Hand Sanitizers....

Mornin, Mornin... I am procrastinating here this morning... I SHOULD be doing something else, but I struggled throughout the afternoon and evening with it yesterday, so I'm trying to build up my courage to tackle it again (scanning receipts and 3 months of bank reconciliations for two bank accounts... YUCK)....

A few years, Desiree got into this kick of hand sanitizers and at first, drove me nuts about the whole topic...  Then I started paying attention to where everyone's hands go, how much we'd get sick in the fall and winter, etc. and she got me hooked on the idea...

After getting through a winter without me catching anyone else's ugly mugglies, I realized Des was onto something here and I became much more committed to the constant use of hand sanitizers... 

Threw out the sponges that winter at the kitchen sink after reading about the number of germies that hang out in there... Major YUCK~!!!

I got some micro-fiber cloths accidentally at the store one day and I was totally hooked on using them instead of the terry cloth cloths I had been using for years and years!!!... Cleans faster and less elbow-grease, you can almost dry any surface once you have gotten them wet and they are much more absorbent than paper towels any time... Easily thrown in the wash, I am on my second giant-size package of them now... Eventually they do wear out and don't clean or absorb as well as they did initially, but only after a ton of use... I'm sold on them... And use them for just about any kind of chore that needs to be done...

And along the way of life and every day conversations, Desiree inserts ideas about this and that regarding the use of hand sanitizer... Now she has me using it on the faucets and door knobs around the house... Periodically, I pick up my purse and wipe the bottom of that down after the news report on how many germs hang out on the bottom of your purse... And I also wipe down my computer keyboard with the stuff after reading about how many germies live on your desk and keyboard... LOL...

I believe (???) I am a scrubber by nature... When I pay attention to this fact, it seems I must be cleaning and scrubbing something at least 10 times a day... Maybe it is just my kitchen counter, but I am mentally better when things are cleaned up and put away... I can handle chaos when I'm in the middle of a project, but as I'm pushing to the close of my day, a messy kitchen counter is an ABSOLUTE given irritant to my 'pleasing personality'... :)...

A few months ago, I got a BAD 'paper cut' on my hand and it took forever to heal... My doc had told me years ago that with the high level of blood thinners I am on, I can count on it taking three times the length of time for me to heal than a normal person... So I decided to test out that fact and actually marked down the date of the cut and when it was finally healed and no longer kept breaking open again... It was on a joint and it took 19 days...

Hmmmm....

I debated about that fact inside my head for awhile... If I am being so extra careful about the amount of germs that my hands are in, why does it take so long to heal even with the blood thinners?... At first, I bought a box of those disposable gloves that everyone uses in the doctors offices... They didn't work that well because if I was actually scrubbing something, at times the water would drain into and inside the top of the gloves...

I was watching a show from the 60s on the History Channel one day and it showed a lady in her apron, pulling on her "Playtex Living Gloves" before she got ready to do her dishes... I had actually forgotten about them and wondered if they were even still made...I had never really used them, but had seen old TV shows where the woman of the house faithfully put on her gloves before she was scrubbing or doing dishes...

The next trip to the grocery store, I picked up a pair and once home, I was surprised at how easy it was to work in them... They really do fit well (I use the mediums in purple - the knock off gloves are garbage and really don't work that well as I learned eventually)...

The hardest part was to retrain myself to put them on before I stuck my hands in water, detergents, etc... I have to admit - this was pretty tough and probably the hardest part of all of this...

I noticed that cuts healed up faster once I got really good about teaching myself this new habit... And then that got me to wondering how many germies I was putting inside of myself prior to the habit... Could this explain some of the days when you just feel like yuck and wonder if you are coming down with something ~~~ could you be fighting off mild infections you yourself accidentally infected yourself with through a cut on your hands, even with a Band-aid?

I actually like this gloves better than my gardening gloves... I find that I am more efficient at some many things if I have them on - I HATE dirt and yuck underneath my fingernails and am probably a bit compulsive about it occurring...

This morning, Desiree and I were talking about the hand sanitizer topic and my habit of wiping down faucet handles with the stuff periodically... She admits to me that she probably is a bit obsessive compulsive about all of this... Now she tells me~~!!!!...

Should I admit that before I take off my Playtex Living Gloves after a chore, I use the hand santitizer stuff on them to keep germies from growing on them?... Naw, don't think I will do that... ...

As Always,

The Lady