Habits-making & breaking

2020 is finally coming to an end, and we have endured. I know I hope for a great new year to enjoy with abandon. Maybe that’s why I’m a bit more forward-looking than usual. Not that I am planning to make a list of New Year’s resolutions. I know myself, the first time I break one, I will break them all. Maybe it’s just semantics; but, no resolutions; instead, it’s break bad habits and add good ones. First, I will pay my taxes on time this year and avoid the penalty I just paid for last year. Sometimes there are fruits of delay, but unfortunately, not with the IRS.

When I was young, I had a habit of leaving lights, radios, or TVs on when I wasn’t using them. My father’s, as probably every parent’s, stock rant was, “turn things off when you’re not using them. We don’t own stock in the power company.” My usual response, of course, was “oh, sorry,” and I’d turn things off. One day, as my snarky personality was evolving, my response was, “maybe you should buy stock in the power company!” To which my father, who could easily out snark an 11-year-old, responded with something like, “good idea, you have an allowance. You buy it.”

Considering I had no idea how to buy stock, or even who supplied our power, and I’d rather spend my money on the latest Motown record, I felt it best to quietly slink off and shut out the lights. And much to my father’s credit, I eventually developed the habit of turning things off when not in use. Daniel has yet to develop that habit, and rather than nag him; maybe I will buy stock in Pacific Power. At least now, I do know who our power company is.

One of the first things you learn as a tennis player is: Don’t swing at volleys! That is the shot that you hit at the net. It comes fast, if you swing at the ball, it will fly by you, and you will miss it. However, my instinct always was to swing at that shot. After two black eyes, then stitches over my eyebrow, broken prescription sunglasses, and a tennis ball in the eye, I finally broke the habit of swinging at volleys. Some of us just have slower learning curves!

Mugsy, like all dogs, is a creature of habit. He runs out in the backyard every morning, does “his business,” eats, goes back to bed to nap for an hour. After that, he won’t do anything in the backyard except play. Right now, it is kind of funny to watch him try to pick up a frozen tennis ball and wonder why it won’t bounce. Watching his frustration is cruelly entertaining, but considering he makes me walk him at night in 20-degree weather because his backyard “business” is reserved only for mornings, he deserves the laugh.

My clothes dryer has a habit of eating socks! I put in six pairs and get back five pairs and one random sock. I know it’s futile to replace the dryer, so my new habit is to first take a sock count, then put them in a lingerie bag tied tightly, so they all remain together. One day, I know I will clean out the dryer and find hundreds of random socks.

New habit list for 2021: Wear a mask, no swinging at volleys, eat more vegetables, no procrastination, no insomnia spending, hope for a good healthy, party-driven 2021 with lots of friends, family, food, and wine! And work out with The Mirror (I’m on the three year, no interest plan so that I will have 36 monthly reminders of my ban on insomnia spending).