Going Environ Mental
26Sep2006
I have a strange affliction. I seem to be overly averse to pollutants in the environment. But there are two pollutants which get to me more than any others:
1) Sneezes
2) Diesel Fumes
When someone sneezes in a room I am in, I tend to hold my breath for 45 seconds or so – just so I do not have to breathe in any of their germs. Obviously, I try to be discreet about this, as I would not want to offend anyone. The multiple sneezers sometimes fool me though, as I have just started to breathe again as they fire off another salvo.
When I am on my scooter riding behind a truck blowing out diesel fumes from the exhaust, I also hold my breath. The problem being that if I cannot overtake quickly I end up almost crashing due to lack of oxygen.
So if you see a guy with a blue face weaving about on a white vespa behind a truck, you will know it is me.
I can understand the sneezing thing. I’m pretty obsessive about Lysoling my desk at work. The idea of germs kind of creeps me out.
For me, acoustic pollution is the worst. It goes directly into my marrow. It can be any noise: annoying music, screaming (not crying) children, my vacuum cleaner, or people too loud on their cell phones (“Hey! why do you address everyone on the bus?”)
AND ANNOYINGLY LOUD COMMENTS ON THE INTERNET ! ! ! !
ooops
I practically do acrobatics to get out of the women’s restroom without touching the door. I’m sure every sleeve on every one of my shirts is probably contaminiated beyond repair from touching all of the nasty door handles. Ewww. Germs.
What freaks me out is sharing spoons and forks. When you see the silver slide out of someones sticky dirty mouth I just want to gag.
Hiya, I hold my breath when people cough too! I’ve had a great time treading your blog. I discovered it when I searched for Bermuda photos on Flickr. I used to work at ZBM 26 years ago as their first female camera woman/editor. Now that was quite an experience. It appears as if the island has gone through many changes.