Mastodawn

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

Taking the train from Boston to Maryland to help care for my parents for a few days (mom in rehab, dad at loose ends with mom in rehab) while my sister is on a business trip.
Air quality is fine on the bus and subway to Amtrak.
Air quality is fine on the train after light boarding at South Station.
Train fills up at Back Bay.
CO2 jumps immediately to 1600 PPM, and there's a woman sitting directly behind me coughing and sniffling constantly.
My KN95 might not be enough. 😡
#COVID

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

Tentative lunch plan so I don't have to fast in a mask for eight hours:
* Buy food from cafe car before train gets to Penn Station (20-minute stop).
* Prepare "seat occupied" note to leave on seat.
* As train arrives at Penn Station, leave note on seat, rush off train onto platform with food, wolf down food and water as fast as possible, return to train.
Ugh.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

Welp, we left Westerly, RI 24 minutes later than we should have so my suspicion is that the hold at Penn Station is going to be much shorter than scheduled so my lunch plan is shot to hell and I may have to go 10 hours without eating or drinking.
Being #CovidCautious is a real pain in the ass sometimes.
But getting #COVID is a lot worse.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

OK, backup lunch plan: most of the people on this train will get off at Penn Station. Maybe the ventilation system will be able to keep up better when there are a lot fewer passengers, so air quality will improve and it'll eventually be safe (enough) for me to take my mask off on the train briefly to eat and drink.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

We just pulled into New London 34 minutes late. So yeah, it's definitely not going to be safe for me to get off the train and eat on the platform at Penn Station.
Changing the subject entirely, an amusing (well, at least to me) anecdote about my trip to the train station this morning…

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

The Transit app told me to take the bus to the Green Line and then walk 10+ minutes in 10°F weather from Boylston to South Station.
In the middle of that plan, I said to myself, "Why aren't I just taking the Green Line to the Red Line and taking the Red Line to South Station"?
I think when the Transit app made its plan, the Red Line was delayed, but Google Maps said the delays were clearing up.
So I took the Red Line and made it to South Station earlier than planned with walking in the cold.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

Current CO2 status on the train: not great.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47

I face a moral quandary every time I need to sneeze while wearing a mask in public.
Do I leave the mask on, since after all one of the points of the mask is to protect other people?
Or do I take the mask off, because I'm probably not contagious and if I sneeze in the mask it'll be gross and fuck all those other people who aren't wearing masking, why should I put myself out for them?
What's your decision?

sneeze in mask, be a good doobie

63.6%

ew gross, take mask off

36.4%

Poll ended at Feb 9 at 4:11pm.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

My sister asked me to take my dad to the DMV to get a new ID while I'm there.
This is needed because he lost his passport within days of when sis got it for him. *sigh*
She suspects he was carrying it around in his pocket and forgot to take it out and it got sent to the laundry.
He's in an assisted living facility and barely ever leaves and never alone, so who the f knows why he would need to carry around his passport. 🤷
This time, my sister will hold onto the ID.
#elderCare #sandwichGeneration

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

h/t @nyhan with the winning plan: eat in the gap between train cars. It's cold, but not unbearably so for the length of time it took me to eat, and the air quality was solidly green. Which stands to reason since it's definitely well "ventilated", as illustrated by this photo I took:

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

CO2 on the train is currently 1941 PPM. Yikes.
The sink in a bathroom I used isn't draining. I mentioned it to a conductor and they said the drain pipe is probably frozen.
The conductor making the stop announcements has reminded us before each stop that we should look for a door with a conductor to disembark, because some of the doors are frozen shut and will not open.
Silly me, expecting a train called the "Northeast Regional" to be able to handle winter weather.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

It turns out starting a multiplayer online hearts game on my phone a few minutes before the train entered the tunnel to Penn Station wasn't a great idea.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

Shortly before we stopped in NYC, CO2 peaked at 2110 PPM. I was correct: most passengers got off at NYC. CO2 was down to 1277 10 minutes later. However, what I didn't anticipate was that even more people would board in NYC than got off. We just pulled out of Penn Station and CO2 is over 2200.
Not only does that obviously increase the risk of catching something from breathing everyone else's exhalations, it's also well into "Makes people stupid" range. Ugh.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

I'm not sure why this is bugging me so much, but I keep hearing passengers asking other passengers…
(boarding passenger) "Would you mind if I sit there?"
(passenger in window seat) "Would you mind if I slip past you?"
Like wtf, it doesn't matter whether they MIND. Stop asking for permission they have no right to deny.
"Excuse me, is this seat taken?"
"Excuse me, could I please slip past you?"

Fuzzyspoon Feb 9

@jik maybe it’s bugged you because you’d been on a train for so long with all the exposure to all the other peoples exhalations. That’s why it would have bugged me. - Hope you got to your parents’ place alright

@jik I do not trust my own estimation of “probably not contagious” based on several past experiences

dotmavriq Feb 8

@jik Hard call to put in a binary choice tree.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

Rob Vincent 🎙️Feb 8

@jik Turn away from people, slip your mask off, and sneeze into your hand/tissue/hanky/elbow/etc. as normal, maintaining polite sneeze containment while not screwing up your mask.

Alternatively, sneeze in your mask but immediately change to a new mask because ew.

Jonathan Kamens 86 47 Feb 8

@Rob_T_Firefly I mean, let's be honest here, none of those containment options are nearly as effective as the mask. I feel like the whole "sneeze into your elbow" thing is about as rooted in good science as all of us being told in 2020 to wash our groceries to prevent the spread of COVID was.

Rob Vincent 🎙️Feb 8

@jik I come to this from the perspective of a chronic allergy sufferer. I would literally fill a mask up if I sneezed my usual frequency into it, which wouldn't end up well for anyone, but I do carry tissues and/or a handkerchief every day.

dotmavriq Feb 8

@jik @Rob_T_Firefly Well would you not entertain that in confined spaces, the practice of sneezing into your elbow would improve when compared against...well... NOT, as in sneezing straight out like a mad lad.

Compassionate Crab Feb 9

@jik
I was in the leave-it-on camp until recently. I can usually sneeze quietly. Had a big messy sneeze in the mask, and I didn't have a spare. Ew is correct.
So I'm in the take it off camp, unless you're sure you have a replacement.

Very proud of you taking all the precautions. I wish everyone did as much.
Hope your working visit with your folks is as pleasant as possible.