Shop and get out...

We are still slightly hopeful that we'll get to see the whales in Alaska.
Our cruise is scheduled to depart the middle of May and even if it's cancelled, we figure we might get to go later in the year — if the world ever returns to normal.
So Marc and I took our gift card from Scheel's and went to buy me some new binoculars, just in case I get the chance to use them.
(I've apparently lost my last pair.)
We found the store to be open and we headed in, expecting the store to be mostly deserted.
It was.
There were very few people inside and the cashiers were all wearing protective masks, sitting behind desks that had been put in front of the registers.
Signs were posted all around, telling us to stay away from other customers and to decide what it was we wanted to buy without delay, get it and get out!
Well, maybe not so bluntly put as that, but the message clearly was "don't linger and don't wander around unattended."
We carefully looked around, then stood back and asked an associate where the binoculars were.
He pointed up and indicated we should take the escalator to the next floor.
We did that.
We arrived at the upper floor and found the binoculars in a fenced off area behind glass with a female associate standing guard.
We looked at the prices and the various options.
I found some I thought I liked and we went to tell the guardian of the display what we wanted. I thought I would get to handle them for heft and peer through the eye pieces.
"Okay," she said. "We'll get you a pair."
A man showed up with some in a few minutes, handing them to me with dispatch.
I paid for them and we retreated.
I didn't try them on until we had returned to our car.
They were fine.
I like them.
(Marc wanted to check out the hiking boots but it didn't seem like anybody wanted us to hang about.
When he picked up a shoe, I looked at him in alarm.
"I don't think you are supposed to touch things," I said as I noticed employees giving us startled glances.)
We are now back at home thinking we are probably not well suited for this new reality, this new way to shop.
We realize we like to go about, check things out and maybe buy stuff we don't need, on impulse.
It's also hard to be regarded with suspicion and to remember everything we do is dangerous.
We are wild cards.
We're older with underlying conditions and we are pretty hard to retrain.
Perhaps because we just don't understand.