A Stupid Thing: The state of public handwashing

As I believe all regular CBL readers are aware, I have been "on the road" for the past 4 days, visiting family in Washington. We had a very nice trip, which I will chronicle tomorrow. But, for the sake of my mother and her routines, I thought I ought to get something off my chest tonight.

I HATE TO WASH MY HANDS IN PUBLIC RESTROOMS.

That is not to say that I don't wash my hands in public restrooms, or that I don't want to wash my hands in public restrooms. I just really loathe what public handwashing has become. We have lost all control over the process. We are no longer trusted to turn the faucets off when we are finished, and germophobes have convinced Big Pfaucets that we don't want to touch a knob, so we get the "wave your hands under the spigot" malarkey. Once we find the sweet spot, we get a 5 second squirt of cold water. Maybe my hands are dryer than most peoples, or less absorbent... but they just don't get wet enough. I have to criss-cross my hands three or four times to just get my hands cold and wet. Then, the soap.
Remember the good old days, when soap came in liquid or powder form, and we could decide how much to use? Those days are gone, my friend. Now we get a puff of time-released foam. Once again, the soap-foam-puffer is motion-activated, so if you don't get the move and stop-to-wait-for-it motion just right, your puff of soap ends up on the counter, and you have to wait like a half hour for the next puff to become available.
If you are lucky enough to lather your hands, the rinse problem presents itself again. And then, the part I hate the most- drying.
I don't know if I can adequately explain the passion with which I despise motion activated paper towel dispensers. We already know I am not a fan of motion activation-but the towel machines have two more big Stupid Things.
1. The "towels" are exactly as absorbent as common office copy paper. (maybe, now that I think about it, this is the reason for the water miser faucets)
2. The dispensers dispense a 4inch long section of towel.

I am not a picky person. When I wash my hands, I want to use hot water, and lots of it. I want to choose how much soap I use, I want it to make a nice lather, and then I would like to be able to rinse it off. Then, I want to use paper towels, not those stupid air dryers, and lots of them to get my hands dry so that they don't freeze.

I am thisclose to carrying around a bottle of hand sanitizer and using that instead of public handwashing, right in front of all the disapproving Good Moms.