Hello, I am still here

[julesjones]

We live in interesting times and that subject line is a good deal less flippant than I would like it to be. Anyway, I am still going to work, on the bus, which is still mostly empty, which makes me feel a little better.

We had a confirmed case of Covid in the office, together with two people reporting suspicious symptoms, which meant that on Monday morning the rest of of us were told to make ourselves scarce until the building had been deep cleaned. I would prefer less interesting reasons to have an unexpected most-of-day off, but since I was hanging around the town centre long enough to make sure we weren't going to get called back in [*], I went comfort-shopping at the local discount fabric shop. I now have still more Wols, plus some nice garden print cotton fabric and autumn leaves print cotton fabric, and plain dye polycotton; masks, for the making of. I resisted the temptation to get even more fabric Just In Case, because that lot will keep me going for a while.

[*we were on one hour stand-by to get ourselves back to the office should the deep cleaning crew be available immediately, but since we were getting paid time off for the period we were turfed out this wasn't unreasonable.]

Comments

[graydon]

Don't know if that's "eek!" or "yikes!".

While it would complicate shipping and generally be a terrible problem, it sounds like it would really help your work with the whole "life is cheap" thing if SARS-CoV-2 persisted on paper.

[julesjones]

We are having fun times with "That paperwork we normally insist you send us on paper and not electrons? You can use electrons, or preferably send it on paper at least a week before we would normally want it, thanks very much" and if it arrives on paper it goes in the Beware of the Biohazard room for a few days.

(There are reasons for the normal "on paper" to do with we are not a copy shop and are not printing 500 page documents in triplicate at our expense instead of the expense of the customer who wants to give them to us.)

[graydon]

Not-a-print-shop makes sense. Making you-all work in an office doesn't, alas.

I am glad it has mostly not been dire so far, and shall hope it stays at least so fortunate.

[neyronrose]

Oh, dear. I hope everything turns out all right for the folks in your office, including a good recovery for the sick one. Scary, though.

The suburbs of Philadelphia where I live have been pretty quiet (*knocks on wood*). People wear their masks, though some wear them below their noses or as chinstraps. Totally missing the point there with those token efforts, especially the latter. I had to cut back on watching the news, because the political news here in the U.S. has been generally horrifying. I also see reports of the California wildfires and the floods down South due to hurricanes. I'm kind of expecting a rain of locusts or toads next, but I hope not!

I hope you enjoy your projects with fabric. :) My latest acquisition of masks was from the Hanes company, better known for their athletic clothes and underthings. Apparently they've gone into mask-making in a big way. The masks are plain white and cotton. I find them relatively comfortable, though one reviewer said she felt like she was wearing a sports bra on her face. *snort-laugh*

Take care, Jules! I hope you stay as healthy as possible!

[julesjones]

Thanks. :-) We too have the chin warmers and what are now known in certain areas of Twitter as dick-noses (because you wouldn't go around with your cock hanging out of the top of your underwear, so don't go around with your nose hanging out of the top of your mask).

[watervole]

Should you happen to make a child size mask with Owls, I know a certain owl-mad six year old who would absolutely love one.

Happy to cover costs or donate to charity.

[julesjones]

Owls have to go on the inside because they are the moisture absorbent flannel liner, but the outside could conceivably be pandas or flamingos. One of the patterns I'm using has a child size version - call me at the weekend to remind me and discuss options.

[sallymn]

Ah, damn it, that sounds scary. Please take care and I'll keep all my fingers crossed that you and the rest of your office stay well and safe.

[julesjones]

Thanks. We've had a couple of confirmed positive cases now, but we've had social distancing and lots of bottles of hand sanitizer in the office from fairly early on, so fortunately they haven't given it to anyone else in the office. It was just a pain for the people directly next to them who had to self-isolate, and everyone else because we were down numbers when already overloaded.

[katlinel]

Hello. Hope you and your colleagues will be ok. I'm still avoiding buses, but I am glad yours is mostly empty. I'd rather key workers could use buses safely, and I still limit my travels to where I can walk to.

Good luck with the further mask making. Have you settled on one pattern yet as meeting your needs best?

[julesjones]

Nobody's had a serious case yet, but of course there's the worry of the long term effects.

Still playing with different types of masks. Other Half prefers the Olson with elastic around the head. I initially preferred that, but this week have been using the Davies extended to the ears with adjustable elastic ear loops, and am finding that quite comfortable as long as I use lightweight fabric. One of the reasons I wanted to go into Abakhan rather than order online was so I could fondle the merchandise and check if it was tightly woven but lightweight.

[(Anonymous)]

''comfort shopping can endanger your wealth''

- not to mention, severely deplete the remnants of your storage space. . .