After a half-year break, I started going back with the pet at night to Dog Fancier’s Park, the off-leash dog park near the New To Las Vegas world headquarters. It’s the largest and nicest around Las Vegas, with stadium lighting until 11 p.m. and bathrooms for humans. A friendly place, dog owners chat while their canines cavort. But I’m not sure I’m going to continue visiting.
The reason isn’t so much that in the age of COVID-19 virtually none of the other adults are wearing masks (one of the reasons I stopped going last fall). After all, since mid-February I’ve been fully vaccinated (Moderna, if you want to know). Federal authorities now say I’m good to go, with or without a mask on me or those around me.
It’s that I run into folks who actually brag that they haven’t gotten vaccinated and have no intention of becoming so. They are also sitting at the other end of a park bench from me that’s not really six feet long.
How does the issue of their vaccination status come up? Well, a la Forrest Gump on that Savannah bench, I often ask, as politely as I can. I suppose this might become the New Protocol of the coronavirus age, although in Las Vegas, at least, getting the truth is always a crap shoot. Continue reading