Cleaner Hands

I started working in a new office building at the beginning of the year. The floor where I’m sitting is rather empty; it’s due to be remodeled in a few months. It’s a comfortable, well-lit space, and the cubicles are spacious, but some of the fixtures are noticeably outdated. 

The bathrooms, in particular, could use a major facelift. The sinks have separate spring-loaded spigots for hot and cold water, an awkward configuration that forces you to wash one hand at a time. It’s hard to blend the temperatures unless you hit both knobs at once; even if you succeed, you can expect a maximum of three seconds of warm water.

If I need to wash my hands but not use the toilet, as when I arrive in the morning after riding the subway, I prefer to use the sink in the pantry. It has a modern, one-handled spigot that allows easy control of the water flow and temperature. There’s no soap dispenser in the pantry,  but there’s a little bottle of liquid soap there. It’s not one of the name brands, but I figure that a generic brand is good enough.

Eventually, the little bottle of soap ran low. I thought about making a tip to the drugstore around the corner to pick up a replacement, but I’ve been very busy, and I never made it to the store. Fortunately, a few days later, a new bottle appeared, and I continued to use that. I guess the staff must have replaced the soap. Curious as to what brand they used, I took a closer look at the bottle only to find that it was not soap at all. For the past few months, I’ve been washing my hands with coffee pot cleaner.

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