from the Dept. of Miscommunication

[sistawendy]

Last week, the Wendling brought me some fabric from his mother, a lovely Christmas snowflake print that I'm sure once belonged to Ex's stepmother. I'd made a mask for each of the three of us using my stash of black cotton, so I assumed (Foreshadowing!) that she wanted me to make more with her fabric since she has no sewing machine.

The trouble is, I haven't had enough elastic in ages, and the batch of three used up all my tape. I needed to use much of Ex's fabric to make ties, which is a labor-intensive process, boy howdy. I made ten masks in about as many hours. Except for my morning ride, I didn't take advantage of the gorgeous weather yesterday*. When I called up and asked how many I get to keep, she said, "As many as you want."

Le sigh. I'm keeping four because I busted my butt on them, dammit. More masks is definitely more because you're supposed to wash them and dry them in a dryer.

I have to say, though, that I've tried both an N-95 and one of my homemade masks for biking, and I felt like I was going to suffocate. It's just too hard to get enough air through them per minute if you're breathing hard. The nice thing about riding in the street, as I started doing over the weekend, is that I'm not too close to anybody. Skipping the mask is, I hope, not too bad.



*An awful lot of people in my neighborhood were gathering outdoors in threes, fours, and fives, though. Not. Cool.

Comments

[ximinez]

I try to bring a mask with me when I'm out, but not around people, then put it on when people come around. Seems perfectly legit to do something like that when you're biking.

[ironymaiden]

I know it's too late now but for other interested readers: sacrifice a t-shirt into strips instead of bias tape. It has give, it doesn't ravel, it just turns itself into neat little tubes.

[parityanimal]

When I take my walks, I stay WAY more than 6 feet away from people. More like 30 to 100 feet away, other than cars that generally have the windows closed. I cross the street if I see someone approaching or even walk in the street if there is no traffic. My masks make my bifocals ride too high on my face.

I wear a mask if I am going to go places that are peopley…

But I am trying to stay home (other than my exercise walks) until I have a desperate need to get groceries.

[audrey_eee]

I’ve been biking without a mask and putting one on to go into the store. I still have a couple of surgical masks from an open box, and I’m finding that I can bike with it on if I need to, but it’s still distracting and tends to ride up under my eyes.