Unintended Consequences

The reason I am so addicted to hanging out in coffee shops, other than the coffee, of course, is watching the people. People from every economic group, age group, race and color and creed like coffee. This woman caught my eye not because of her hairstyle or her ensemble, but because she seemed not quite comfortable with it,  alternately  tugging down first the front then the back of her skirt.

She not only made a striking contrast with the largely white and miraculously uncrowded interior of Acre but she also reminded me of my son's date for the high school prom, who had designed and made her own dress, a tiny scrap of bright yellow fabric sewn into a form fitting strapless sheath dress with a skirt about ten inches long. She looked quite stunning but, being a child of Berkeley High School had probably never worn anything but jeans and oversized tee shirts. Unlike the woman in Acre Coffee, Mona was alternately tugging the top of her dress, up and the bottom of her dress down, somewhat self cancelling actions which were quite endearing....

My self cancelling actions to start the day were far from endearing...annoying was more the operative word. I gathered my things from their usual place by the door, put Ozzie on his leash and headed down the stairs. I had picked up a pile of things waiting to go downstairs and took them down with me. 

When I got in the car, it wouldn't start. It has a push button starter which only requires me to have my key in the car with me, so it finally occurred to me that I must have left it in the house. But I wasn't there. I try to be very habitual about where I leave my stuff for exactly this reason, but when it isn't there I have no clue where it is.... 

Having searched everywhere in the house with no luck I I decided to go down and let Ozzie out of the car, noticed an open cupboard from yesterday's small project, went to close it, and realized that I had set my keys down there this morning in order to put away the stuff from the top of the stairs.

I also decided when I left the house that this would be a phone camera day because I didn't feel like juggling cameras, keys, sunglasses and the dog. I unplugged it from its dock where it had been by the door since last night, but when the first photo opportunity came along, I took it out only to discover that it was dead as a doornail. I must say, Ozzie and I made it around the lake in record time since I didn't have a camera and he didn't seem quite as obsessed with sniffing every rock and bush as usual.

When we got home I plugged in my phone and it lit up immediately...who knows what was up with that?

I refuse to think that any of this has anything to do with aging, so I won't recount the story of how OilMan had the dishwasher door open last night, I turned around with a plateful of chicken and chopped peppers in my hand and fell over the door scattering the contents of the plate everywhere. I have no idea how the full wineglass of a very special wine sitting on the counter also wound up all over everywhere. I can't even blame the wine since I hadn't had a chance to take a sip yet....

Being habitual has its used, bit being on autopilot can be counterproductive....