Sunday Rant

It happened to me: Stood in line for about 20 minutes at Home Depot the other day. Went back into the gardening section for some top soil, they didn’t have any, and while asking a cashier for the location of something else, they didn’t have any of it either, I see a maskless woman walk in through the open “exit only” doors, put on her mask and start shopping. The misnamed “security guard” was standing there not looking and didn’t see her. She was totally unaware of the entry until several of us spoke up. The guard then began to question Julie and I noticed the guard was wearing the face mask tucked under her chin leaving her mouth and nose uncovered. I pointedly spoke up; “Those masks don’t do a damn bit of good if they aren’t worn correctly.” Wife pops up, “Yes. Why don’t you wear it right?” To which the largely overweight, okay, morbidly obese, guard begins to question if my wife’s mask was “N-95 rated”. I sort of kept my cool, said the signs didn’t say anything about “N-95”, and this conversation was over, took the wife’s arm and moved away. Now I doubt the guard really knew what the N-95 means, but not wearing it properly defeats the entire purpose. The store signs only say “face covering”. The whole point was the woman entering had by-passed the entry line, and the guard wasn’t doing her job, watching the exit, and what little she was doing, like wearing a face covering, was not being done correctly. The guard’s response was to attack those questioning her authority. A simple “I didn’t see her” and “Yes, you’re right, I wasn’t aware my mask had fallen” would have been the correct answers. I hope she had better answers for the manager we spoke to about her. I say again, this is no longer about health and safety; it is ALL about power.