Ah, the Smell of Hand Sanitizer

A tradition at most churches is the greeting. This is where the congregation takes a few minutes to shake hands and fellowship with other people. With the recent flu outbreak, some churches are taking precautions when it comes to this part of the worship service.

Our church recently sent out an email advising people to not attend if they were feeling any flu-like symptoms. One reason why, is a member of our church recently came back from a mission trip with the 'Swine' flu.

So, anyway, our pastor made a little joke about shaking hands yesterday - something like, "Turn around and greet someone, if you have washed your hands". I noticed that the normal hugs and handshakes were a little less frequent than in the past. I also noticed that after we sat down, there was a strong smell of Hand Sanitizer floating in the air (some of that was from the bottle we brought).

As far as stuff going around, my wife and I had dinner with some friends last weekend. I learned just the other day from my wife, that when their daughter returned from Guatemala, she came down with a terrible cough, with no other symptoms.

Fortunately, for their daughter, her dad is a nurse practitioner. So, after a few days, she was back to normal.

I hope to avoid the flu this year. The place where I work is going to provide free flu shots for all their employees. I guess it is just not churches taking precautions.