You've probably heard this before...but now I'm saying it.

In what has become a habit in the late afternoon, I go to the Northern State Department of Health website, and check the stats.  I'm not being morbid, mind you...good, honest, well-researched information is power; power to do the right thing, to prepare for the day, the week, the month...and right now, we need all the well-researched information we can get.

As you may or may not remember, I work as an essential employee at a large merchandise outlet.  I keep the door.  It's a kind of dull job, truly, but you do get to see a pretty clear cross-section of the humanity that calls this Northern State their home.

No judgements.  Just observations.

The average age seems to skew older.
Most of the older gentlemen wear red hats.
A majority of the older people do not wear masks.
They also are also really resistant to the concept of 'Social Distance.'
And they realllly want to fight about it.

But they are a hearty lot, it seems; for the total cases between the ages of 60 and 90 are less than half of the total cases between the ages of 20 and 50.

I'm being general, of course...it's my day off, and I'm not doing math.

Me?  I wear a mask for 10 hours a day; I am a regular slatherer of hand sanitizer; and I regularly take care to sanitize everything a human being can possibly touch in my work area.

I don't want to get sick.

And I don't want anybody else to fall ill, either.

I do have one request to the people who do go to these merchandise outlets, as well as restaurants and bars, and soon movie theatres.

The people selling you tickets and ringing up your merchandise and pushing your shopping carts to their proper place have been running at a stress level not seen by Americans as a whole since the early part of the 20th Century.  And they continue to do it, at some considerable risk to their health, and the health of their families.  While you are out, enjoying the opportunity to buy your toilet paper and Memorial Day vittles, the people who provide you service have begun to distance themselves from their own family members; in some cases, they have stopped talking completely and simply stare off into space.

Be kind.  Offer encouragement.  Thank them for their service, for cryin' out loud.

Because in the final analysis....you owe us.

And if you pull out the old, "My business pays your salary' bullshit....I am going to demand a raise from you.  With my boot.  Up your ass.

With respect.