Thursday mornings I volunteer in the Little Man’s school library, shelving books. I do it from 6 – 7 am. It’s a nice way of getting an hour of volunteer work in each week. This morning, as I headed out the door at 5:45, it was already raining out. The school is a 6 minute drive from the house. I got there, went inside, did my work, and managed to get it all done by 6:45 am. So I headed into the office.
I am fortunate to live 5 miles from my office, against traffic both ways. When I don’t have to drop kids off or pick them up from school, my commute takes 12 minutes. That turned out to be particularly fortunate this morning.
I pulled into my parking spot at work, got out of the car, and then habitually checked my pockets for keys, as I always do when I get out of the car. To my dismay, I found two sets of keys. Which meant that Kelly was home without any keys. This is due entirely to breaking my routine last night. Normally, I hang my keys on the key rack, and grab them before heading out the door in the morning. It is automatic. Last night, I left my keys on my desk, so I grabbed them this morning and put them in my pocket before heading downstairs. When I left the house, I passed by the key rack, grabbed the keys hanging there, and headed out the door.
So I got back in the car, and headed out into the rain, arriving home about 12 minutes later. I dropped off the keys, explained my folly, and then headed back into the car, and arrived at work 15 minutes later. A double-commute!
As far as I know, it’s the first time I’ve performed that particular folly, and it just goes to show that while routines can be good, when broken, they can be annoyingly bad, too.
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