Social Distancing Stories

Have you had any interesting personal experiences during this pandemic? Please share them so we can all enjoy and reminisce during these times.

Here's my story:

One day I was on my way to work, walking down the street I live on. As I was making my way a pair of pedestrians were coming the other way. I didn't adhere to any "distancing" measures, but passed within a foot of the man. After them was a lady walking her dog. I resumed checking my phone for the bus app to see when the next one was coming. I vaguely observed through my peripheral vision that the lady walking her dog had moved onto the grass a considerable distance away. My assumption was that her dog was pooping on the grass. My concentration was broken by her shouting at me, "You just like, don't put in any effort do you?" I thought she was criticising me for looking at my phone while walking. I turned to her, shrugged my shoulders, and said, "What?" I just didn't want to assume, that was the reason. She then replied, "Haven't you heard of social distancing?" I thought of making a retort, but quickly decided the best thing to do was simply turn and walk away without saying anything. I felt I had made the right choice, and felt good about myself. From behind me I hear her shouting after me, "As a medical professional, I find that deeply disturbing." I chuckled to myself, but refrained from making any retort and continued on my way. All the way to the bus stop I was thinking of things I could have said, like, "Social distancing is the reason I'm not talking to you." And, "Do you even know what the word 'Social' means? I think you mean, 'physical' distancing." It was stressful, but I felt good about simply walking away without saying anything.

Okay, what about you guys? What sort of situations happened to you?

I have had numerous people give me looks and distance themselves.

My favorites are the ones who break physical distance and then gab at the people they broke distance on.

Some places it’s impossible to keep distance. Think of all the people shopping at gas stations during this mess? The one outside my neighborhood is full of inventory and the isles are maybe 3 feet wide at best? Plus we have a row of those slot machines and people been playing those during all this, too.

The idea that you can shut everything down and people will just magically keep their distance is laughable. We had cops in our neighborhood breaking up house parties a few weeks back.

Humans are social creatures. We used to hike over mountainous terrain to visit the other villages. No government order is going to rewrite our evolutionary history.

Being close to someone for a short period of time is kind of a tough question. Technically, it's hard to argue we should stay 6-10 feet away, just to be safe. On the other hand on my dog walks a few time I've been closer than that (usually for a specific/moderately good reason, like otherwise having to walk in the street as a car is going by at the same time). I do think in that situation it has to be very quick, ideally with your face turned away a bit, and your mouth closed. Not that you can trust other people to do the same.

I can assure you that none of my ancestors ever once hiked over mountainous terrain. Especially not to visit someone.

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I’m here only on Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays. That’s why I’m here now.

I'm assuming this is meant as a joke, right? Doesn't England have like tons of mountains all over the northern part? And then if we threw in Wales and Ireland ya'll got even more.

I always thought that's why ya'll UK types have big calves.

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"This is that human freedom, which all boast that they possess, and which consists solely in the fact, that men are conscious of their own desire, but are ignorant of the causes whereby that desire has been determined." -Baruch Spinoza

⬆️ British humor doesn’t travel well here sometimes.

There was a joke somewhere up there? I don't get it.

I don't think that's the issue.

I swear I clicked the video game link under misc. I jump to the last post, of course, and I see Zotis is responding to "British humor." I then notice he quoted Stirchley. In a video game sub-forums? wut? So now I know I've missed some context and I begin to scroll up to see the previous post before it because, surely (I'm not calling you Shirley), this conversation couldn't have lasted too long. Wait. Citizen had the next post up? Then Stirchley ...then McClane?? .........and again, Stirchley?! What has gone down in this video game thread in the last few hours that I've missed? WOW!

Then it dawns on me. Oh. wrong thread.

=\

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"My Dionne Warwick understanding of your dream indicates that you are ambivalent on how you want life to eventually screw you." - Joel

"Ever try to forcibly pin down a house cat? It's not easy." - Captain Steel

"I just can't get pass sticking a finger up a dog's butt." - John Dumbear

"Social Distancing" is the reason why I don't have friends.

This is what caused the confusion. I was being facetious (and terribly amusing, IMO) by suggesting that my ancestors would never travel ... to visit friends. Brits being anti-social & all that. John didn’t know if I was joking or serious so we had a little pm going.





Take me outside & shoot me if you ever see me in a video game thread.

^oh that's why you got the bold font! I was in such disbelief!!!

Oh OK I never thought of British people as being anti-social. I thought maybe because the terrain was flat there.

⬆️ Brits are reserved. Saying they are “anti-social” was me exaggerating.

OK. I was 'accused' of being a Brit once during a very polite argument. That's true!

⬆️ Too funny. I have never been accused of being an American.

About the only thing that has happened to me is that people were not social distancing.

I was at Wal-mart in self check-out and a woman and her daughter were less than 1 foot away. I gave her a look then moved to the other end of my cart. She may not care and think this is a joke but I know it's not. I understand completely what this virus does.

Another instance was at Walgreens when I was getting medication and paying for it. They have marked out 6-foot lines on the floor and a man and his wife were again less than 1 foot from me. I rushed out there as fast as I could.

Nova did a special on the virus. It isn't the virus that causes your lungs to fill with fluid.. it's your own immune system. The virus attaches itself to your air pockets on your lungs and your immune system does not recognize it so it attacks and causes the inflammation which in turn causes your lungs to fill with fluid.

⬆️ I wasn’t completely aware until I read the NY Times last week that speaking to someone without either of you wearing a mask is dangerous. My church volunteer work resumes this week & I have to think of all these things now.

One of my pet peeves is when people line up on the wheel chair ramp instead of on the black tape lines marked on the sidewalk. Then when someone comes out needing to use the ramp they have to pass everyone very closely. I always just stand beside whoever is at the back of the line on the ramp, and then the rest of the people who show up line up behind me on the sidewalk properly.

Not anything terribly interesting but our grocery store now does one way aisles. The other day I was in the spice aisle looking for some Hungarian Paprika and I couldn't find it. It's in a can so it's not in the racks of little bottles that have everything alphabetically. I just could not find it. Well, there was a guy and his wife/gf/friend waiting at the end of the aisle for me to move and they were letting me know that they weren't too happy that I couldn't find it (rolling their eyes and stuff like that). To be honest, I wasn't too happy I couldn't find it either but I was told to get Hungarian Paprika and I'll be damned if I was going home w/o Hungarian Paprika. We have big, sharp knives at home that are way scarier than any look these two were giving me. I was wearing a mask, they were wearing masks and gloves. I told them they could go around me, go in front of me, just go, but they wouldn't do it. They preferred to sit there looking disgusted. Finally found it then, to needle them a bit more I said "Just need to find the Red Alaea Sea Salt and I'm out." The spices are at the beginning of the one way aisle so it's not like they were trapped or anything. I was called an intercoursing penis then they left. Then so did I. If you're that worried about stuff perhaps you should do delivery or curbside pick up, which the store offers.

Also got yelled at for using the wrong door at WalMart. "SIR! SIR!...wrong door."