Thankfully I've only had 2 issues, both at the grocery store.
A couple weeks ago one of the employees asked if I had a mask on the way in- this happens fairly often, you just say "I have an exemption" and they say "ok" and you move on. Exempt this time an employee asked if I had an exemption card (which don't exist here) and we argued for a minute before she let me go. I called the store to complain and the manager apologized to me.
Today was my 1st member of the public. Some WuFlu Willy started harassing me as I was going down the aisle (even in compliance with the arrows!) about a mask. Got a pic but sadly the video didn't record. Went on some rant about me getting everyone sick, about his wife being in the cancer hospital, that it was "BULLSHIT" that I had an exemption (wish I'd said the same about his wife), saying that I should send someone else to get my groceries or get curbside/delivery (he didn't have a good answer as to why he wasn't doing it as he was so concerned). He claimed exemptions don't exist in the bylaw (they do, the sign at the front of the store even mentions them lol) and to top it off he was wearing a mask with valves, which they say don't prevent the spread...sadly I didn't think to say that to him at the time.
There was an employee at the end of the aisle so I yelled at her to get security and the guy walked away, stopping only to rant at the employee for allowing people without masks in before leaving.
I was at a gas station in the middle of nowhere in Montana and tried to go inside a gas station to pay for gas. Attendant wouldn't let me in unless I had a doctor's note. So I drove 2 miles down the highway to another gas station that had card readers at the pump.
There's a no more fungible retail commodity than gasoline; I can't imagine a greater lunacy than to tell someone to buy it somewhere else. Especially at a station with pumps so old they lack card readers.
A positive story to balance things out: a restaurant I frequent has declared me an "employee" complete with cover story that I may dine indoors when they aren't busy. I never wear a mask, and I think the servers appreciate not having to deal with that bullshit when I'm around as much as I do. I make sure to tip well.
A doctor's note to buy gas? top lols
On a similar note I got targeted by the nurse Rachet TSA screener in Helena. After the machine she still wiped down my luggage and my hands and made a big deal about it (Twice!), then demanded a pat down, then a second closer patdown where she snarled we could go into a private room. I looked her right in the eye and told her we were going to do it in full view in public, right there.
These petty fucking tyrants enforcing the rules of the state. They are the enemy.
One of the most ridiculous TSA encounters was when I was in a full military dress uniform. It's frustrating to have to take off your dress coat with all your metals, and cover, and tie-clasp, and shoes, and belt.
I'm basically 50% undressed at this point, and she scanned me over with the metal detector and it binged on my shirt stays. They are small metal clips that hook your shirt all the way to your socks to keep it tight. They're a bitch to get on and off, about 30 seconds for each stay, of which there are four. You wear your pants over them.
When I told her what they were, she told me to remove them since they were metal. This means I would have to take off my pants in public wearing nothing but my shirt, my tie, my socks, and some underwear for 2 full minutes at max speed, in font of probably 50-100 people waiting in line.
"Those are my shirt stays. [explanation given]"
"If they're metal then you need to remove them and send them through the scanner."
"Ma'am I'd have to take my pants off to do that."
"Go ahead and remove them."
"I'm not doing that."
"You need to remove them."
"That's not happening. Pat me down if you need to. Call the police if you need to."
She just waived me through and got to keep my pants on, how generous. She was either fucking retarded thinking that someone with a military ID in military dress uniform had an infinitely thin bomb, knife, or gun in his dress sock (but she was unwilling to test this with a simple visual or physical inspection); or she was playing a bit of a power game to see what she could get away with.
The second thing. It's always the second thing.
If it wasn't TSA wouldn't have let basically every "bomb" their supervisors smuggled through as a test.
Someone tried that line about a doctors note on my wife and she then went on a five minute tirade in response citing the exact federal statutes that asking such questions violate including HIPPA and the ADA. Don't piss off a lawyer who spent a decade of their life litigating such cases. Including pulling out her phone and starting to record asking them to ask her about the doctors note again for evidence in the lawsuit...
They backed off after that as did anyone else in the store.
Do you live in Montana? How is the general covid hysteria there? Thinking of moving.
No I was just driving through on a road trip. Though it seemed like they took it more seriously the places I stopped in Montana than the places I stopped at in Idaho and South Dakota.