As the pandemic clamps down harder on the world, we adapt as best we can in our small corner of it. No one considers a rural bike shop to be an essential business, because only the desperate and the stupid use bikes for transportation in a country setting. Bike commuters are either worker bees who need to stretch their meager income, or fitness freaks who wobble along getting in everyone’s way. Some of us fall into both categories. But, essential or not, we can function as long as the disinfectant spray holds out. That and the money. It may be close.
We probably have more disinfectant than money. But even if I hadn’t scorched off so many people by being a caustic asshole about the equipment that the bike industry has conned everyone into having to embrace, there’s no guarantee that the absent would have required any more from us than they have demanded wherever they have demanded it.
We’re considering locking down. Bikes could be dropped off by appointment only. Payment would only be accepted over the phone. We haven’t gone there yet, but some shops in urban areas have. Their own personnel maintain the six-foot separation recommended by the CDC. Every bike for service gets sprayed down at check in, before the work is done, and after the work is completed.
El Queso Grande wondered whether we would see a surge in undesirable side effects a few months from now, after the constant exposure to all the cleaners and disinfectants.
We’ve cut the staff to two of us. Trainee David is reducing his exposure. One problem is that everyone in northern New England has sniffles and a cough this time of year, so you have no idea if it’s the usual snot fest or the new plague.
3 comments:
You might consider toning down the self-deprecation and bitterness. What point are you trying to make?
Mostly playing to the lurkers who have been offended by my criticism of trends in the industry and cycling, as well as acknowledging how we look to normal people. I want to make it clear that I don’t think I speak from a position of superiority.
I suspect it won't be long, probably only a few days, until the closure of your (and every other 'nonessential') business will be made mandatory by either state or federal government. Our federal government waited much too long to decide that test kits were warranted, to the point that not long ago little South Korea had tested SEVEN times as many persons as had been tested in the mighty US of A. Of course, why would test kits be needed for a situation that is clearly just a Democratic hoax?
Now that our government is coming to the realization that they have confirmed only a small fraction of the actual number of persons infected, they realize that hospitals will face an impossible onslaught of cases in a few more days. ICU rooms will become less accessible than a college education.
I am not hoarding anything, although it's obvious that many are; however, I am making preparations that I believe make sense:
I am maintaining a vigorous exercise regimen to try to make my aged body (hopefully) more capable of fighting this virus when I do contract it.
I am preparing mentally for forced isolation that may last for several months.
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