The early morning sun
streamed into the bedroom. It was time to get up. I glanced at the
clock. OMG! I had overslept. Before my day even got started I was now
running about thirty minutes behind schedule. What schedule? I'm retired. Panic, fear and a sense
'what to do next' gripped my body. How could I have overslept. I
always get up at the same time each day. I have for years, with maybe
one or two exceptions. It's funny how a slight change in schedule or
routine can effect the rest of the day, maybe even life. For sure, we are 'creatures of habit.'
Take, for example, the
car keys. I always turn off the car engine, remove the keys from the
ignition and drop them into the ash tray.(Now everyone knows where
they can find my car keys, even the crooks.) It is a habit I have done for years. It just makes it easier to know
where they are if someone needs to use the car, especially if one is in a hurry, although, admittedly, I probably would not do this in a big city.
But on this particular
day I put the keys in my suit jacket pocket, came inside and, who
knows why, I hung up my jacket in the closet. First, rarely is that the first thing I do upon entering the house. Eventually my jacket does make its way to the closet, but usually not the first thing upon arriving home. That's what the chair just inside the door is for.
Second, I had no memory of putting the keys in my packet. You guessed it. When it came time to go to the store, do you think I
could remember what I had done with the keys? OK Lucky. What did you
do with the car keys? I know you want to go to the park.
After a somewhat
frantic search I remembered I 'may have' put them in my jacket pocket
and sure enough, there they were, along with a few receipts from the
hardware store and a handful of dog treats. Most of my pockets now have
bits and pieces of dog biscuits these days.
For me, everything has
its place, especially my tools. It was a lesson I learned many years
ago from an eccentric boss I worked for, actually he was a fanatic.
(Just an aside, he would wear a dress shirt only once. Yes, once. The workshop was litter with boxes of new, unopened dress shirts, blue ones, white ones, stripes and solids. After it was worn it got tossed in the garbage. Too bad we were not the same size.)
But his message about tools? If you put the tool back where you
found it, you'll know where to look for it the next time you needed it. Makes sense. It took a while to learn. I was a scatter-brained college kid at the time, but it was a practice (habit) I continue,
even to this day...well almost all the time.
One might think that
with all the tools I have accumulated over the years I would have no
trouble finding a Phillips head screwdriver when I needed it or a
pair of needle nose pliers.
“Lucky, did you borrow those pliers
again. How many times have I told you to put them back after you use
them. “
"What's that? You didn't
use them? OK! It must have been the neighbor then. Sorry."
It amazes me how
accustomed we become to our routines and how often we don't even realize it. I
usually put my right sock on first, then my left. If I do it the
other way, left first, it just doesn't feel right and I end up taking
them off and starting over. And I always put my pants on after I
have my socks on. That way I won't wrinkle the bottom of my pant
legs. Sounds logical anyhow!
By now you are probably
saying to yourself....."My goodness... he has slipped off the deep end.” There are many who may agree that happened years ago. But I challenge you to take a look at some of the unique things you do.
In the kitchen, at
breakfast time, the first thing I do after turning on the television to catch the early morning news, is make the coffee. If the paper
boy (person) arrives or the dog needs to go out or I get distracted
by something being reported on the morning news, it changes my entire
routine and I end up having to wait an extra five minutes for my morning jolt of 'wake up'... my slightly pumpkin flavored coffee. It's got to be pumpkin this time of year.
On this particular
morning I was distracted by a story on the news about one of our local
politicians and something he may have said or done. Can't these guys
wait until after I have had my morning coffee before doing something
stupid?
Humans are not the only
ones on the planet who are creatures of habit. Lucky has his favorite toy
for certain times of the day, knows exactly when it is 5:00 PM, dinner time and.... what's this turning around and around in a circle
before lying down on his bed. If I did that before going to bed, I'd
probably end up sleeping in the car, after finding the car keys.
Being a 'creature of
habit', following certain routines each day, is probably not a bad
things. It does put a bit of order into one's life and it may offer
clues about how someone might act or react in routine and normal situations.
So I was a few minutes
late today. So what! It's not as if the world was expecting me at a
certain place at a certain time. Well almost no one. Thank goodness for cell
phones. A quick call to the person who cuts and styles my hair, telling her I was running a bit late and.... all is good.
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