Subj : Living in NYS
To   : All
From : AngieAndretti
Date : Sat Oct 31 2020 13:06:00

I'm in upstate NY. When this started, NYC was one of the two biggest epicenters
in the country iirc; it was really scary! I'm in a rural area compared to the
city but we went through that period of empty isles at grocery stores, no tp,
hand sanitizer, frozen/canned food, etc. One big concern was the tourist angle
here - there are so many places that get rented to city dwellers, usually in
the summer, but the fear was it'll be like July in April because anyone who
could afford to get out of the city was doing so. I remember a local newspaper
article about people being "asked to" take down all listings for short-term
rentals but it wasn't enforced so the folks who needed the money still rented
their spaces I'm sure.  That's a tough point too - you shut the country down
and tell everyone to stay home, tell all but essential businesses to close, but
people still have to pay their rent/mortgages.  They took it part of the way by
temporarily banning any evictions - which is better than nothing I suppose -
but the debt is still piling up and when the ban expires you must either pay
the full bill or you're out on the street. I read that many other countries
took the route of actually suspending rent and mortgages, which makes a lot of
sense to me - if the government is going to say it's too dangerous for you to
go out and work, so you have no money coming it, the other half of that plan
should be a suspension of as many living expenses as possible.

Myself, I got deemed an essential worker (to my surprise since many others
doing what I do for other companies got shut down) but that's a double-edged
sword too because I get to keep working but my partner is someone who would
probably die if he caught this.  He has major pre-existing issues so I really
worry about bringing the virus home to him. The worst for me was that period at
the beginning when we all knew this was a big issue (especially in NY as it had
yet to blanket the country like it has now) but nobody was wearing masks yet. 
The advice of the time was "social distancing" and "keep six feet apart" but
when you're working a sales floor, let me tell you, it felt impossible! I'd
spend the whole day backing away from customers! I'd take two steps back, then
they'd take two steps forward, then I'd have to stop and explain that we need
to maintain more distance. I became very conscious of the distance people are
comfortable with during a conversation. We deal with a lot of older folks so
hearing can be an issue - but it seemed like everyone wanted to be about two
and half to three feet from me while talking.  Way too close!

I ended up telling my boss I either need to stay home until things aren't so
scary or stay behind the counter, where I could answer questions from behind a
pysical barrier. So that's what we did for a while - I'd try my best to yell
answers to old folks' tech questions from behind a wall with a hole in it. It
pissed a lot of people off!! People who were used to up-close-and-personal tech
service had to explain what they needed from a distance and then I'd run out
quick and grab their computer off the counter and run back to my little safe
room with it under my arm. People who were used to being walked directly to a
product, where they could discuss options and ask a dozen more silly questions
had to accept verbal direction on where to find an item by isle number. It
sounds normal enough, but there were a lot of angry people - and more than one
who even told the management that I should be fired - but this was something
we'd discussed and I'd warned them it was going to happen ahead of time so they
just did their best to placate the angry customers and get them out of the
store.

That brings us to masks. There may be dubious evidence on how effective
mask-wearing really is, but it makes me feel like I'm doing something - that
I'm being responsible and not putting my partner's life in danger every time I
talk to someone at work. Once the governor passed the mask mandate and then
subsequently stated that businesses had the right to kick people out for not
wearing them, most people played ball and I was able to come out from behind my
wall. Although it wasn't until businesses could actually be fined $10,000 if
they DIDN'T kick someone out for refusing that we actually got a company-wide
memo saying "ok, you finally have the right to insist that they mask up."
Before that, the policy had been "do not confront unless you live in a state
that legally requires you to do so." So now, now I felt like I had some power
for the first time! I could finally insist that you put on a mask or exit the
store - not to sound nasty about it though. We'll happily hand over a fresh
disposable mask to any customer who needs one, free of charge! Of course some
people still get angry though. Recent incidents include one COVID denier who
called us all sheep and accused us of "falling for the lie", a handful of
people who just say they'll never shop here again (as if we're asking something
unreasonable), and one dude who wanted to buy a chair, wouldn't put on the mask
we offered, and wouldn't leave the store. He plopped himself down in the
display chair and sat there yelling for a sales person to come help him until
the police arrived. When the cops got there, he took out his phone and made a
video for Facebook Live where he screamed him head off to the cops, called us
all liberal democrats, like they were curse words, and ultimately finally left
the store when presented with the choice between leaving the building himself
or going out in handcuffs.

It's something how being concerned or just mindful about the virus gets
labelled a "liberal" or "democratic" point of view here. I wonder if it's like
that across the country. Being a rural part of NY, there are a lof of Trump
supporters living here and they seem to be drinking the party cool-aid when it
comes to the president's message, "It is what it is" and "just go out and live
your lives." Honestly the shaming around here is against the people like myself
who are mindful of this thing and try to be careful! I know there are plenty of
others who feel like I do here too, but the opposition are the ones who are
being loud and nasty and in-your-face about it.

So that's my COVID experience up to now. I really hope we get a change of
leadership in a few days here - we desperately need it! Regardless of your
normal political party affiliation, I feel like anyone with their head on
straight should be able to agree that we need to change the direction we're
going in here - and Biden has a plan, a very good plan. Trump does not. Please,
vote Biden and save America!
--- SBBSecho 2.27-Win32
 * Origin: Battlestar BBS : battlestarbbs.dyndns.org (700:100/8)

.