Who ever decided that it is a good idea to squirt hot soap out of the automatic sink in restrooms with damn little warning and no bypass deserves to have their hand and wrists rubbed vigorously with poison ivy or something similar. The hot soap was allegedly followed by clean water to rinse, but it did not rinse off the damn soap. I tried to rinse my hands off at the outside tap and the cold water did not remove the burning mess. We got in the car and went to a gas station which miraculously had clean restrooms with free flowing hot water and there I rinsed and rinsed. The itchiest patches immediately became slippery and nasty betraying the presence of the vile substance and sending fresh waves of the vile odor up my nostrils. I went out and bought a bar of soap I am not allergic to and washed again and then rinsed once more until I could feel no more soap of any kind.
What were they thinking? It is not even like the damn stuff sprays out long enough for a decent hand wash. I avoid soap in public restroom, because it often smells vile and I have broken out in tiny blisters from it. I do like to wash my hands in hot water and plenty of it, but unless I know the soap is safe, I don’t touch it. It is bad enough that they booby trap restrooms to spray out nasty lung irritants designed to stay in the air a long time for maximum damage every few minutes. I have had nasty asthma attacks because of those. Now I have to carefully read the instructions on the automatic sinks like some yokel unfamiliar with technology just to see if the are rigged to spew poision instead of water.
You have my sympathy, lee. I’m not allergic to any soaps that I know of, but I find the idea of auto-soap dispensers to be incredibly annoying. Many times I just want to give the illusion of washing my hands, you know?
In any case, since I expect this thread is likely to generate mostly sympathetic and friendly responses, I’m going to move it to MPSIMS.
Not as bad as that, but I do have a restroom soap story to tell. I pump the soap into my hand, and go to run it under the water. The faucet is one of the automatic persuasion…except it doesn’t work. “Great” I say as I look for the backup button to turn the sink on should the automatic detector fail. I start looking with more frustration. Surely the designer would have foreseen a failure like that and designed a failsafe, right? No such luck.
So I decide I need to wipe this mess off my hands on a paper towel, and go to grab one. Except this is one of those fancy dancy restrooms with the automagic hand dryer…and no emergency backup for that. No water, no paper towels, and a lump of soap on my hands. I resorted to getting off what I could with my finger, then rubbing the rest into my hands. Needless to say, the first sink I got to I washed them again.
Well, we do sort of: http://www.plumbingstore.com/totozoe.html This amazing product, also available as a toilet / bidet combo, has a pushbutton control panel that will activate a motirized shower head to pop out from beneath the rim and gently spray the soiled area for a “cleansing that leaves you feeling refreshed”.
Not likely to be seen in public facilities any time soon, but you never know. Progress Marches Ever Onward.
We have self-flushing toilets here at work and I fucking hate them. Some of them are over-sensitive and will flush while you’re still sitting on them. And then, of course, when you are finished, they won’t flush, so you have to press the little button to do it yourself, anyway. What a waste of money and technology.
I’m twenty-nine years old. I’ve been flushing the toilet all by my wittle wonesome for about twenty-seven of those years. Really, I can do it without mechanical assistance.
I’ve never seen an automatic soap dispenser, but even just your average run-of-the-mill automatic faucet is evil.
You stick your hands underneath it and expect water, but there’s no water. So you flap around a bit. Hellooo? Flap flap flap… Then you yell at it, smack its underside a few times, and end with a string of curses as you move to the next sink to repeat the process.
Then someone steps up to the sink you’ve just left and washes their hands easily in the warm water that flows freely for their hands, because obviously you’re an inferior human being.
