that together for dinner before he got home. I made chai right when he got home, and sat with him in the living room while he watched his news shows for a bit.
[posted 12:27 pm]