Rules and guidelines on masking in the US

The hotel in which I stayed in the United States is a part of a large chain. The official wording on its clean policy is that for guests staying at its US hotels, you do not need to wear a mask at the hotel if you are fully vaccinated. Staff are required to wear face masks.

As a cautious Canadian, I threw that guest policy out the window. I am fully vaccinated. I got my booster shot on Thursday. All is well. I have a sore arm. That's it. I'm boring that way. I'll take boring any day!

Whether I was heading downstairs to the kitchen area to fetch breakfast to take up to my room or doing laundry, I wore a mask. Heading to and from my room? I had a mask on.

As for staff, housekeeping never had masks on. When I headed to my room to check in back in late November of last year, I had to walk by two housekeeping staff without their masks. Luckily, I had mine on.

I'd say that 50% of the time, staff at this hotel had face masks on. The front desk was much better at it.

What I am trying to get at is that there are rules and guidelines on wearing masks, but they aren't enforced. We are still in a pandemic. Not wearing a mask in a public area is ridiculous these days, vaccinated or not.

The moral of this story is to mask up, to protect yourself and others from the various COVID-19 variants that are out there.

Wear a mask! An older couple were amazing enforcers

As of Friday, July 17, it's a bylaw where I live to wear a mask in public indoor areas. I realize that it's tough switching over, but it depends on the store and whether wearing a mask is being reinforced.

At Shoppers Drug Mart, a man asked me if I was in the lineup for the self-checkout. Nope, I was in the human checkout instead.

He had no mask. I wanted to say something. Obviously, everyone else was masked. He didn't get the hint. Shoppers Drug Mart wasn't spending time enforcing the bylaw.

An older woman behind me said loudly, "Isn't it a bylaw to wear a mask?" I turned around and said yes. She thanked me for answering back. Her husband joined her in the lineup and they both went on about it.

Another man came in and clearly was not wear a mask. These two folks gave him quite the talk that he went out to his truck, got his mask, wore it, and came back into the store.

I loved this couple. Great job!