Grocery Shopping was Surreal

The area where we live does not have a populace who seems to really believe that they could get sick or worse yet, get others sick.  Despite a state stay at home order, there were rather a lot of people still out and about, almost none bothering with any actual precautions.  Most panic buying seems to have subsided, though that may be due to lack of product on shelves more than anything else.

Since Husband has a background in biohazards and public health, we have been carrying hand sanitizer since the end of January.  We also tend towards overly cautious in the current situation. Masks and gloves, already stocked in our house(yay for woodworking supplies), are worn for all errands and only removed once back inside the house. Showers are taken immediately following a store run.  The clothes worn for errands are put directly into the washer.  We live in a neighborhood that has quite a lot of folks in the retirement age range, so better safe than sorry, for our neighbors and their grandchildren.  It's not just about us.

The store local to us also serves the higher end suburbs of Boise.  People were taking almost no precautions at all.  Not being respectful of space.  Staring openly or pointedly avoiding acknowledging us.  A few even giggled. Gloves are fairly discreet, you can't hide a face mask.

Things mostly looked the same. One lady loudly bought out a type of bacon at the butcher counter, while standing way too close.  For us, it was a slightly larger than usual grocery store run, but with Easter coming up, that isn't actually out of place.  The conversations in grocery store parking lots as we load the car, of thankfulness that we are able to buy a little extra at this point and remembering the not too long ago times we couldn't, are unusual, but decidedly heartfelt.