Habit

As you get old, you really do get “sot in your ways,” a way of saying that over time habit becomes a way of life. You become so comfortable with your day-to-day and minute-to-minute habits — like writing a blog post over the second cup of morning coffee — that you’re loath to change. So loath that it’s almost physically uncomfortable to change your way of doing things.

Videlicet: This morning the corgis and I were perambulating our usual mile-long route, which goes through the lushest and shadiest part of the ‘hood. Lately we’ve been running into a woman who has decided she likes to walk her dogs on that route, too. She has two dogs. One of them is about the size of a standard poodle, with curly white hair and black button eyes — it may actually be a poodle or mix thereof. The other is a short furry thing. Both of these animals go batshit out of control when they see my dogs, and they yank her around so unmercifully that I feel bad for her, so when I see her, I change course.

But I hate that. I want to go the way I’m used to going, not some other way.

Habit. It’s not like going up a different lane is any skin off my teeth, after all. But I do kinda resent it because someone else’s wacked-out dogs force me to change my…damn habit. 😀

Switching from a 20th-century car to a 21st-century car brought this issue to the fore. I’m having to learn to drive all over again! It’s not that big a deal, as it develops, because under all the electronic frou-frou the vehicle is still a Toyota and the logic of its layout is essentially unchanged.

But one significant difference pertains to our topic: The headlights work manually!

I thought the gummint had decreed that all cars had to have their lights burning all the time, so as to keep us all safe. The Dog Chariot’s headlights could not be turned off at all. Apparently this must have pissed off some legislator: the rule seems to have gone away. Now you can set the headlights to “auto,” which will cause them to stay on any time the car is running. But you also can turn them on and off, the way grown-ups used to do back in the day when grown-ups could be trusted with bottles of pills, cough syrup, and toilet cleaner.

Deciding to regress to the ancient state of affairs, I elected to leave the “auto” headlight setting off. So…last night I left a meeting after dark. In the parking lot, someone flicked their lights at me. “Huh?” think I, unaccustomed to this antiquated signal. Before I get on the main drag, though, I realize: lights are off.

Back at the Funny Farm, I park the car in the garage, climb out, and see…whazzat? LIGHTS reflecting off the inside of the garage door. Holy mackerel! You have to turn these lights off if you turn them on. Isn’t that quaint?

😮

This habit-changing is going to take some doing.

It’s a nice opportunity, I think, to change and build some new habits along the way. For example, now that it’s almost cool (only 90 degrees at 9 ayem!), how’s about the one-mile walk becomes two miles? How’s about driving the pooches to the Murphy Bridle Path on Central Ave and walking a couple of miles through the shade, or exploring some new neighborhoods?

Could one switch one’s grocery stores? How’s about taking an extra ten minutes to drive to the spectacular Fry’s up at Tatum and Shea and then walking across the six-lane thoroughfare to finish off the shopping trip with a few special items from Trader’s, Penzey’s, and Whole Foods?

(Last night I saw a Bentley parked in that Fry’s parking lot. Can you imagine?)

And now that we have a car that works, why not track down a couple of B&B’s that welcome dogs and make some overnighter trips around the most scenic state in the union? How about driving up to the ranch, parking on the dirt road in front, and walking the hounds up and down through the road that passes through the BLM land? Or asking the present owners if we can walk up to Knoll’s Knoll? (Yeah: a guy named Knoll built a handsome native stone house on top of a knoll a mile or so from the ranch house.)

So many things to do that I’ve forgotten to do, out of habit.