So I was in a Public Washroom…

and it hit me what my topic was going to be when I could find time to sit and blog.

Now I know we’ve all been in the public washroom a time or two in our life – they’ve looked pretty much the same – some a little fancier than others….and yes some a little more questionable that others. Those are usually the ones you ask yourself “Can I hold this” and if not “Can I hover (women only) long enough to get the job done”? Men, listen up, this is usually where we wish we could pee standing up and we curse you all for being able to pee wherever….well OK maybe you CAN’T pee into the wind.

The washroom I went into was clean & well stocked – but I thought about how you can go into a washroom – do your business and then come to the sink to wash your hands and find it gets complicated. The evolving hand dryer is what comes into question – never mind the automatic sinks that seem to have a mind of their own – and even better yet – the automatic soap dispenser that refuses to dispense the soap….no matter how much you bang on it.

No my issue is with the hand dryer….now remember back in the day when they looked like this:

Yes they were easy to operate – you yanked down on the actual towel and once you had enough “fresh” towel you could dry your hands quite well.  Oh yes I know some of them were tricky – you had to pull the back down then give the front a good yank to get it going but pretty much fool-proof.

Then I guess someone figured there were too many germs and a new dryer had to be invented…really I do not believe these people have actually experienced a public washroom because quite frankly they are the dragon’s den of germs.  The janitors are probably so grossed out by the public’s lack of bathroom etiquette that they dive in and just do what is necessary to pass the inspection.  Here’s a little view of a public washroom I’m sure we’ve all encountered at least once in our lives.

OK maybe the duct tape is a little extreme but you get where I’m  going with this.

 

Usually when I’m in a bathroom like this – if the flusher isn’t automated – then I’m doing one of these:

Ok but back to the hand dryer – so with evolution we had a couple different options – I’m not really sure which one was better.  The old style hot air blower didn’t really cut it as usually unless you stood for a full 2-3 minutes you’re hands were never dry and most people would give them the old wipe across the pants. Which looks terrible as you are exiting the washroom by the way….

 

Or we had another option of the pull the towelette out the bottom type – as in this next photo:

 

Which was fine – until it jammed and you couldn’t pull the towel down. Usually the key, as you can see on the top, was gone so a person would just flip it open and start diving in – usually resulting in people taking a stack of towels out – using way more than they needed and dumping the rest on the counter…into a puddle of water – resulting in waste.

One of the most typical bathroom towel dispensers is the one pictured on the left.  Seems like a fine example except usually when you see them the garbage part of it is over flowing and you have to either toss your own used towel at it – hoping it sticks and doesn’t fall on the floor or you search for another garbage.  Great idea but the garbage part is a little small for longer periods of time between janitor visits.

So now the newest invention is the Dyson – blow the skin off your hand – dryer!  Have you had the pleasure of this machine?

I’m not really sure what they call them – “Skin Remover 1000”, “Look at what your skin looked like when you had tight, younger skin”, “Do you know how much air pressure your hands can take”??  Just a couple of names I wondered about.   All kidding aside – they work – you simply place your hands down the slots and it automatically blasts them with air – in under a minutes you are walking out – completely dry and not wiping your hands on your pants.   It really makes me wonder though what will be the next hand dryer invention….

And speaking of wonder – have you ever seen this lady – we did on the show Ripley’s Believe it or Not.

Now doesn’t it bring to mind “How does she wipe”? I seem to recall her son helped her out quite a bit – but does he go that far (OK that’s a creepy thought) – but if not….how does she?  For the record when I Googled hand dryer – somehow she came up…among other strange and wonderful things.

I will leave you all with that thought and some Bathroom Etiquette humor:

Cheers,

Shannon