If there are any more snails out there, they are hiding well. As I'm certain they are.
Strange to have a cool wet day this time of year, but welcome. Cats both wanting to be well brushed, which then necessitated vacuuming, since the dhurrie rug is the only place to be brushed, donchaknow.
Reminded of several instances of inadequate revulsion. In Basic, one woman who we always had to keep an eye on, because she would drop her underpants on the floor. Used ones. In the Army. Before inspections. She was not the brightest bulb. It was not the only way we all took care of her. She'd had a rough childhood, and from what she told us, we figured Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Vastly underdeveloped sense of disgust.
An open house, when we were looking. Renters present, one nursing a hangover on the sofa, another in bed. In a second bedroom, dirty underwear all over the floor. Felt so bad for the agent, who had no control over the situation. Very odd, very uncomfortable.
Which reminded me of How Clean Is Your House, the BBC show. Some of those people really needed expert treatment for their OCD/hoarding. One sweet little lady I remember really didn't quite understand why it wasn't a good idea to keep her toothbrush in the wire basket on her bathtub, along with her soap and sponge.
But then, most apparently clean kitchens are just culture mediums. My father objected to the use of bleach. My mother told me it was because his sister used too much of it, which really isn't an excuse. My mother had a well scrubbed kitchen, but rarely washed the rags we wiped with. Nothing disinfected. All handwashed dishes, rinsed in hot clean water, at least the glasses got clean water, everything after got tepid and slightly soiled, and hand dried. Heaven forbid they sit in the rack and dry, they had to be toweled off immediately and put away. I gotta think a lot of my childhood gut issues were down to chronic bacterial infections, as well as lactose intolerance.
If my kitchen is dirty, by gods, it looks it. When it looks clean, you could safely lick it. After the alcohol dries, of course. Bleach if I do handwash anything, a capful in a tub. Dave, when he was on chemo, knew he could trust any dish I gave him. In part because if he was coming, I would take extra precautions. We are used to our own bugs, won't hurt us, kept to a minimum. Something gets dropped, I look for gross contamination, and usually eat it anyway.
But for a guest? Sterile technique, more or less. Since, outside of surgery, or the CDC, it's a flexible definition. Ok, a clean room probably is more sterile than surgery. Is. But getting a floor nurse to understand that what they call sterile, we call clean/contaminated, at best, is no small task. At home, mostly it actually comes out at cleanish.
And dirty underwear, if on the floor, is only in the bedroom.
8 comments:
Have you seen the programmes where the compulsive hoarder is matched with the OCD sufferer? Sometimes it's a winning combination - but not always!
we once had a roommate, who was either used to maid service or an overzealous mother, because she would routinely leave things in a hell of a mess. the worst was when i came in to the (small and only) bathroom she had just come out of, and on the floor, in front of the toilet, lay her underwear with a blood-soaked pad on them. i immediately backed out, horrified, thinking that she must surely have just stepped out. i waited…and waited…and realised she had gone to bed, so i went in, kicked the panties over so that the blood wouldn't be quite so clearly on display, used the bathroom and went to bed myself.
i was shocked, though - not at the blood (as a dental hygienist i was used to it) but that someone would be so mindblowingly clueless that they'd FORGET their underwear when they were lying in the middle of the floor in a TINY bathroom in a household of strangers.
I worked for many years in hospitals, in the lab, in radiology, in surgery, and as a nurse assistant. Handwashing was always stressed and became second-nature to me. So, when my husband was hospitalized for an abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, I was shocked when a nurse entered his room, emptied his catheter bag, then immediately stuck a thermometer in his mouth, without washing her hands at all. I was infuriated, she didn't care, and it was her word against mine.
It's no wonder there are so many nosocomial infections in hospitals and a wonder that there aren't more of them in doctors' offices. I rarely see anyone wash their hands in my doctor's office.
RR,
Two sides of the same anxiety disorder, really.
pc,
Ugh. I attended a Junior Achievement thingy once, at the end, after I'd decided I wanted nothing to do with JA ever, I was told I had to clean up. I got the women's restroom. There was a used pad stuck behind the toilet. I didn't have gloves or a bag, and was not about to touch that. The men running the thing wouldn't let me go out to my waiting parents until I did. I gave in, desperate and with no one to help, but I hated them.
Class,
In surgery, those used to be the anesthesiologists, the older ones. BIG push, with observers, to mandate hand hygiene, mostly ended that bs.
Not your word against hers, report it if you see it ever again, written, to admin. Including at your dr's office. They take it seriously, hospitals have Infection Control departments to deal with those. Data to show problems with particular employees. It's a massive, national thing. My GP always washes his hands in front of me, or does the alcohol wash, as do all his staff.
(o)
Oh... I had never heard of "How Clean Is Your House?" It's too, too horrible and wonderful---I've watched a couple episodes on youttube now... I think I could become addicted to the transformations!
in my house, dirty underwear means the dusting has been done.
flask,
Ha! Well, that is a bit of a different sort of dirty underwear.
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