Who was that masked man?
Well, the bad news is, faced with a rapid increase in the number of plague cases related to an outbreak of the dumbass, the gov’ has ordered that everyone who leaves home, even for exercise, must wear a mask.
The good news? I’m gonna save a shit-ton of money on sunscreen.
Tags: The Bug
Mad Blog Media 
July 10, 2020 at 5:14 am |
Curchief has left the Doghouse!
July 10, 2020 at 6:31 am |
It’s a good thing I’ve got bells on all me bikes. Whilst masked my muffled “On y’lef'” will go unheard by the legions of shambling earbudded zombies.
July 10, 2020 at 12:50 pm |
Melbourne, where my daughter lives, came out of lockdown a few weeks ago & the Covid-19 cases skyrocketed, they’ve now gone into a second total lockdown for 6 week.
Needless to say, daughter is unimpressed.
Have a look at the graph in this article.
https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/pretty-ugly-melburnians-asked-to-mask-up-as-288-covid-cases-recorded-20200710-p55b10.html
They’ve been told to mask up too.
July 10, 2020 at 7:03 am |
There is absolutely no fucking medical justification for mandatory mask wearing if you are alone by yourself. What, I’m gonna get The Bug from a passing chipmunk? This time the Governor has her head up her ass.
July 10, 2020 at 7:06 am |
https://www.pacificmedicalcenters.org/physician-articles/outdoor-exercise-during-covid-19-maeda/
July 10, 2020 at 7:47 am |
Ayuh. Feels like being back in school.
(A student unleashes a massive fart during class.)
Teacher: “Who did that?”
(Silence.)
Teacher: “Very well. Since the farter will not ’fess up, and those who know who farted will not inform on him, you will all stay after school and wax the basketball court. By hand.”
Thing is, if you pitch a bitch you look like a special little snowflake.
“But we weren’t playing rugby in the park! We were just riding our bikes!”
“Sucks to be you, doesn’t it? Next time you cycle past a maskless rugby match maybe you’ll take a break to inform the Doctor-Constables of COVID Division (Special Flying Squad).”
July 10, 2020 at 9:32 am |
PS: It would not be wise for a skinny cyclist to go in and mess about with a bunch of rugby players.
July 10, 2020 at 9:30 am |
Wax on, wax off. Mask on, mask off. I guess stupid people, and remember what George Carlin said about their numbers, need simple instructions. The rest of us must suffer along.
July 10, 2020 at 1:35 pm |
Alone by yourself?
July 10, 2020 at 2:09 pm |
I am never alone by myself. There are the voices.
July 10, 2020 at 9:42 pm |
And sometimes I sits and thinks … and sometimes I just sits.
July 10, 2020 at 7:48 am |
i think i’d risk it if they did that here. it’s already too hot and humid without breathing my own exhaust. i’ve been wearing a buff around my neck when i walk down to the grocery store so i can easily pull it up when i walk inside and even that is miserable.
July 10, 2020 at 7:58 am |
I have been tossing a mask into my seat bag along with the wallet and cell phone, just in case I have to interact with other people. The most I’ve interacted on a bike ride was a couple times I saw cyclists sitting by the side of the road and I checked to ensure they were not having a breakdown, mental or mechanical.
This does feel like group punishment. Or, assuming we are all idiots and can’t think for ourselves. Well, maybe the second is not a bad assumption for some people. Plus, as you say, its too fucking hot. I was out on the La Tierra Trails yesterday pushing max heart rate and it was 95 when i left the house (yeah, I’m nuts, but trying to get back in shape. Ask O’G what I looked like last spring when we did the Metric). Jesus Christ, now a friggin mask???
I sent a polite (honest!) letter to the Health Secretary on this. Suggest others do too.
kathy.kunkel@state.nm.us
July 10, 2020 at 8:33 am |
I get the idea behind it. We all think we’re special, but The Bug® thinks otherwise. It’s a lot easier for The Authorities to say “All y’all got to wear the mask” than it is to pick and choose.
“Why does that guy get to ride around with his face hanging out?” Etc.
Irksome nonetheless, though. I had already given up the bike paths, including the bosque trail, and was only occasionally riding singletrack because there are just too many people out there anymore and it’s tough to find some proper social distance on narrow bits. It’s a lot easier to step off the trail if you’re hiking. And basically I yield to everyone because why not? I’m never in a hurry.
I’ve been keeping my road rides under two hours, and riding various loops so I’m never more than five miles from home. I don’t do group rides, and I give people plenty of warning — ding ding ding! — if it seems likely that they will be enjoying a brief interaction with me.
I’ve also been carrying a mask (well, an extra bandana, anyway). If need arose I could swaddle my mug and go on about my business.
Off the bike we don’t go out to eat, or get takeout. I’m grocery-shopping closer to home (Sprouts instead of Wholeazon Amafoods) and only every 10 days or so. No visits to the barber (Herself cuts what remains of my hair). Herself likewise skips the salon and does her exercise/yoga classes online.
We’re both working from home. In point of fact we rarely leave the sonofabitch. And we’re not having people over to play naked Twister or anything.
I believe we’re doing mostly what is asked of us. Plenty of people aren’t, though, and that’s the problem. How do you address it without resorting to blanket prohibitions and mandates?
July 10, 2020 at 9:12 am |
I have serious doubt you gave up naked Twister. I saw you were listed as a Grandmaster player and instructor somewhere POG. And I guess it only takes two to play? No dining out or otherwise gratuitous shopping here at the Baronial Estate. Same as you, furtive runs for groceries and pharmacy along with the hardware store when desperate for certain items like softener salt and plumbing parts. A few growler runs to keep our small brewer solvent.
