One Bar Left

On Sunday, I noticed my Oral-B Triumph electric toothbrush was not charging ever since I had heard a high-pitched hum coming from the charger. There were only two of four charge bars showing and I wondered if it’s anything like my phone, it’ll just suddenly die. I’m not sure I can do a good job of brushing my teeth with a manual toothbrush anymore. I decided I’d better replace it quickly and this time, with a not-so-deluxe $50-version because the last one didn’t last much longer than a year. So, with one bar left on Wednesday I drove to Target on my lunch hour to buy the no-bells-and-whistles rechargeable electric toothbrush. They only had the display model, but 7 boxes of the next version, the Oral-B Pulsonic, that costs $66. I decided to continue shopping and stopped by a Sears on the way back to work. They didn’t even carry electric toothbrushes. What was I thinking? On Thursday, I stopped at Wal-mart because they always carry the cheaper model, right? No, the cheapest model they had was $66, the same version that I had declined to buy at Target. Three stores later and still no $50 electric toothbrush. I could have saved a lot of time, gas and money had I bought it online at Amazon, but I was thinking “buy local” and “get it now.” I decided to buy the Oral-B Pulsonic. Save time, gas, money, and the risk of not having an electric toothbrush to use when the last bar is gone. I charged it overnight, used it this morning, and really liked it. Oh, and there’s still one bar left on my old toothbrush.

For reviews and pictures of both toothbrushes, check out this blog: The NY Renovator.

Church Rituals and the Swine Flu

An announcement was made before mass started on Sunday. Due to the possible spread of swine flu, Bishop Wenski with advice from the Center for Disease Control has recommended: “Please do not hold hands during the reciting of the Our Father. Share the Sign of Peace WITHOUT touching hands or kissing. This can be done with meaningful eye contact, smiles, and a bow of the head in reverence to one another.” This resulted in some laughs and giggles from the congregation. I didn’t think it was funny. Was it because people were uncomfortable with this topic? When it came time to offer the sign of peace, I saw some people shake hands anyway. I exchanged some nods and peace signs. I figured “better safe than sorry.” The irony is that we were still offered to share the holy sacrament of blood by drinking from the same chalice.