Another Daily Journal: Masking the Unmasked

I never wear a face mask while at my desk. Make that almost never. I did this morning — Saturday, January 23, 2021 — while taking that picture. △

And I wore one I’d had at the hospital while taking a picture for “Back from the Hospital: The Masked Minnesotan Rides Again.”

I took that other picture September 2, the day I got back from the hospital. ▷

But I didn’t finish the post I’d taken it for until October 5, 2020.

Taking the picture and getting it ready for posting took maybe 10 minutes, tops. Writing the post took about a month.

Partly because it’s one of those where I talk about the main topic — whatever that is — plus the science, history and occasional weirdness behind the topic. Or around it, as the case may be.

And partly because I’d been really sick. But not from COVID-19. I’d been experiencing an old-fashioned staph/strep/cellulitis infection. (October 5, 2020)

The face mask I’m wearing in today’s photo is from Sauk Centre’s Walmart. And that brings me to one of the two things I was going to talk about today.

The Masked Minnesotan, Unmasked! (or) Common Sense Strikes Again!

This household does much, but not all, of its shopping at the local Walmart.

That could mean we’re witless pawns of Big Store, mindless minions of a megalomaniacal mastermind — or folks living with a limited budget.

I think it’s the ‘limited budget’ thing.

But if the ‘Big Store’ conspiracy theory was right, I’d be a mindless minion: so what would I know?

Oddly enough, I haven’t seen the ‘Walmart will destroy us all’ response to a company offering communities stable employment and affordable products presented as a conspiracy theory. Not that I’ve seen.

Walmart as a dire threat to downtown business, yes. A fear of Walmart destroying businesses by attracting new customers into town identified as a conspiracy theory, no.

Moving on.

I had a few things to pick up in Walmart yesterday, was parked and in the store before I realized that I’d forgotten to bring a face mask along. Dummkopf!

Walmart has a face mask policy — which probably has its own entourage of conspiracy theories, and I’m not going to wade back into that.

Anyway, there I was. No mask. Unwilling to go home, get one and return. Which would have made sense.

Instead, I rearranged my coat into a sort of oversized neck gaiter: went to the employee tasked with watching the entrance and told her this was her chance for telling me to leave.

Instead, she handed me a face mask. The one I’m wearing in this morning’s photo.

So I thanked her, re-rearranged my coat into its normal configuration, put on the face mask and finished my errand.

I figure that free face masks explains a good fraction of the masked Walmart customers. But, since a great many have been wearing other varieties, certainly not all.

I haven’t been keeping track, but it’s been quite a few weeks now that the vast majority of folks in Walmart have been wearing face masks. Which I take as a sign that common sense eventually prevails.

Or maybe it’s proof that the Illuminati-Pixie-Walmart overlords have enslaved us all. By making us wear face masks. No, I do not think so. I really do not think so.

Moving on again.

Dawn of My Daily Journal

I’ve had a ‘journal’ category for this blog since October of 2019.

As the category’s description says, ‘journal’ posts are “… more about me, less about (almost) everything else.”

That’s the idea, anyway.

Fast-forward to earlier this month.

The news was, as usual, full of election-themed sound and fury, topped off by their view of the January 6 U.S. Capitol incident.

Meanwhile, some dude’s Ottawa dorm room project had grown into an “underground newspaper” and was reporting that THEY ARRESTED THE POPE!!! The story included the usual trimmings: sex, crime and The Vatican Suppressing The Truth.

And enough folks were taking the guff seriously to warrant a ‘lets get real’ CNA piece.

I talked about that on January 11, 2021:

• “The Pope Wasn’t Arrested (or) I’m Not Making This Up”
  (January 11, 2021)

Maybe repeating the post’s clarifications is in order:

• Pope Francis wasn’t arrested
• The Vatican wasn’t blacked out
• Military officers and/or the FBI haven’t put the Pope in a secret prison

And, seriously: the Illuminati are not really a front for the Leprechaun-Pixie cabal.

There is no Leprechaun-Pixie cabal. Seriously.

Of course, if I was a mindless minion of the Leprechaun-Pixie cabal, disguised as one of the Illuminati disguised as some guy living in central Minnesota — that’s what I would say!!

Which is why I occasionally discuss conspiracy theories, but don’t consistently spend time trying to show that they’re a bit silly. I suspect that no amount of garlic and wooden stakes will stop some conspiracy theories, once they get rolling. And that’s another topic.

Anyway, I had something to say each day after that “The Pope Wasn’t Arrested…” thing.

I’ll soon have done a dozen daily posts. I think this is the eleventh.

What’s Ahead? Good Question

Some of my entries, like yesterday’s, are probably far from being a normal ‘journal’ post.

But this is my journal.

I’m more likely to talk about current events in the context of natural law and ancient history — and how that affects me — than I am to perorate on the proliferation of pepperoni pizza.

Today’s started out being about yesterday’s ‘mask’ experience and now it’s here.

Tomorrow’s? I’ve no idea where that will go.

A couple more things, and I’ll be getting coffee and start (again) on the next “Faustus” post.

First, if you’re looking for more of these ‘journal’ entries : pick journal from my Categories drop-down menu in the sidebar. You’ll get the usual thing: title link, date posted and the first few dozen words.

Second:

“Jabberwocky”

“‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe….”
(Jabberwocky,” Lewis Carroll (1871) via Wikipedia)

Third, the usual somewhat-related posts:

• “The Winter Storm Continues, But Not Here”
  (January 15, 2021)
• “Fog, Frost, Feelings: and Another Washington SNAFU”
  (January 9, 2021)
• “Rereading Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Doctor Faustus’”
  (January 6, 2021)
• “My Top 10 Science News Stories For 2020”
  (December 29, 2020)
• “Back from the Hospital: The Masked Minnesotan Rides Again”
  (October 5, 2020)