Q-tips
The other day (probably Friday, September 28th, at the Wegmans in Williamsport, PA, on the way back from a train-chase in Altoona, PA, I purchased a 500-count box of generic Q-tips.
I use two to four Q-tips per week, so that box might last maybe three years.
I use the Q-tips to clean out my ear-canals after showers.
I sometimes find other uses for Q-tips, like cleaning carburetor parts when I rebuilt carbs. But mostly I use them for cleaning my ear-canals.
I remember the consternation I caused years ago at my post-stroke inpatient rehab hospital. I had just taken my first shower since my stroke, and I sent my accompanying nurses into a tizzy. I wanted to do my ears with Q-tips.
They had never heard of such a thing, so I was being difficult.
Yes, but being ornery like that was partly why I recovered so well from my stroke.
Every time I purchase a 500-count box of Q-tips I wonder if I’ll use ‘em all.
I’m fast approaching the end of the 500-count box I purchased last time, so I’ll probably use them all.
I remember wondering if I would when I purchased them.
Sadly, it was my wife who didn’t make it.
This was a surprise. We always thought my wife would outlast me. That I would die first, not right away, but eventually.
My wife came from sturdy stock. Many of her female relatives lasted well into their 90s. My wife would make 100.
My wife’s mother is 96, and will make 100 herself. She’s still in independent-living, although macular-degeneration may end that.
But she’s ornery. She wants to continue living independently.
But my wife got cancer, which ended her expectation to outlive me.
So here I sit. Will I outlive my 500-count box of Q-tips?
Probably. I’m only 68. I figure I have a while to go yet.
Unless some dreaded disease like cancer waylays me.
There also is the broken-heart factor — I’m distraught. But I doubt that will kill me.
I use two to four Q-tips per week, so that box might last maybe three years.
I use the Q-tips to clean out my ear-canals after showers.
I sometimes find other uses for Q-tips, like cleaning carburetor parts when I rebuilt carbs. But mostly I use them for cleaning my ear-canals.
I remember the consternation I caused years ago at my post-stroke inpatient rehab hospital. I had just taken my first shower since my stroke, and I sent my accompanying nurses into a tizzy. I wanted to do my ears with Q-tips.
They had never heard of such a thing, so I was being difficult.
Yes, but being ornery like that was partly why I recovered so well from my stroke.
Every time I purchase a 500-count box of Q-tips I wonder if I’ll use ‘em all.
I’m fast approaching the end of the 500-count box I purchased last time, so I’ll probably use them all.
I remember wondering if I would when I purchased them.
Sadly, it was my wife who didn’t make it.
This was a surprise. We always thought my wife would outlast me. That I would die first, not right away, but eventually.
My wife came from sturdy stock. Many of her female relatives lasted well into their 90s. My wife would make 100.
My wife’s mother is 96, and will make 100 herself. She’s still in independent-living, although macular-degeneration may end that.
But she’s ornery. She wants to continue living independently.
But my wife got cancer, which ended her expectation to outlive me.
So here I sit. Will I outlive my 500-count box of Q-tips?
Probably. I’m only 68. I figure I have a while to go yet.
Unless some dreaded disease like cancer waylays me.
There also is the broken-heart factor — I’m distraught. But I doubt that will kill me.
• “Wegmans” is a large supermarket-chain based in Rochester (NY) I often buy groceries at. They have a store in Williamsport, PA.
• RE: “Train-chase.....” — I’m a railfan, and have been since age-two (I’m 68). — “Train-chase” is to chase trains so to photograph. I go with a fellow railfan (from Altoona) who monitors a railroad-radio scanner and knows where every train is and if we can beat it to a prime photo-location. We see a lot of trains; once we saw 30 over nine hours.
• I had a stroke October 26, 1993, from which I pretty much recovered.
posted by BobbaLew at 7:09 PM
1 Comments:
I love the Q-Tip timeline.
I use them, too, on a daily basis.
I grew up on Keuka Lake and had chronic swimmers ear from swimming in the lake water, which now carries over to adult ear infections if I am not careful.
Every medical person has told me, "NOTHING BIGGER THAN THE TIP OF YOUR LITTLE FINGER INTO THE EAR CANAL!" But I use them anyway.
There are many, many 500 count boxes of them around, so use them with adandon.
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