How do you gain egress from a public restroom? For years I have washed the hands, taken the paper towel, dried the hands. Then, and this is where the expertise enters the picture, using the towel as a buffer, I grip the handle of the door, pulling it open. Next, blocking the door open with the foot, I wad the towel and expertly flip it into the wastebasket. No, one does not miss, for one does not leave trash on the floor for the custodian to handle.
But. Technology being what it is, someone has finally perfected an awesome hurricane-in-a-can which will dry the hands in a trice, thus eliminating the need, in the mind of management, to provide towels. So how to open the door? Clearly, someone has posed this question to the powers that be, for now I find (just yesterday for the first time, in fact) that someone has created a hook thingy to fasten on the inside of the door, along with a diagram showing how to use it. In a few words, insert arm, fingers up, and pull door open with the wrist, thus avoiding the necessity of touching a handle with the freshly washed pinkies.
Now if you have not tried this, trust me: it is trickier than the picture shows. Open a door with the forearm extended up its inside with the elbow plastered against it. And get your body out of the way. Wait! How do I move? Where?
Drat. I am going to have to start carrying extra paper towels in my pocket for just such a situation.
5 comments:
Or hand sanitizer for your hands after opening the door. Life is complicated, isn't it?
Lin, that is a possible solution; but again, the need to carry extra stuff on the person. I don't carry a "man bag" you know, and I've only so many pockets.
As Lin said, I carry multiple small bottles of hand sanitizer for that very reason- air dryers in the restrooms and an increasingly germy public.
Yes, this is a continuing problem in public restrooms. The PA at Hubby's cardiologist's office feels that if there is not enough collective "brightness" at the establishment to understand having a wastebasket right by the door, then the towel should be thrown on the floor to later be picked up by the janitorial staff. (Don't know how we got on this subject during a routine check-up!)
No towels at all creates a totally different problem. The nurses I know don't go along with the idea that sanitizers solve the germ problem.
Shelly, at least we fight the good fight.
Vee, life is just a series of pickles and puzzles, isn't it?
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