I Had Some New COVID-19 Thoughts

But I can’t remember half of them.

I’m getting better at taking more time to wash my hands. I’ve always been acceptable about washing my hands; I’m not the “splash-and-dash” type. I nearly always use soap (the only times I can think of not using soap is if I’m literally rinsing something I can see from my hands, like if I was making a pasta dish and got sauce on my hand and just need to remove those drops) and even if I didn’t scrub each finger, I at least rubbed my hands together and wrung them a bit. Now, I still wring them, but I also scrub the backs of my hands, and the way I wring my hands together, both sets of fingertips get soaped up, and so does my left thumb, but my right thumb is on the outside during the whole process so I’m taking the time to wash it.

I bought cheap 18-packs of washcloths and I’ve opened two of them. I use them to dry my hands after I wash them, so that I don’t get any virus that escaped the soap onto a communal towel. I wash the washcloths every other day or so, so I’m washing my hands 18 times every day, give or take. And that’s just when I’m home. I’m an essential worker, so I wash my hands every time I touch something a patient has touched (cash, an insurance card, a prescription), so that may be another ten or so a day. I’m washing my hands 1.75 times per hour while I’m awake. I realize that it’s probably hopeless to think that my family can avoid this just by washing my hands enough, but everything I’ve read says that hand washing is terribly important in combating COVID-19. If everyone did a good job of washing their hands, the virus would be passing much more slowly than it is. So, if this is correct, and if I can keep from getting infected, then I can go a long way towards preventing my dad from getting this. Alex assures me that he’s washing his hands every time he touches cash or anything as well. So we’ll just plug along the best we can.

Thank God for e-scripts, though. The vast majority of transactions we undertake don’t involve any physical contact from the patient to us. The doctor sends in an electronic prescription, we already have the insurance on file, the patient pays electronically or with a credit card, we hand them the script, and send them on their way.

They’re supposed to be putting sneeze guards in our stores to protect us from, well, the patients sneezing or coughing on us. They started this past Monday, and as I’m writing this, it’s very, very early on Friday. Let’s see what comes first — the sneeze guard, or our first case of COVID-19 among our patients.

Gratuitous Amazon Link time. Wow. I’ve read so many books, and there are so many that I just love, and I’m drawing a complete blank. I’m checking my Goodreads account for inspiration.

Ooh! Have I done any of Ally Carter’s series yet? Does it matter? No, it doesn’t. So, here we go, with the book that started it all (for me, at least), I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You, the first book of the Gallagher Girls series. There are two more series where those came from and I think there’s at least one crossover story. That should get me to the end of the week.