I now see a big side benefit to sheltering at home. You don’t have to deal with so much cross-contamination stuff and junk if you don’t leave the house. Thinking about the steps and doing them in the right order takes a Herculean mind. I just have a Heather mind.

This morning I went back to my little supermarket, masked and gloved, got frozen fruits and veggies (because that’s the advice these days over fresh), put the bags into the trunk of the car, shut the trunk, and then looked for my hand sanitizer to sanitize my gloves before I got back inside the car. I had left it at home. Naturally, I found this out only after I rooted through my entire bag touching everything inside. No hand sanitizer to decontaminate my gloves ‘just in case’. And there I was. Standing in the parking lot. In the drizzling rain.

So I got into the car, drew out the keys, turned on the ignition, and drove home, using the steering wheel, of course, and trying to memorize every single thing I touched with what could be, even if it’s a slim chance, coronavirus 19 infested plastic gloves.

When I got home, and still wearing the gloves, I Clorox-wiped them, the doorknob, the outside of all the groceries, including the frozen ones, because I just found out CV19 can live in your freezer for up to 2 years. Oh, great.

Now I had to deal with my purse and all its contents. I emptied the bag out on the floor, got another Clorox wipe, and proceeded to wipe down all the contents, eyeglass case, wallet, etc, and the leather bag itself, which was expensive and doubles as a knapsack and I love it. Putting Clorox all over leather may be sanitary, but it ain’t so good for the leather.

So off I go to hubby. He gives me a bottle of his leather cleaner and moisturizer with lanolin and I don’t know what all is in it. But it smelled to high heaven, so I took the project outside and proceeded to rub this concoction all over the bag. That took about ten minutes. After I was finished, I had to leave everything outside, bag, bottle, cleaning rag, and all because of the stink. I’m thinking kerosene.

Okay. All of this took about two hours. I’m pooped. And I still haven’t sanitized the car yet. I will, I promise. Gimme a minute. And I still don’t know where my hand sanitizer got to. But there’s another bottle around here somewhere. I’ll find it. Gimme a minute.

I’m beginning to suspect that this is not just survival of the fittest but the most organized.