It’s getting to be that time of year when folks are not feeling well and our house is no exception. My daughter started out with a sore throat the other day. We went to the doctor’s and they prescribed amoxicillin. Poor child woke up this morning with a full blown cold. So far the rest of us have been spared. While we were at the doctor’s office we were asked if she had been coughing. If she had been they would have issued her a mask. Hand sanitizer and wipies were right there on the front desk next to the pen to sign in with. We have always tried to practice good hygiene and manners especially when it came to not sharing germs, but there seems to be a whole new set of precautions that are being implemented. We have to re-train the way we are in public when it comes to coughing, sneezing, and even greeting one another.  No more covering your mouth with your hand.  Now we are supposed to cough or sneeze into our elbows. I saw a young patient do this at the doctor’s office and was surprised at how naturally she did it but couldn’t help wondering if she was wiping her nose. I remember having to teach my children to not wipe their noses on their sleeves. Glad they are older now so I don’t have to explain the difference between sneezing and coughing into your elbow and wiping your nose on your sleeve. I think it will take us weeks if not months to change our habits and hopefully no one here will be ill that long. This is so contradictory to our basic training.  So, if you meet us somewhere you may not want to extend your hand as a greeting because we have not yet mastered this new technique and broken ourselves of the old habit. I wonder if this will be anything like the “new math” our parents had to deal with.