July 10, 2020 at 9:41 am |
I think there was a YouTube video on Patrick’s tips for how to win at Naked Twister. I’ll go look for it.
July 10, 2020 at 9:44 pm
Tip #1: Ensure the tarp is covering all of the carpet before you open the Wesson oil.
July 11, 2020 at 1:54 am |
Eegads! Please take that vision of a naked POG out of my head. and Twister too! Yeeuck. You can be assured that I’ll keep my three state distance butt I’m sure your honey loves you.
July 10, 2020 at 3:30 pm |
“How do you address it without resorting to blanket prohibitions and mandates?”
I’m not sure how you do that but not sure you have to. The part about social isolation is supposed to trump wearing masks or hosing down the toilet lever with Lysol.
My guess is if you make things too irksome or illogical (if you are not wearing a mask in the middle of the forest no one is around, who cares?) you breed contempt or malicious compliance rather than buy-in.
Like you two, we are making ourselves as scarce as possible. Meena has one hiking partner and I do my bumbling around quite alone.
I understand the part about “how come that asshole doesn’t have a mask on and i do” but then again, I have even stopped riding through Fanta Se as much as possible and keep to the outlying roads.
I’ll have to work on a cheesecloth mask.
July 10, 2020 at 4:25 pm |
Thing is, the gov’ already isn’t getting buy-in. Not down here in ’Burque, anyway, based on casual observation. Plenty of people are motoring around and about, engaging in business as usual, which means not wearing masks, clustering up, robbing banks, crashing motorcycles, and shooting each other and the occasional innocent bystander.
Frankly, I don’t know how you get their attention. I for one will be shocked and awed if I see all the Tramway road toads cycling in masks come Monday.
July 10, 2020 at 9:12 pm
Or the geezer couple who passed me headed up Old Taos Highway and cut in so sharply that they almost clipped my front wheel today. Then slowed down so I slowed down too as as not to be in their draft.
As Larry’s wife says….
July 10, 2020 at 8:17 am |
Even with good intentions and smart people in place Federal and State government usually acts like they are playing a championship golf course with only two clubs. When things require a delicate touch they use the driver. When say, FEMA needs to bring help pronto – they use a putter. When a shot goes out of bounds (ICE) they ignore the rules (of human decency) and continue play.
Wearing a mask while cycling only makes sense at the velodrome or if you are on a group ride which at least here in the Mitten State have all been cancelled.
July 10, 2020 at 8:37 am |
The cops must love this shit.
“Get some pressure on that sucking chest wound, pal. I just saw a dude on a bike without a mask.”
Screeeeeeeeeeeeech! Whoop whoop whoop whoop whoop. …
July 10, 2020 at 11:12 am |
Kinda what I was thinking: “Chopper One to All Ground Units, there is an unmasked bicyclist at approximately mile nine of the Middle of Nowhere Trail. Preparing for a strafing run…ground units follow up if necessary.”
July 10, 2020 at 4:55 pm |
Well, it could be worse. You could be in Arizona. Wanna trade governors? At least yours had the ovaries to do something other than pass the buck and kiss dumpster ass.
July 10, 2020 at 5:08 pm |
Yeah, she’s in the shit for sure. Texas to the east of us, Arizona to the west. And just when it looked like the petrodollars were gonna have our poor state finally shittin’ in the tall cotton, the boom she goes bust.
Hercules and the Augean Stables, is what. And it’s gonna take more than a day to flush it all out, ’cause they ain’t any water in the Rio Grande.
July 11, 2020 at 7:00 am |
Is the river actually going dry at Albuquerque, Patrick? I suspect its getting bad down there.
July 11, 2020 at 7:30 am |
No idee, K. I haven’t been west of I-25 all year. I’ve surrendered the bosque trail to the thundering herds.
I do know that the city has quit taking its drinking water from the river as it dwindles, but I don’t know where it draws from. Up north it seems like the rafting industry is navigating some rough waters of another sort. The good news is, you can still ride the tram.*
* Please bring your own hazmat suit.
July 11, 2020 at 9:18 am |
Looks like it is still flowing, but getting a little slow.
https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nm/nwis/uv?site_no=08330000
July 11, 2020 at 11:44 am
Yikes. That’s not very much. Almost shallow enough to route a cyclocross race across it…,or perhaps enough for a social distancing rubber ducky race.
Just remember though, with climate change we’ll all have more fresh water in the future… mixed in with a whole lot of salt water.
July 11, 2020 at 5:16 pm |
I had a friggin mask on for five minutes while running between buying coffee and stopping at the local bike shop. It was drenched.
Current conditions at
Santa Fe County Municipal Airport (KSAF)
Lat: 35.61°NLon: 106.1°WElev: 6260ft.
Fair
100°F
38°C
July 11, 2020 at 5:17 pm |
Oh, right. On the Long Haul Trucker.
July 11, 2020 at 7:40 pm |
O, it’s gonna be a sonofabitch for sure. We topped at 103° here. When I was out this morning, for 90 minutes, the temps ranged from a low of 86° to a high of 92°.
It’s still 99° at 7:40. Reminds me of the good old days when I’d get off work at The Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, have a couple beers at The Shanty on Fourth, then mosey home around 2 a.m. to find the temp still in triple digits.
Y’think the gov’ gets a cut of Peloton/Zwift memberships?