They Laughed...

I take a great deal of good natured ribbing. Because I sort of deserve it, I respond to it pretty well.

I carry a gi-normous purse in order that I might accommodate things like rubber gloves, bandages, a multi-function swiss army knife and any number of OTC remedies. Feel a pain? Tummy troubles? Sudden allergic reaction to zinnias? Loose thread in need of snipping? I got you covered.

In my car, I have a rain poncho, change of clothes and chemical handwarmers. I can signal for assistance in at least three different ways. The fact that I just got a new cell phone and neglected to order a car charger for it is an ongoing source of sleeplessness.

At home...well, do I really need to go on? I'm sure you get the idea by now. I have a thing about being ready.

Ready for what? Good question. I suppose I'll know it when I see it. What I do know is that I sleep better when I am ready.

I have no idea why I do this. I don't actually spend a great deal of time worrying about disaster, all indications to the contrary. Whatever the reason, I seem to be the sort of person who collects supplies.

The whole End Of The World Is Nigh thing came to a head a few years ago when I got the flu. Said flu liked the accommodations and invited his good friend pneumonia over for an extended visit. I was sick for a while and pretty much incapable of getting out to replenish basic supplies. Foodstuffs ran low. This was an unpleasant state of affairs even if I wasn't really hungry. I swore to myself that I would never, ever let that happen again. I might not be able to completely eliminate sickness, but I could at least have enough stuff on hand to keep myself alive while I suffered through it.

I went to the grocery store this morning and, while I didn't need much in the way of pharmaceuticals, I always like to wander through and see what's new in the world of Feel Better. I chuckled a bit to see that the aisle where they normally keep the hand sanitizers was completely wiped out. Bare. Except for one bottle. Don't bother going to look. I bought that one. Fear of The Flu Formerly Known As Swine has gotten us all in its steely grip these days. I could no more resist that one last bottle than I could resist breathing...

Not that I needed it, really. I'd already made a trip to the dollar store on Friday morning to stock up. (and add to the supply I already had at home...) You can't be a raging paranoid without knowing where to score antibacterial hand spray in a pinch. Few people remember the dollar store in a crisis. But you can usually find what you need if you are willing to go with an "off" brand. That's where I was able to find batteries during last year's ice storm when we were all living in the dark.

But don't tell anyone. This is our secret, 'kay? We don't want everyone running to the dollar store and getting all our hand sanitizer. What would we do then????

I suppose you can just make your own. This is a pretty good recipe should you be so inclined. I'm sure that there are people out there with more know-how in this field than I, but it seems to fit most of the criteria for "antibacterial" and it's certainly easy enough to craft.

Of course, nothing is really as good as good, old fashioned hand-washing. And I'm not talking about that little rinse you do when time is short. I'm talking the real kind of hand-washing. Soap and water...count off twenty or thirty seconds...sing Happy Birthday twice...however you were taught to time it. That's the best thing, really. But hand sanitizer is good for those times when you don't have access to the suds, right?

I'm glad that people are all about the hand sanitizing these days. I feel better. Everyone's hands are nice and clean. Of course, it would be better if people were doing this all the time, but I'll take what I can get. For most, purchasing hand sanitizer in bulk is a pandemic-related sort of thing, I guess.

For me, it's more like a Tuesday. But we can't all be ready for everything all the time. For what it's worth, there are about a billion regular things that I forget on a regular basis. Important things like where I put my car keys or how to set the alarm clock. There's only so much data a mind can hold and I've devoted quite a bit of space to hand washing and battery acquisition. I'll sleep well tonight knowing that I'm all set with the stinky hand stuff for a while. Frankly, I'm going to miss the threat of pandemic flu when this is all over and done with. At least a little bit. It's kind of nice to have a use for all that readiness.

Whatever will I do with my time come the healing?

SA