We’re hanging out on a mooring ball in Carolina Beach, waiting for the unsettled weather to pass us by. The unsettled weather we’re most worried about is this fickle hurricane that’s mean meandering around down around the tip of Florida and Cuba for the last week–Eta (not sure that’s the correct spelling.)
Of course, there’s other weather that effects us as well, but all these systems seem to be working together to create unsettled weather for us. It’s Thursday, and both the major models right now predict that the path of the storm will pass just to our south tomorrow, which will bring us heavy rain and wind.
But we like it here, and don’t mind hanging out for a week while we wait for settled weather again. A short dingy ride away is a dock to tie up to and then a short walk over to the beach on the Atlantic shore, where we can walk up and down a nice sandy beach, enjoying the pounding surf of an unsettled Atlantic ocean. Then a slightly longer dingy ride takes us to a town dock from which we can walk to the state park about a mile away and walk trails, then hit the Publix for any groceries we need on the way back to the dinghy.
In many ways, this is pretty ideal for us, since we have good places to go walk and get exercise. Were it not for Covid, we’d be able to enjoy more local culture as well. But it’s a trade-off we’re okay with in order to stay safe. Outdoors we stay distanced and we don’t go in anywhere that doesn’t require masks.
Which makes me wonder about all these folks who whine about how behaving safely hurts business. To me, it’s the opposite. For example, in Maine we saw businesses open and operating. I have no doubt that business was down, but they were operating. ALL businesses required masks. You couldn’t enter the state of Maine without a 2 week quarantine or a negative Covid test.
They didn’t behave like a bunch of selfish children, but behaved like responsible adults. We spent the summer there. We spent our money there. We ate out a few times. We had a beer at a tavern a couple times.
We felt safe.
Here in the SE United States–from Virginia down to the NC/SC border so far–people generally ignore pandemic precautions. Nobody wears a mask in public. A few stores require masks. The Publix does, and they’re very clean and strict. The TrueValue hardware store said they required them, but folks inside weren’t wearing them. I needed something at the hardware store, but turned around and walked out. I tried the ACE hardware store in town, and they indeed were requiring all to wear masks. I spent my money there.
So far, here in town, the ONLY businesses that have gotten money from me are the ones who behave responsibly.
So tell me again how behaving responsibly is bad for business…
But I rant.
Today it is supposed to rain all day, so we might be confined to the boat. We’ll probably cook a roast. We’re hoping for a bonus break in the weather to go do another beach walk.
