The Bacteria Cafeteria

Yesterday morning I watched a segment on "The Today Show" about germs. I was very glad that I wasn't eating breakfast as I found out some quite unsavory things. Did you know that after five years, the pillow on which you place your head each night has 10% of its weight composed of dust mites and their feces? Eewww!! You shouldn't keep your toothbrush on the sink because when you flush the toilet, miniscule particles of its contents spray up to ten feet. Gross!!! And every time you wash your undies in a load with other clothes, e coli bacteria are dispersed among the entire lot. YUK!!
After this nauseating news, I went to town and viewed every person I saw as a teeming, writhing cesspool of bacteria that I didn't want to go near. The woman in front of me in the checkout line sneezed, and I backed away, debating about putting my canvas bag over my head. I went into the store bathroom--after being checked out by the clerk who had been sneezed upon--and washed my hands with soap and water, humming the Happy Birthday song to myself. The length of this tune is supposedly the amount of time it takes to satisfactorily get rid of the germs.
Fortunately for our sanity, we soon forget about these horror stories not long after hearing them. If we didn't, most of us would probably never leave the house! We are lucky to have this wonderful thing called the immune system that in most cases will beat up on those nasty germs and prevent us from catching every bug that we encounter. But hand-washing is the number one preventive measure we can exercise to avoid geting sick. Apparently, adults touch their faces 18 times an hour, and children do so 80 times! If we have touched some disgustingly germ-infested item like the TV remote, computer keyboard, or telephone, then rub our eyes...ZAP! Germs can live on inanimate objects from 20 minutes to two hours! So that person at the grocery store who covers his mouth when he coughs--then pushes the cart back into the corral for you to use next--may have just passed on his cold. We're advised to wash our hands before touching our faces, but how many of us are even aware of the times we rub our eyes, scratch our cheeks, or push our glasses up our noses?!
As flu and cold season begins, I will wash my hands often, carry antibacterial hand gel in my purse, and try to keep my paws off my face. I won't shake hands. And I might also buy myself a new pillow and give Fred my old one.