we go to town once a week these days, and i may talk to as many as six or seven people each time. i've gotten to figuring out risk for each exchange. it's all things we need; lots of "non-essential" things are going by the wayside. but yesterday, i talked to maybe seven people. they ranged from virtually risk-free - like the walmart pickup - to dicey, like the purified water.

at the walmart pickup, the woman never got within ten feet of me, and we were outside. she just put the groceries in the back of the car. she spoke loudly and i agreed that she could sign for the purchase for me, and she did. it was a warm sunny day and it didn't seem like the covid could come anywhere near me.

at the mcdonalds there were two people - after i gave them the order. the first took the credit card and handed it back with a receipt. i'm not sure if she sanitized after handling those credit cards. but i sanitized after getting it back. she wore a mask. i'm trying to figure out if you can physically hand something to someone - like a card - at six feet, because it seemed to me that it was about four. there was air between us, and a hot sunny day. at the next window they gave two sacks of food and the drink tray with all the frappes. once again, hand san - assume they've got it, and they're assuming i've got it. only three cases in all otero county so far, but we're all still assuming. i use hand san and then eat the food. i don't think the virus is living on those mcdonalds sacks, or the coffee cup for that matter. but the kid with the hands, i'm not sure. once again, less than six feet, or there's no way he could have handed it to me.

next was the tire place. the tire place had customers waiting outside, in the sun, while they took tires off, filled them with air, patched them, handed back the truck. they agreed to take my tire and i could come back in an hour. they were doing a brisk business, and customers, waiting in the sun, were friendly. i still had two places to go, though.

first was what i call cadillac water. fine filtered water through a faucet into three five-gallon jugs. the building is big but you still have to go in it and breathe people's air. they had a plastic screen in front of the worker - apparently they didn't want people to come up to her/him and breathe anywhere near. all i had to do was yell though, my name and the fifteen gallon part. i was able to stand in the open doorway for part of it.

i considered getting water at the outdoor faucets for a while. you pay a lot more that way, and i've already paid for the fills in the building. so i decided to chance it, in the building, but i'm not totally happy about it. maybe if i can reduce my risk by paying outside, that's a better method. reducing risk is what it's all about. i kind of see that virus hanging around that air as one of the three otero county victims could have walked in at any moment.

then back across town to domino's pizza. there the lady said she'd bring the pizzas out to us. once again we handed card back and forth, had to be less than six feet. when she handed me the pizzas again, less than six. i'm sure she had a mask, and i might have too but i can't really talk through a mask. besides i'm from the mountains, haven't been down for a week, and know in my heart i don't have it yet. could have got it back at the water place, but even then i wouldn't be busy giving it back away. i figure i'm clean, it's her i'm worried about.

back to the tire place. this time i had to come into their building to pay them. i couldn't quite hear the guy because i was trying to stay six feet and i can't wear both mask and hearing aids, so i had a mask. i don't think it helped. i stood in a doorway as i paid and then we loaded the tire. when we were loading the tire we were out in the high afternoon sun and i think it was no problem. when we were paying i got the sense that i was breathing what everyone who was walking by was breathing. i didn't like it. that there is risk. not from the guy itself, but from the doorway. i tried to keep it short and grab that card and run, and then, hand san.

up the hill we had to stop at the fam dol. this is in a small town, 8700 feet, at as far as we know doesn't have a single case. but my wife and sister also say that if there are three official, there are probably at least thirty in the county, and i would go further and say if it's anywhere, then it stopped in this high mountain village on its way from here to there. so it's only a matter of time, and we're all being cautious.

this family dollar is in a huge, fifty-foot high pole-barn, but has narrow isles. one of the sets of customers were two older ladies that had masks; another were slightly younger ladies who couldn't stop talking, more or less to each other, which is less than six feet. one thing about six feet is that you have to shout, and in my case i have to have hearing aids, or it just isn't going to work. normal conversation distance is like two to three feet, i believe, so being six is not easy. and not that i have a ruler either. but i want to be respectful and not threaten these poor people who just have to work, or have to get their groceries.

they rang me up and put my stuff in sacks. i think we were less than six, but she was wearing a mask, and i was trying this time not to sneeze or cough or do anything like that. their life is hard enough, as i've said, that i don't need to come in there and give them stuff to worry about. dying, that's what we worry about. i don't want to do it; i'm not ready. we're hoping this virus just passes on by.

groceries in the car, we set off. car was pretty full, with a truck tire, three five-gallon jugs of cadillac water, a week's worth of groceries, and four pizzas. not to mention three teens, all of different races, which i think made the police look, as rowdy crowds aren't supposed to be driving around having too much fun. there we were. three of the kids came, because they wanted the mcdonald's and they wanted to get out and see who was out there. town was kind of empty - not many people were out there. it seemed like there were plenty of cars around, but at the same time it seemed like a lot of things just weren't open, or up as usual.

today's news is that the governor has extended our lockdown into the middle of may. nationwide people were talking may first, or earlier, but it's not looking like that. most of us would like to see those death numbers do something besides climb exponentially. we'd like to know that there's a hospital bed out there if we need it. i talked to seven people on this trip and have to trust each of them that they've been keeping good distance - as all civic-minded people should do - so as to not carry that virus to each of a string of customers. but i didn't know any of them from anybody. on my part, i simply had to trust them.

they trace viruses, generally, back to places where people shared the same air. it is not so much food being handed off in a sack, or groceries. it's air, and air in enclosed places. i'm convinced of it. that's why i rate that water place and the tire place riskiest. it's not the people i talked to - it was the air that i breathed.

but, so far, as far as i know, all clean. no dying around here, yet. i've had the same cold for about a month, but that's always been here, and i rate that as seasonal, allergy related. my family keeps asking me about it. as if it's going to change, or go somewhere, or isn't part of just the usual seasonal events. it seems people are highly conscious of every temp variation, every cough, every sniffle, like everything is a sign of something. it probably is a sign of something, but who knows. it's probably always been this way, even with the seasonal flu, and we never even paid attention.