Habits

I’ve changed my getting up and going to work routine in the course of the last two weeks. I’ve stopped going to work, practicing for retirement. Just kidding.  And just as suddenly as all the folks at work broke out into their happy dance two sentences ago they are now skulking and sulking their way back to their desks. There’s always tomorrow. They do have a point of course; I do keep showing up more out of habit than conviction in recent times.

Anyway. With my new routine, at least, in theory, I can actually take a short cut across the complex to get to the building in which I work, instead of driving the length of the perimeter to the “official” entrance. The secret squirrel passage is only open for three hours a day, all in the morning to ameliorate the incoming rush I guess.

At the end of the day, we all head out through the only way that’s open so I’m assuming it makes little difference to the people in charge how quickly we get home. And I get that: they pay me to show up; if they paid me to leave, they’d need a wheelbarrow full of money.

I say ‘at least in theory,’ because it wasn’t until Tuesday of this week that I realized I could use the back entrance-all of last week, I just zoned out and drive on as I always have. Yesterday I remembered about the short cut about two minutes after I drove by it and was about half way to the main gate, meaning I’d have gained nothing by turning around (also true in most instances in real life, come to think of it).

I’m off today, so I’m confident tomorrow morning, I’ll breeze right by the shortcut and never give it a second thought until at some point later in the day when I’m daydreaming instead of doing something I’m  supposed to be doing. It’s just as well, I think, as I’m a bit skeptical of saving all that time now instead of waiting until the end of my life to get it all back. Because that’s when I’ll wish I could have it.

-bill kenny