The other night we had to drive to a nearby mall. We noticed another closed business. It made me stop and recall for a moment a time when restaurants were packed with diners, cars lined up for take-out and, if it was warm outside, folks relaxed on restaurant patios.
And kids were able to get together in big groups with other kids to sing, to dance, to practice martial arts and dozens of other things. I miss those times.
More and more children are being picked up by parents after school. Why? My guess is to keep them off the somewhat crowded school buses to avoid COVID-19. Although the mortality rate for children seems to be exceedingly low at this time, there are other health issues being encountered by kids. Many parents are trying to minimize the risk by dropping their kids off at school and picking them up afterwards. No school buses for these children.
Some folk had grass still uncut, others had leaves waiting to be raked, others had shrubs begging to be cutback in anticipation of winter. But everyone had snow. It was the first snow and it provided a window into the coming winter. Almost everyone complained except for the kids who asked, "Is there enough to make a snowman?"
Lots of kids were wearing a new mask for Halloween: a COVID-19 mask. There is one poster to the Daily Photo site who is opposed to mask wearing. This may come a surprise but he has a point. Most folk agree masks are a barrier to transferring the COVID-19 virus from one person to another but there are some caveats.
Masks must be clean. And masks must be dry. Masks should not be quite damp, saturated with contaminated moisture from one's breath. Google this. You may be surprised to learn that moisture retention in reusable masks may result in poor filtration and, and this is the big surprise, increased risk of infection.
That said, the child pictured is wearing a clean, dry mask. She is at the door but still outside. And we, my wife and I, are both wearing fresh masks. We wore gloves to place candy in bags and we used tongs to give the bags to the trick-and-treaters. We believe our handing out of Halloween treats was a low-risk activity as far a spreading COVID-19 is concerned.
For more info on mask wearing, check out this post by the ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.) Scroll down to number 5, It is clearly stated that the appropriate and consistent use of face masks is key for effectiveness.
Halloween is O.K. in southwestern Ontario in the eyes of both the municipal and the provincial governments. It is not such an easy slam dunk for a lot of parents and their children. I'm amazed that we are getting any Halloween trick-or-treaters at all this year, but we are.
These two little ones are new to our court and have so looked forward to Halloween. Their parents are taking them on a limited run about the court and going a short distance down the street itself. To put everyone at ease, my wife is using tongs to hand out the candy and chips. And, of course, she pulls on a mask immediately before opening the door.
School buses, almost unknown in the city when I was a boy, are seen almost everywhere today. Every morning and every afternoon hundreds of buses fan out over the city picking up and dropping off students. I think we walked more when I was a boy.
Today the ride home was different, one might even say special. The bus driver had Halloween treats for every child and the inside of the bus was very simply decorated. A school bus must be safe inside -- just in case.
The children were delighted. Kids who were regularly picked up at the school by their parents, took the bus home Friday. The driver was prepared for the extra riders. No one was disappointed.
