brin_bellway: forget-me-not flowers (Default)
Brin ([personal profile] brin_bellway) wrote2022-07-03 11:26 am

A person who is free may say "yes", even if everyone else is saying "no"

[cw: bullying, (fairly mild) illness]


(part 2)

---

For the first time in two years, I was the only masked person at work for an entire shift.

---

And to put the cherry on top, I got yet another anti-mask catcaller on the way home. (This is something like the fifth one, in a year and a half.)

I paused outside the convenience store to check my assortment of convenience-store coupons and see what was worth using, and behind me in the parking lot I heard a woman yelling "Hey! Hey!". I assumed she was calling to someone else, but when I happened to turn around a little later she yelled "COVID's fake!".

"Pollen's real!" I yelled back, and went into the convenience store.

(I claimed my voucher for a free pack of peanut-butter cups.)

---

In related news, the 7093Cs have an interesting scentscape. It's *not* complete anosmia the way fresh 2097s are: there are occasional hints of soap, beef, bacon, yeast. But it's enough to be very distinctly different from a maskless scentscape, and in particular (so to speak) the Ambient Restaurant Scent is gone. I can live with that.