Politics may remain grimy beyond election, but at least we can keep our hands clean
What a wild ride this emotional, chaotic 2020 presidential election has been!
The Tanners voted early. We took our ballots to the Cambria Library on Oct. 24. And yes, we got confirmation on Oct. 28 that the San Luis Obispo County Clerk-Recorder’s office had received those ballots, safe and sound.
Hopefully, everybody who intended to vote was able to do so, and those ballots were tallied quickly and accurately.
Now what?
This year, who knows?
Not me. And not you.
As Americans, we’re used to a certain order to our elections: We hear and read about the candidates and the issues. We make our decisions and vote. Officials tally those votes, then announce the results. Everybody accepts the totals graciously, no matter how disappointed some of them are.
And life goes on, eventually, with the same or new leaders at the helm.
With COVID-19, a roller-coaster stock market, weather patterns that seemingly have gone bonkers, anger and protests and riots, there’s already been so much indecision and so many unknowns this year. We don’t need to also be fretting about the last two steps in the election process: Counting the votes and announcing the results.
Bah humbug.
I’m ready to wash my hands of the whole political snafu, and to think positively about something.
Anything. Please.
OK, here’s one, even if it is a little obscure: If there’s an upside to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s that most of us smart folks have become MUCH more diligent about sanitizing those digits at the end of our arms.
That’s a good thing, too, with flu season almost here. Doubleheaders are for baseball games, not pandemics. We hope.
So now, almost without thinking about it, we wash, wash, wash our hands, sanitize, wear gloves and then wash, wash, wash some more.
That shouldn’t be anything new. To prevent illness, public health officials have always urged us to wash our hands frequently and thoroughly.
However, all that washing can grate big-time against our water conservation training, especially for those of us living on the Central Coast.
Some of us have been more attuned to monitoring our water meters than we were to what might be lurking under our fingernails.
Saving water versus clean hands can be a thorny balance at home, and dang near impossible when we’re out and about.
As I wrote in 2007, mastering the art of water conserving in a public restroom is … tricky.
Experts used to say that, when we’re done washing, we must dry our hands, rather than using a air blower which can recirculate germs. But we shouldn’t touch handles or buttons that others have touched.
Awkward, isn’t it?
I finally figured it out. It’s “Laurel and Hardy” meets “The Three Stooges,” but it works.
First, I pull off two sets of paper towels, and stick one under each armpit. (That’s probably not sanitary, but at least the germs there are MY germs. And fortunately, I’m fully clothed.)
At the sink, I turn on the water, dampen my hands and turn the water off.
I soap and lather my hands, silently counting to 50 to make sure I’ve washed long enough. I take one paper towel from under an arm, use it to turn on the water long enough to rinse my hands and carefully drape it over the faucet handle so I can use the same towel to turn off the water.
I delicately pinch the top of that towel and throw it away — hopefully in a trash can that doesn’t require me to lift the lid by hand.
I use the other towel to scrub and dry my hands and to open the restroom door, after which I fling that paper into a nearby trash can.
Paper towel basketball is not my strong suit, so sometimes the plan falls apart there.
Of course, there can be other problems: When blowers are the only hand-drying option, other than the jeans covering my own backside … when the restroom only has those awful, germ-filled, cloth towels that recycle ’round and ’round, over and over in an aged metal-roller container on the wall … or, eek, when the paper-towel dispenser is empty!
Thank heavens for the Purell and HandiWipes in my purse and car. They may not be quite as effective as a good handwashing, according to those health experts, but they’re convenient, and they don’t require water. Or much forethought.
Too bad we can’t use them on politics.
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 12:34 PM.
