If anyone is interested, there are paddling themed face masks available here on Pnet.
For every mask sold, another is made for someone who needs it.
Available under the STORE on the top line menu.
Is that $20 price for ONE mask or three?
I always think the photos look cheesy when they use the EXACT SAME PICTURE and PhotoShop the product onto a model or into a scene.
You could buy a T-shirt from here for less, cut it up ('cause you’d be embarrassed to wear it), and perhaps have multiple masks for the price… or you could go into your closet/dresser/suitcase/backpack, find some old semi-worn-out clothing (plus whatever tight-weave addition you want to trust that day), and make your own. After all, you’re bored and have some spare time to kill. It isn’t even that much to do the old fashioned way with needle and thread.
Sure looks like you’re buying ONE to me, and it isn’t even a very effective design - both in function and fashion. Screen printing some controversial slogan or graphic on it would probably sell better.
Many areas have phone numbers and web sites to report price gouging and predatory business practices related to the pandemic. I actually considered reporting a local store with a sign out front advertising 3 “medical grade” masks for $5.
Masks are still controversial, and most likely more effective at providing a rallying symbol and reminder than actually being an effective viral barrier. That said, I do wear a high quality graded mask to protect myself when I go into spaces where I expect to find other people in close proximity who are oblivious to the need for distancing. In fairness, these are probably less than 10%. But those numbers are growing with the onset of fatigue, resignation, and relaxed restrictions.
Actually, in hindsight, you would be buying TWO masks for this price. You’d only receive ONE though.
It’s another business practice I can complain about - making it look like your business is doing a good thing by facilitating a charitable act that’s funded in majority by the consumer.
Jeeze - sorry that I tried to help Brian in supporting a good and worthy cause!
Sparky, I am fine with my bucks donating to this cause thru pnet. I did the same with four other masks I have on order. And happily I know others doing similarly. You can always decide not to participate.
Yes Rookie, you are buying two but one goes to a good purpose.
The patterns are of paddling themes, which works for a PADDLING site. I personally have thus far eschewed controversial slogans on purpose. It is a great idea until you are actually wearing a mask or masks on a daily basis. I frankly don’t want to have a conversation about a slogan every time I need to go into a grocery store or a drugstore - I want to get my stuff and get out.
Someone looking for a controversial moment suggests to me that they are not actually wearing masks regularly.
IF you are going to mask up to start with, the minimally proper way to do it is one mask for every round of continuous stops. If out just walking on the street or in a state park I wear it at least down around my neck ready to pull up, in case a surprise bunch comes around a corner and I don’t have time to distance. I know the pulling up part is not idea practice but it is better than not having it if I get surprised. That means going on vacation with at least 12 masks, 10 with filter pockets, assuming the two orders arrive by then, given shopping when possible and not having a dryer.
I am seeing more than I love of relaxed use. In the face of restrictions that have actually NOT changed when it comes to masks. In fact with more places opening up, the need for masks increases because so many require masks in order to access the space for takeout or other shopping purposes. Or getting a haircut etc.
Thanks to Brian for initiating this. My mask is apparently on its way and I look forward to getting one that helps with Pnet’s effort.
1 Like
The flaw is the donate one to the front lines issue; which is the “Feel Good Hook”. My daughter has been working in NYC for two months and has not been home. She could never use that mask : not because of the viral load she is exposed to but for the fact that it is not disposable. After they end their stint at the military facility each day they hand in their PPE for burning. No one wants to go back to the hotel with a dirty mask and they lack frequent laundry access.
PS. some masks shrink when using a dryer. Don’t. Sun is the best UV disinfectant.
Same for others who have much public exposure like grocery store cashiers.
Better yet would have been to donate a mask to those in need not front line workers. Those who are attending meal pickups for example or to stores requiring masks for shopping; or the elderly of whom some are literally panicked and do not emerge outside ever. But that involves a lot of work; and the paddling motif is probably irrelevant.
Or just give us two for the same price and we can hand out a mask to a friend that forgot or "forgot " theirs.
