Restaurant surprise the other day:

I'd been hearing of a lot of Covid cases recently -- one local resident on social media, one person who had ordered take-out from the Thai restaurant where I now work mentioning having it over the phone, one table talking about a coworker getting it when I went up to them to go and refill their water -- so, I've been making sure to have a fresh KN95 mask every long busy dinner shift that I work (since they're good for like 10-12 hours, I usually keep them to reuse them a 2nd time after a shift; waste not want not, though also don't overuse them, has been my motto).

The other day, though, I unwrap my fresh KN95 mask outside the restaurant door and go to put it on, and it was very squishy around the nose.

There was a factory defect, and they had forgotten to put in that metal band that you adjust to get a tight fit around the nose!

I wasn't sure what to do at first after I clocked in, but after a few minutes I thought that it was ridiculous, and I live so close, so I clocked out again and ran back home again to get a fresh mask.

Thankfully that day I started at 4pm and not 5pm, so it was well before the dinner rush started and I wasn't hurting anyone at all by being gone for like fifteen minutes, to run home and back.