Dateline: Chicago’s O’Hare Airport. March 3. 7:00 am

It was seven weeks ago today. I was at the airport waiting to get on an airplane to Las Vegas. I walked into the men’s bathroom near my gate. Every sink was being used by someone washing their hands. That’s not unusual, but the amount of time they were spending at the sink was. Thirty seconds to wash hands? A few took a minute!

A few hours later, I’m in the Vegas airport. I enter a bathroom and it’s the same scene as I saw in Chicago.

It was the start of a new way of life!

I was in Las Vegas and Utah for four days that week. Although we weren’t in lock down mode at that time, the coronavirus was all that people were talking about. Personal conversations, newspapers, television news…it was everywhere. One of the things we heard the most was to wash your hands. Keeping your hands clean would be one of the best ways of avoiding the virus. People took that to heart. It was a week of obsessive hand washing. I joined in with the obsessiveness. I didn’t keep track of the number, but by the time I returned home, my hands were raw from the excessive soap and water.

It took less than a week after my return for the country to shutdown. Schools, businesses, sports…basically everything shutdown. Stay at home, keep a six foot distance, wear at mask when in public and KEEP WASHING YOUR HANDS!

Last week I wondered how many times a day am I soaping up my hands? I tried to remember what I would do that would make me hit the bathroom sink. Wake up-wash. After checking my phone-wash. Bring in the mail-wash. Type up a blog-wash. Yada, yada, yada…wash, wash, wash!

I decided there was only one day to get an accurate number. Last Thursday, I counted the number of times I washed my hands. The magic number was twelve. Yesterday, I did it again. It was a little higher this time at fourteen. Basically, I’m washing my hands every hour that I’m awake. My guess is this is the norm in America today. No wonder my hands constantly ache.  Man…the hand lotion industry must be doing somersaults at this news.

Do you think we’ll be keeping us all the hand cleanliness after the virus scare is over and we all go back to normal life? Hmmm…I have friends and relatives living in Georgia. Maybe I’ll give them a call next week.

Related Post: How many imaginary coronavirus symptoms do you have?

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