Around here neighbors feverishly in March sewed masks. We are finding that two are sufficient for personal use. One gets washed each day and the other gets worn. We do have access to hot water and soap.
This mask is not designed to prevent you from getting anything. It is designed to minimize anything you might be distributing.
I can put my mask out on a radiator or out in the sun now. I will not be able to count on that parked in Maine with four days straight of dripping fog and/or rain, and a fireplace that can barely drive off the damp close around it. I already know how much I can count on drying out in wet weather from the last 20 plus years of doing hand wash there.
A day of walking healthily outside, come home then run a couple of errands is a two mask day, per suggestion from a nurse I play with.
I am fully aware of the specifics around where these masks could go. But I trust Brian to find a home for them.
I can think of a lot of options for masks like these, and organizations that could get them to targeted populations. Meals on Wheels drivers for ex, who need something in case the drop off gets a little close. Seasonal staff for places like farm stands who will be doing curbside pickup. Volunteers at food banks who hand off the bags and boxes. In all of these cases there is an address that some could be sent to for distribution. If I can think of this I bet Brian can as well.
I know of one person who has stopped sewing masks for a bit because of being downstream from complaints like this where a good initiative was fouled because there were more arguments about how to distribute masks than anyone able to cut thru the crap to get them out. This is not the time for that.
A little late my dear. I deliver for a food bank and we have been able to get masks. March was a different story. But if the masks were sold 2 fer 19.99 we would be able to have them forever.
We must think of when we do get to visit relatives in nursing homes. Will we have a mask then or will we have worn them out and find them hard to get then?
I am pleased you have visited for 20 years. I got you beat. Living here for 21 years and visited every year since 1965( in a tent) so you are not providing new info. You can also dry things by sleeping with them. Not fun in a tent but doable.
Celia you seem to be thinking I am dissing the whole idea. I am not but believe me the front line workers around here already have them. A month ago they did not. Timing matters for marketing and the marketing needs to be different.
A good idea never stagnates; it evolves.
My time is more than 20 years annually. I was keeping it general, did not realize this was a contest. Have chosen not to mention some stuff.
I assume masks can be sent to other than upper Maine. A number of web sites are still saying the masks are on back order, with gaps between what people can get and what they want around me and in California that I can spot from online.
Among the above replies to my posting notice of the sale on pnet, one moderator seemed to be complaining about price, another poster dissed the idea on whether the design included controversial statements and the method of financing and you came in indicating that there was at best questionable cause for pnet to be doing this.
I have a wonderful understanding of why my friend stopped sewing masks to donate.
Seems to me the reason for buying such a mask is to support Pnet.
They missed out on tee shirt sales at Canoecopia this year and it looks like masks could be a high profit item for them. We spend a good bit of time here and I’ve certainly met a lot of nice folks and enjoyed many good trips as a result of the doings on this site. Seems like a way to pay them back a little in a time of need. There are, on doubt, more effective masks available at a lower price. Still, I don’t think the relatively small expenditure as an expression of gratitude in a time of need is really such a bad idea.
Besides, I’m tired of feeling like I’m preparing to go out and rob a stagecoach every time I sally forth to the civilized world - which is very darned rarely these days.
Such weighty decisions… think I’ll just have to go out and pull garlic mustard until I attain true enlightenment.
I was curious because the photo shows three masks and a $19.99 price. Since cloth masks sell for $5 at a local farm store, I figured three for $20 was a good price and would have ordered just to support the site as I already have a good mask supply.
According to ConsumerLab, a face shield worn with a mask can offer even better protection. I have ordered a shield for a relative who is a vendor at our local farmers market, which will open on May 23.
Frankly I was also disappointed to see this. In my view it does not enhance the image of the site.
There are lots of examples of what I call “misguided courtesy” - like permitting (practically forcing) someone to make a blind left turn into traffic. Many feel obligated though it puts their life and others needlessly in danger.
