The governor, who left his mask in his car while visiting Virginia Beach over the weekend and who got up close and personal with some folks who wanted a selfie, today announced that as of Friday, anyone over the age of 10 must wear a mask inside any public building or brick and mortar establishment. Masks do not need to be worn if a person is exercising or eating and drinking. This did not make many people happy judging by the number of angry faces shown rising up on the Facebook feed I was watching.
So can a person be arrested, fined, or otherwise penalized for not masking up while inside a business? Not likely, given that the mask issue will not be enforced by law enforcement but will instead fall under the purview of the Department of Health. A reporter's question of how this enforcement might be manifested was given a somewhat rambling answer about how a business that did not enforce the wearing of masks might, at an uncertain point in the future, find their business license in jeopardy.
The governor announced that it was likely that the localities who did not enter Phase I of reopening a week and a half ago would enter Phase I on Friday. This of course raised the question of whether the rest of the state could move on to whatever Phase II might be on Friday. The governor hedged on this, which I hope means he's not going to move to Phase II that soon. He said that Phase I had not at this point lasted two weeks, and the time scale of the novel coronavirus suggested now was not the time to study what had happened in the last ten days. He said officials would be looking at the relevant metrics as the two-week point came closer, and he would be able to say more about that on Thursday. I've got my fingers crossed that he announces two more weeks of Phase I, putting the whole state on the same schedule.
My Facebook feed this morning showed me my post on this day in 2017. The husband and I were on a Treasures of Peru tour and visiting Machu Picchu. It was the afternoon that six of us with an average age of 67 hiked up the side of a mountain from the main tourist area to the Sun Gate. I was the baby of the group at age 60. It was not an easy hike but was well worth doing. Reading this memory reminded me that the husband and I have discussed how good it was that we did not keep putting trips off until some nebulous point in the future such as after he retires. Because of that, we've visited the places we most wanted to see which, for me, were Angkor Wat, Iceland, and Machu Picchu. If I had known how great it would be, I would have added taking the mailboat along the coast of Norway to that list. There is no way of knowing whether international travel will ever be the same or how long it might take for that to come to pass. There are international places I'd still like to visit--Nepal and Bhutan, Morocco, possibly some of the 'Stans--but it won't break my heart to not be able to go to those places.
I'm working on a new list of places to visit that are closer to home. The first on the list is Yellowknife in Canada's Northwest Territories, a trip to be taken at a time when viewing the aurora borealis is probable. Except for the fact that I really have no desire at this point to visit Hawaii, it would be nice to knock off the US states I have yet to visit. There aren't many besides Hawaii: Arizona, Mississippi, Louisiana, and possibly Oklahoma. I can't recall if I went through part of Oklahoma while driving to Dallas, Texas back in my single days. And if we're going to knock off the US states, we might as well add the Canadian provinces and territories. And I have no desire to go to Mexico unless the safety issues there have been addressed.
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