The checking is the only thing that bugs me. I think in all the time I've been responsible for keys I've only ever left the door unlocked once or twice, but I still make sure.
I'm certainly not in a position where I need meds though. I'm aware of what I'm doing and how it makes me feel so I don't let it run my life. I'm not one of those people who spend hours checking that they've done something and end up not being able to do anything at all.
When it comes to germs etc, again, I've got a fairly healthy attitude towards them, having been a micorbiologist in the past. I've got a pretty good cleaning routine, but I don't obsess about it and I also don't sterilise everything. Dealing with bacteria, yeasts and viruses is something that's very important to your immune system and I think hypercleanliness is actually counterproductive.
I hadn't thought of collecting books as being anything unusual. I've got just about every book I've ever bought. I had a bit of a clear out a couple of years ago when I moved house because I didn't have as much space and sold a couple of hundred on Amazon, but I've still got most of them. The only ones I sold were books I hadn't really enjoyed and wouldn't read again. Some are like old friends, books I grew up with that saw me through my teenage years, and I'd never get rid of them. In fact, some of them I've actually got multiple copies of because I've read them so many times, but couldn't bear to throw the old ones away as they wore out! One of my sisters is exactly the same though, so it's probably a family thing. Saying that, she's the one who's got the handwashing compulsion too so maybe we're both a bit crazy. Still, we both function all right, so it's obviously not a problem.
As for going barefoot outdoors, no way. I grew up in the country, surrounded by sheep, dogs and cattle and if that weren't enough, there were nettles and thistles to contend with too. Billy Connolly's song about wellies sums it up pretty well for me:
If it wasnae for your wellies where would you be?
You'd be in the hospital or infirmary
'Cause you would have a dose of the flu or even pleurisy
If you didnae have your feet in your wellies
Oh wellies they are wonderful, oh wellies they are swell
'Cause they keep out the water and they keep in the smell
And when you're sitting in a room you can always tell
When some bug*** takes off his wellies
Oh and when you're out walking in the country with a bird
And you're strolling over fields just like a farmer's herd
And somebody shouts, "Keep off the grass" and you think how absurd
and SQUELCH you find why farmers all wear wellies
There's fishermen and firemen, there's farmers and all
Men out digging ditches and working in the snow
This country it would grind to a halt and not a thing would grow
If it wasn't for the workers in their wellies
If it wasnae for your wellies where would you be?
You'd be in the hospital or infirmary
'Cause you would have a dose of the flu or even pleurisy
If you didnae have your feet in your wellies
