Another COVID-19 related thread may try people's patience, but I find interesting how this situation has changed our lives. Not just the big things, but the little ones, things that make sense when you think about them, but which probably wouldn't occur to you ahead of time.

I had an appointment with an endodontist today. Nothing serious, he was just checking on some work he did last year to make sure that the teeth were holding up okay (they were). After calling in from the parking lot, masking, knocking on the locked door to be let in, and saying hello, I was asked to fill out a form. The receptionist handed me a clicky ballpoint with it, and told me to keep the pen.

Well, since this was simply a matter of putting a checkmark by "no" on a number of questions ("do you have a fever? Have you tested positive for...") and then signing the sheet, there was no need to harrumph and insist on taking out my Pilot Custom Heritage 92 instead. The ballpoint wrote adequately for its minor task. When I go back to work, I'll bring it in and leave it in the communal pen cup we keep in the technical operations area.

It's the reason for "keep the pen" that's a sign of the times. When I mentioned it to the receptionist, she said that they'd decided it would be too much trouble always to be disinfecting the pens before letting another patient use them. And although there was advertising for this endodontic practice on it, they didn't have a cup of them sitting there, but handed them out one at a time. Maybe I should wipe the pen down with hand sanitizer before leaving it in that communal cup at work.

I suppose this might be a boon for people who only use ballpoints, but never buy one, depending on free handouts from businesses. But there were enough of those in the old days for people who looked for them, and I expect we'd all rather be back to normal.