Several years ago, I was travelling for business and I didn’t feel very good. I was driving back home and was in the car by myself. I think I had eaten something during the trip that did not sit well with my stomach. I didn’t really feel sick. I wasn’t having to make any emergency stops on the road either. But there was a point where I needed to pull over for a restroom break. I pulled over at an exit that had one convenience store. The store looked like it had been there for some time. The store was old enough that the doors to the restrooms where on the outside of the store. I was thankful that I didn’t have to go inside the store to get a key for the men’s room.
I immediately had second thoughts about using this restroom when I entered. The first thing I noticed was the sink. It looked incredibly dirty but upon closer inspection, it was obvious that it was clean but severely stained. The handles were loose on the faucet. The biggest thing that I noticed about this small room was the organization of various paper and soap dispensers, dryers and rails on the wall. It appeared that the owners of this store would change to a new type of soap dispenser without ever removing the old one. The old ones were on the wall but in a state of disrepair or even partially destroyed. The same thing went for the paper towel and toilet paper dispensers. The main toilet paper holder was the kind that holds two of those huge rolls. It was mounted very high on the wall in relation to where you would usually find these fixtures in part because of a handicapped rail that was also too high and in the way. The functioning soap dispenser was over the toilet because the area where it should have gone was littered with old broken dispensers. For drying your hands there was a broken paper towel dispenser on the back wall, a blow dryer with a broken start button next to the door and a newer blow dryer that was mounted next to the toilet paper dispenser. The newer dryer was the style that was activated by the presence of your hands underneath the vent. I don’t remember the condition of the toilet but it was at least acceptable enough that I was willing to stay. I sat down. While I wasn’t feeling sick, I was tired. I wasn’t completely exhausted but I was felt bad enough that I soon closed my eyes to rest. I rested my elbows on my knees and my chin on my hands. It would have been very easy for me to fall asleep and I almost did. As I rested, my head started drift toward the wall. As I started leaning I was roused by the whirring sound of a high speed motor and my head was hit with a blast of warm air. My head had drifted underneath the new hand dryer and I had accidentally activated it.