lee730
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2011
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I also eat out of hole in the wall places here in Hawaii. Some places have really good food so you can't always judge by appearance. But if they aren't cleanly with the food then of course I won't return. And I guess you could say I have a cast irons stomach at that.
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I don't get too wound up over germs. I've got an immune system and it needs to be exposed to new things to function correctly.
For the record, I do wash my hands after using the bathroom, before eating and when they're dirty. Love showers, too, and have even come to appreciate cold ones down here.
I got over a lot of the germ-phobia in a few ways. I belonged to a Scout troop that did a lot of backpacking and overnight trips up to a week. Yes, I used the trowel and didn't bathe for something like ten days on one trek through the high Sierras. I was filthy and didn't smell good, just like everyone else, but it was fine. Then I had jobs at Burger King and the local theater. I cleaned many things.
The real breakthrough was living in a fraternity house. Now that was dirty. But I survived and, at that point, nothing really bothered me any more.
The worst was when the mystery hair ball would be pulled out of the shower drain. I don't know who did it, but someone would pull out a fist-sized hair clump and leave it in the shower. That was the only thing that horrified a house of fraternity brothers. No one wanted to deal with it, so I stepped up. I'd go in there with lighter fluid, set the hairball on fire (you can imagine the smell) then rinse down what was left. Someone had to do it.
These days, I do a lot of demo and cleaning work on the apartments. I'll tear out old carpet and clean bathrooms. Dirty, but it doesn't bother me. I also eat off taco trucks, holes-in-the-wall, dive bars, and street carts in Mexico. Never had a problem. I've mostly had issues with chain restaurants and fast food places. But I don't go to them any more - I'll eat at the outdoor place that uses an old RV as the kitchen first.