Virtue 7 - Day 1

Ben says:

Cleanliness: Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, clothes, or habitation.

Let's think this through, shall we?  Mr. Franklin lived from 1706 to 1790.  What do you think the odds are that my personal hygiene standards surpass Mr. Franklin's? 

Well, I Googled "Benjamin Franklin hygiene standards" just to find out.  And yes, a plethora of sites popped up.  The Internet, it's pretty freaky if you think about it.

Anyhoo - I'm quoting from http://www.codecheck.com/:  "An unusual aspect of Franklin's personality, at least by the standards of the 18th century, was his concern for personal hygiene. From his youth he was an avid swimmer, and in his adult life he bathed as often as once a week--a practice considered scandalous at the time. Franklin not only brought the first bathtub to America, but he improved its design and spent much of his time reading and writing while soaking. His concern for sanitation went beyond his own personal needs, and he was instrumental in creating America's first public sewer system in Philadelphia."

Well, I bathe every single day - twice a day, if I can get away with it.  I win.  However, I haven't lived in a house with a bathtub since 2003, and Ben evidently owned the first one in the colonies.  So Ben gets props.  But - I can guarantee that Ben didn't own a Maytag or a Hoover, so I'm going with a win-win on the clothing and habitation thing too. 

However, since this is not a competition between Tina and Ben - but rather an excursion of self-improvement - here's a list of things I did today to be absolutely intolerant:

1.  When I ate a pudding cup, I licked the pudding off the foil lid so as not to tolerate any uncleanliness in the garbage can.

2.  I washed the dishes before, during and after making dinner.  Actually, I pretty much always do this, because I like to do dishes.  Yes, that would be a topic for another post, now wouldn't it.

3.  I practiced acceptable hygiene for an American living in 2011.

So, dearest reader, I'm taking the checkmark with a plus sign behind it.  Woot Woot.

All that being said, I almost ran over my landlord's dog, which would have caused a rather unpleasant uncleanliness both on my Blazer's front tire and on the driveway.