I returned to my campus office Monday from an errand to find “air handlers” stacked out back –headed for classrooms where workers earlier marked wall outlets with tape for, yes, air handlers.
Later, two maintenance guys visited my office to check an air filter. They declared it dirty.
And thus did the university where I work tick more boxes on its checklist of covid safety “protocols.”
Outside, students mobbed sidewalks. Clogged crosswalks. Scurried in clumps of two and three and more – maskless.
They were freshmen, thousands of them, just moved in and enjoying a week’s freedom before classes start. The campus hadn’t seen such life since March 2020. The throng thrilled me.
And delivered a fright. So many people showing so little discipline about masking in crowds.
I’ve let my hair go shaggy again. I’ve suspended dining out. I aim scowls at those without masks – unseen behind my own.
Damn the Delta variant.
Humans are sloppy, unmanageable, selfish, forgetful, unwilling, ornery, backsliding contrarians. Against a throng, protocols are the thinnest shield of good intentions.
Welcome to the covid petri dish.
