I just got done lounging at my local swimming pool where I engaged in some serious people watching. Because I've reached the age where my life wisdom cup runneth over I had to resist the urge to share unsolicited helpful hints with strangers at the pool.
If you only know how hard that was for me. So hard in fact that only the act of going off the high dive and experiencing water rushing up my nose at a high velocity seemed to temporarily eradicate my urge to interfere.
This urge is something I've had to valiantly fight my entire existence but as I've gotten older it seems to have reached an apex. I think it's because all my life experience is yearning to be freed and gifted to unsuspecting members of the public.
But yet I know, and more's the pity, that most, okay probably all of the people I would offer up my sage thoughts to would not appreciate me inserting myself into their life. Sigh.
This means it's your lucky day. Oh, yes rejoice because now you get to be the recipient of my deepest most profound poolside thought.
It's sunscreen. Yep, sunscreen as in why, oh why, aren't people applying it repeatedly and with vigor? Sure, the moms were spraying their kids down but the 16 and older demographic was very lackadaisical in their sunscreen application.
The very worst were the more mature pool enthusiasts. I'm still processing being an eyewitness to a trio of women greasing themselves up with SPF 0. Trust me I'm not wrong about this. I actually asked to see the bottle of "tanning oil" and right there in a font large enough for me to read without my 2.0 readers it plainly stated SPF 0.
One of the women glistening from a fresh application of tanning oil proudly told me that I should try it because "even if you get burned it still helps your skin fade to a nice tan."
I felt like I had been transported back to the 1970s where the only SPF sunscreen was a 2 and to quote my sister it was only used when you wanted to "to take the edge off the sun after a bad burn."
The urge to tell this woman that the sun was not her skin's friend and that she looked close to 60 to me but due to tanning she might only be 40 because UV rays are an aging accelerator was so overwhelming and all-encompassing I had to sprint to the high dive and let the water rush up my nose to calm my brain and mouth.
Oh, don't get me wrong I keenly understand the urge to tan. Growing up in Texas tanning was a competitive event that I excelled in. I even had my own secret sauce of baby oil and iodine. I totally embraced the beauty mantra that tanning makes you more attractive and that "tanned fat looks better." What a twofer - poor body image and skin cancer.
But now we're supposed to be so much smarter about the sun thanks to decades of research and education. Yet here we are still using tanning oil that I'm shocked you can still buy. I would have thought by now it was something you had to purchase off the dark web or just make at home using olive oil, bacon grease and the tears of dermatologists.
Yes, I know I'm on a soap box but years ago I got skin cancer on my shin year which was found very early and all is well but that experience supercharged my love affair with SPF. And I think it's a love that was meant to be shared especially with strangers at the pool. But alas for now I'll keep jumping off the high dive and minding my own business.
One thing I'm not going to shut up about is my latest book - KILLER DANCE MOM!!! It just came out this month and I would be thrilled if you would click on the Amazon link and take a lookie loo. It's a Snarky mystery so it's a fun and fab whodunnit that takes place at a dance competition. So, lot's of crazy coming your way. 
www.amazon.com/dp/B0C4FZTK5B
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