Non-automated Confusion

Whether it's living in/near a city or living in/near a city that is known for it's "green" ways, but I've come to the conclusion that I'm getting very spoiled.

I walk up to a retail door and expect it to automatically open. I rise from the toilet in their bathroom and expect it to flush. I stick my hands under the sink and wait for the water to start flowing. I place my hands under the soap dispenser and and it dispenses soap. I wave my hand in front of the paper dispenser and receive towels.

I catch myself pausing in front of enough non-automatically opening doors to be comfortable with that. To understand that not all doors will automatically open. However, I didn't realize how spoilt I was to an automatic bathroom until I recently drove outside of the city limit and had to use the little girls room.

I stood at the door of the stall waiting for the toilet to flush. When it didn't I looked for the little button; only their wasn't one. It had a handle. After flushing the toilet, I went to wash my hands. I stuck my hands under the faucet and it didn't come on. Sometimes the censer is dirty, so I restuck them under there two or three more times. I might still have been there today if another woman hadn't exited a stall and walked up to wash her hands; reaching to turn on the faucet. Duh!

At this point, I was pretty sure I would have to touch the soap dispenser, and I did. But I really expected an automatic paper dispenser, I mean really, who doesn't have one of those? This place apparently.

By the time I exited the restroom, I felt all covered in germs. Which is odd, I'm not a person who worries about germs. It is only the comfort level I have developed living in Austin. They've made me aware of the many places you pick up germs in a bathroom that you don't have to . . . assuming everything is automated.

Makes me wonder what other things I've become accustomed to that I am unaware of? Sequenized red lights? Twenty-four hour shopping? Indoor playscapes? No snow days?