EDMOND —
You might know I would be fond of words, so you won’t be surprised to hear I’m resentful when one of them gets a bad rap. Take the word “habit,” for instance. Some say the first of the New Year is a good time to break habits, but I’m concentrating my efforts on regaining the ones that got broken during the holidays.
How do you know where — or even who for sure — you are when your holiday calendar is all a-jumble for weeks on end? I want to expect my bridge ladies here every Monday, my reading group here the fourth Thursday and my trash picked up every other Tuesday. I want my hair/nails done on schedule, my church services when and where they’ve always been and my Christmas tree back in the garage where it belongs.
Call me a creature of habit, and if that makes me an old fogey so be it. When the necessity arose years ago, I put habit aside and eventually adjusted to digital rather than rotary phone dialing. I switched from boiling water on the stovetop burners to nuking it. I gave up my trusty old manual typewriter and advanced to the electric word processor, but grudgingly.
As time and new innovations marched on I left the comfort of habit behind and tried to keep up, but even now my cell phone isn’t smart. It doesn’t snap photos or remind me of appointments, and I don’t know a tweet from a twitter ... couldn’t focus on those tiny keyboards if I did. My much larger computer keyboard was hard enough to get used to, and I muddle along using only Word and Google on a computer that’s equipped to do everything a real writer could desire. What’s worse, I blush to admit I chickened out on Facebook when it got intrusive.
In full disclosure, I also confess that I — who am almost always lost — owned a Garmin step-by-step direction finder for about half a day before I gave up on the instructions and felt my way back to the store to return it. That figures. After all these years, I have yet to learn how to thaw frozen casseroles in my microwave. Not that it matters since I do know which heat-up buttons to punch, without which skill I’d have to subsist on sandwiches and dry cereal.
All of that said, in spite of my reluctance to alter my habits, shortly before Christmas I gave up Cable News and bought a machine that plays movies on Blue-ray discs that Netflix sends directly to my mailbox. Ah, brave new world! You of course have done something like that for years, but this Blu-ray business is a giant step outside my comfort zone, and it’s my friends’ habit to applaud my successes. I’m listening. Everybody now, on the count of three.
MARJORIE ANDERSON is an Edmond resident.
Features
New habits take some getting used to
- Features
-
-
Rude teens an example of emotional narcissism
Q: I went into my 17-year-old’s bedroom to wake him this morning. After some urging, he eventually got up and then told me he hated me. What is the appropriate consequence for this sort of disrespect?
-
The would’a, could’a, should’as of Edmond living
“Would’a, could’a, should’a” might be the most useless contractions in the English language — especially when preceded by “if only” — but I’m not letting that stop me.
If only I’d known what was coming, I would’a stayed out of Edmond’s seductive garden shops last weekend, but it’s been a long, cold winter and I couldn’t resist all those colorful flowery offerings begging, “Take me! “Take me!” -
VIDEO: Man hands out Abercrombie clothes on Skid Row in bid to shame brand
Anger has mounted online against clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch due to comments made by its chief executive and its strategy of not making women's clothing in any size above large.
-
Feces contaminates 58 percent of public swimming pools
Human feces taints more than half of public swimming pools, a finding U.S. health officials are using to urge better personal hygiene as the summer months approach.
-
VIDEO: One by one, homes in Calif. subdivision sinking
Scott and Robin Spivey had a sinking feeling that something was wrong with their home when cracks began snaking across their walls in March. Within two weeks their property dropped 10 feet below the street.
-
5 takeaways from the IRS report
What are the key takeaways from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration's report on the Internal Revenue Service's decision to subject conservative groups to heightened scrutiny?
-
How to get the most out of your air conditioner this summer
Experts say preventative maintenance on your air conditioner can save you hundreds of dollars.
-
VIDEO: How robots will shape the future
Robots could revolutionize everything from learning to fitness. Tech reporter Rich DeMuro shows how companies are using robots to shape the future.
-
Bodily waste can help solve the energy crisis, author says
Bodily waste is widely considered a topic not to be discussed in polite company; it's something to be flushed and forgotten. But a new book argues that waste, in all its human and animal forms, is worth getting to know intimately.
-
VIDEO: Camera mounted on WTC spire captures installation
A GoPro camera shows the spire as it is permanently installed atop One World Trade Center on Friday, bringing the New York City structure to its symbolic height of 1,776 feet.
- More Features Headlines
-
Rude teens an example of emotional narcissism