The thing we’re seeing here is a combination of capitalism and “misguided altruism”.
We receive frequently changing information. Being skeptical and practicing critical thinking skills is a better way to survive than jumping on the nearest bandwagon. It also has the side effect, intended or not, of protecting others.
2 Likes
I’m sorry I wasn’t clear enough when asking whether the price was for one mask or three masks. It was a question, not a complaint.
Pnet??? Are they still around? 
Or, as a youngster in the family recently told me: “You still do message boards??? That is SO Nineties.”
1 Like
Right you are: I stand corrected. Pcom. And it is SO nineties. And here we are. Apparently some of us find it preferable to the course that some more recent formats appear to have led to.
I wondered about the three v. one (plus a donation) mask question myself and concluded that the three pictured masks must be there to help us discern what the three described colors actually look like. Well, now we know.
But in the old conception of this as a sort of digital campfire around which paddlers can gather by the waterside to causally share what interests us as we might around a regular waterside campfire… here, pass that bottle or whatever around… Could not a critically thought out and considered argument be made that all altruism is misguided? This could go deep. If morality is an evolved state of consciousness that frames how we think about the relationship between individual and community welfare, and evolution itself is “short-sighted” adapting to an immediate environmental set of conditions, is true altruism even possible? Enlightened farsighted self-interest seems like a possible solution to the conundrum. We hang together because otherwise we will surely hang separately, as Ben Franklin pointed out. Is that altruism or just an awareness of which side our bread is buttered on? I think Daniel Dennett might have been on to something when he points out (Chap 7, The Evolution of Moral Agency, in Freedom Evolves) “Genuine, or pure, altruism is an elusive concept, an ideal that always seems to evaporate just when you get in position to reach out and grab it.”
And yet, who among us, as social creatures, would want to deny it entirely? Could we, really, even if we wanted to? Should we even try?
Pass that guitar around… lets sing us a real song (as brother Jimmy would say)
It also has the side effect, intended or not, of protecting others.
1 Like
It is an attempt to help people out. Yes you are basically paying for two and getting one. The idea of charity isn’t to get a good deal.
1 Like
This question a little off the topic of the original post, but I’m wondering if cloth masks can be sanitized by simply ironing them, on the steam setting. Thoughts?
Of course, ironing won’t be practical if you are off tripping, but hopefully trippers can at least occasionally use that big steri-pen in the sky, i.e., the sun.
And as a humorous aside, I’ll pass on this story from many years ago. My family and I were packing for a trip to a cabin on a Maine lake. My daughter had packed her Nintendo machine. I explained she wouldn’t be needing it, because there was no TV in the cabin. I could see the wheels turning in her 10-year old brain, and then she said, “we’ll bring the portable TV.” I explained that wouldn’t work because there was no electricity. She looked at me like I was a total idiot, and said, “Well, pack an extension cord!” So, to those that can’t iron their masks in the back country, my advice is, bring a loooonng extension cord.
2 Likes
Funny story about your daughter.
ConsumerLab, an independent lab which was relied upon by Consumer Reports in its supplement issue, has some good information on the application of heat. It stays up to date on the latest research.
First, let me throw a hunk of driftwood in our “digital campfire”…
As to the concepts of altruism and charity, I’ve always preferred to go direct whenever possible(No third parties, no matter how “worthy” the intention or passively-aggressive the guilt tripping.). I find this makes it immediately personal for me, and thoroughly satisfies anything that might be gnawing at my consciousness(It’s true, folks–I actually have one.) about what might be “moral.”(Another concept, we could go on about 'round the campfire for many hours.) The question is, do I need the mask(s)? I do not. But granted, one with little paddles blazed atop might look really cool–EXCEPT I DON’T LET ANYONE STAND THAT CLOSE TO ME THESE DAYS FOR THEM TO NOTICE…Other than my significant others.
And Dude, if you play anymore Leo Kotke, I’m headed into my tent early tonight. Got a long day of paddling ahead of us tomorrow.creekside camfire 007|666x500 .
