A Cosir Máscares
On the day the first COVID-19 case was announced in Barcelona, I went in search of hand sanitizer and the 4 or 5 stores I visited were already out of it. So when I started to consider that I might want to wear a mask, or at least have one on hand just in case, sewing one seemed the obvious answer. By some stroke of luck, there were a few remnants of cotton left in the house by a previous inhabitant. Mad and I had carefully assembled a sewing kit before leaving home, and it includes some elastic. I had saved a few ribbons from Christmas. So I had the necessary materials. Sewing a mask by hand was quite tedious…and the first pattern I used yielded one larger than I wanted, so now Ed has one too.
For the second mask, I used a different pattern and modified it by combining elastic on one side with a looped ribbon on the other: more adjustable than elastic alone, but easier to put on than ribbons on both sides.
I've been wearing it when I go shopping, though not to walk the dog. I try to do most of my food shopping one day a week, with 1 or 2 very short jaunts in between. The butcher recommends visiting just once a week:
The small shops here typically allow just 1 or 2 people in the store at a time; other patrons must wait outside. This feels to me like a pretty sensible setup. The grocery stores feel a little riskier, though the two I frequent control how many people enter, and offer hand sanitizer and plastic gloves to customers as they come in. I would really like a yoga mat and some additional towels, but there is no Target-like supermarket near our house where these things might be available.
According to one news source I found, hardware stores may not be open but stationery stores are allowed to be -- I don't understand this rationale. I'm thankful that our neighborhood hardware store is open, presumably because they sell toiletries and cleaning products in bulk (bring your own bottle). I noticed they still had hand sanitizer available last week so I finally got some, for the princely sum of €13 to fill a 500ml bottle! I have no idea how much it usually costs here (and some random things are more expensive -- hair bands and chapstick to name a few). Since we hardly leave the house we don't have a pressing need for it, one backup bottle should be enough.