Shockingly, but not surprisingly, when parents went to the hospital for dad's eye exam, they were given neither gloves nor masks. This surprised my dad so much, he didn't know what to say when doctors started touching him without gloves. I made him put on gloves in the parking lot, but the poor fool took them off, expecting some proper gloves will be supplied for them. 

I know that there is very little risk in the hospital, because we only have 2 or so contained cases there and it's in another ward, but I am starting to suspect: "No need to wear masks and gloves, they don't work" has a little bit to do with "Fuck, we don't have enough masks and gloves even for our personnel!"

I wear a construction worker's anti-dust mask and I look stupid, but people ask me all the time where I got it. I bought them for the pigments. I have no idea why they wouldn't work - they stop particles so fine they only glimmer in direct sunlight when I work, yet alone sneeze spray. The General needs to use gloves at work, so he bought some in the local farms' supply station. Things are getting so cute at his place - people no longer care to shop, they just order on-line, so yesterday he had tons of potato go though the distribution hall :D Ah, the work of a mailman these days.

The pharmacy was interesting, too. The line in the street is annoying, but once I got to the little glass window and put the card(s) into their reader, she gave me the medicine and then I had to pay with cash and she took the cash from me, via the little drawer, with ungloved hands and put it in the register.

Am I over-thinking this, but how does she know that money wasn't compromised?

Maybe I'm just over-thinking this.

I have to stop googling: How come Ebola never spread to Europe?... and stuff like that.

To me, this is just a big dress rehearsal. So far we are not doing too bad in this country. The curve is slowly flattening. And maybe the way Americans are acting, they'll be lucky. Although something tells me these odd times, this weird calm before the storm ... so quiet, so peaceful, so calm. This may still get interesting.