en garde!

It started during our shopping pilgrimage to the Rack last night. The boys had been were fed (sort of, fed but not much eaten) before our escape, they had been given their tasks to complete while we were away (homework, room, rat cage, piano), we swung by the chiropractor (Dr. Sam) to get X put back in order, and then made our way to the store to find some business slacks for the high-paid summer associate. I wandered over to the men’s quadrant and found some shirts well-suited for the hot and humid summers in the mid-Atlantic. Back within the gravitational mass of girl stuff, X found one pair of functional slacks, some jeans (x2), a sweatshirt, and a few tops (those were NOT on the to-do list) and we met at the register. The impulse area near the money-sucking machine was stocked with myriad Neutrogena sunscreen product. X grabbed a bottle of SPF 70 which I thought was a tad overboard, and I’m one who burns quickly, so we swapped it for a bottle of SPF 55. Here’s the point of this verbiage, since you asked: I thought SPF was based on some formula of 20 minutes times the SPF; X guffawed at me and quickly clarified that it is actually a multiple of the amount of time one can spend in the sun before burning and the SPF. Right I say, off to wikipedia.com (while delaying the start of our movie at home), and back with the basic definition, of which she was correct:

The SPF indicates the time a person can be exposed to sunlight before getting sunburn with a sunscreen applied relative to the time they can be exposed without sunscreen. For example, someone who would burn after 12 minutes in the sun would expect to burn after 2 hours (120 min) if protected by a sunscreen with SPF 10 (that’s the laboratory up above).

As if there’s such thing as a SPF 10 these days – that would be called Crisco (girls used to use Crisco at summer camp)...or butter. So here comes the math; if X can be in the sun for 30 minutes, on average, before burning, then a 70 will give her 2100 minutes of protection; or about 35 hours. I’m not exactly sure where she would require UVA/UVB protection for 35 hours. I’m thinking that unless you’re in another galaxy you’d only need a SPF of about 24 since I believe the sun sets occasionally here on Earth. For me? I burn in about 10 minutes so that 70 would give me almost 12 hours of endless protection. I will never be in the sun for 12 hours unless I’m working a turn row in a Johnny Cash prison song. My desire for direct sun is about 40 minutes so I’m trying to dig up a SPF 4; butter me up.

As an aside, there was a woman in the elevator this morning carrying a 7-Eleven Double Gulp. I suggested that if she must transport something that large she should use the cargo elevator ‘round back. I just looked up the Double Gulp and it’s the king. It seems this is the Gulp family tribe, smallest to largest…you’ll thank me:

Gulp, Big Gulp, Super Big Gulp, Double Gulp (1.9 liters)

Love to all.

T.