There are always left-behind poop bags on the shore. And while I am here, there is a lot of recent talk about the toilet plume. Consider that anything you can smell is the result of molecules of rose petals or vomit or yeast or alcohol or whatever inside your nose. That’s the only way you can smell it—it’s inside your nose.

All persons in my county must be masked when visiting any indoor public space, beginning 1 July 2020. The county itself requested this. As a friend said to me on the phone: we’re a tourist economy and people come here from everywhere. We need some protection.

from NPR “Masks And The Outdoor Exerciser: Advice For Runners, Bikers, Walkers, Hikers”:

When outdoors: “experts I spoke to all said wearing a mask is a good thing. Now you probably don’t think you have the coronavirus if you feel good enough to exercise. But some people are asymptomatic – they never show symptoms – or presymptomatic – sick but not yet feeling it. “A mask will protect others by blocking respiratory droplets you breathe out that can carry viral particles. A mask with a tight weave (i.e., you can’t see the sunlight through the fabric) and multiple layers may give you a measure of protection as well by preventing you from inhaling viral particles expelled by someone who’s infectious.

“The exception for mask-wearing might be if you’re 100% certain you won’t come within 12 feet of any human, my sources did note. . . .

“If you do come near someone and want to pass, make sure you allow for 6 feet of distance as you run, bike or walk by them. Think of it the way you’d pass a car – start moving away early on, execute the pass, then gradually return to the path.”

This seems like common sense, especially that last. Maybe, even at six in the morning, I need to mask?  I thought the beach was safe, especially considering how early we usually go out and how much room there is to keep distant from other walkers.

This morning I had to ask tourists walking the beach and coming up behind me to “step around, please” three times before they understood I meant that they were coming straight at me from behind, and I was not going to be the one to move out of their way.

They seemed to find my request completely surprising, but they were already walking on and within twenty feet of me before they moved.

It isn’t that I haven’t seen this before. As a short woman, and an old one, I have experienced the invisibility factor that leads some people, especially younger male people, to assume they have right-of-way on sidewalks, for example. Even when I am walking far to the right where I would expect them to stay to my left, I have been forced all the way onto the street to avoid being run into. I have been run into while walking literally on the curb because a group walking three abreast could not be bothered to make room for me.

Runners have rules:

• Alert people when you are passing—don’t assume they are aware of their surroundings. A simple “on your left” warning will suffice.

As a former runner, you pass on your right, and the courteous thing is to warn people you are approaching from behind and run around them, not force them to move out of your way. If the path is narrow, you alert the person in front of you that you are there in order that you may both move as far apart as the path allows.

With fifty yards of open sand, these people had ample room to avoid me, but chatting with their cups of coffee and approaching from the rear, it seemed to not occur to them that we are in the midst of a pandemic.

Yes, I am aware I am becoming testy, argumentative, and so forth. It is showing up in my reactions to all sorts of things, including what I regarded as a misreading of Morrison’s intentions in structuring The Bluest Eye. And the analyst raised many valid points along the way. sigh

I taught that novel for over twenty years, loved it and the author, and continue to love them both deeply.

Somehow love matters more and more. Tell people you love them, Gary keeps saying. He’s right. Speaking to friends and family on the phone or with a visual platform, cards to and from friends and former students. Tell them.

It’s not my imagination, any of this. I feel irritable and affectionate in equal measure. I both miss people and resent their absence, which makes no sense. I stew and fuss and quarrel within myself. I need that morning walk to settle myself and remind me of what I love, though that also reminds me of those I miss most of all. Most of all the ones I love.

Also The Color Purple:

The current purple and orange “Purple Flame” warp.