What are your habits that seem really strange to people, but that (sorta) have good reasons behind them?
We live just over the crest of a hill on a road where the speed limit is 55 mph. I can see cars at the bottom of the hill, but I can’t see them once they start up the hill, until they reach the crest (about 20 feet from our driveway.) Through careful observation, I’ve found that it takes about 10 seconds for the slowest traffic to get up the hill, so if the bottom of the hill is clear for a count of ten before I pull out out of our driveway, I won’t pull out in front of anyone.
So sometimes I find myself waiting to pull onto the road from places other than our driveway thinking to myself, “One Mississippi, two Mississippi . . .” with my husband going, “There’s no traffic for miles! What the hell are you waiting for?” Doh!
Another (weirder) one. I had a friend for a while who was very allergic to oranges. You know how when you peel and orange, you get that aerosol of fine orange oil droplets? Yeah, inhaling that would make her throat close up and she’d die, or something. (Luckily, I never saw her have a severe reaction to anything.)
So now whenever I eat an orange around people, I habitually hold it under the table while I’m peeling it. This is despite the fact that my friend moved away years ago. It’s not weird enough that anyone comments on it, but I’m sure they think it’s odd and I feel dumb when I catch myself doing it.
I use a different color pen each day, and have many, many colors. The reason? When I was a wee beginning computer operator, I got in the habit of using a different color each day when labeling my output tapes, so I could tell my output tape from my input tape from across the room (to make sure I was making the right tape drive assignment.)
People give me funny looks when they notice I’m not putting the coffee in first, and my mum NEVER makes it the right way (my way) even though I keep telling her to. Gah.
I do it because boiling water makes the coffee bitter. …That does still apply to the instant stuff, doesn’t it?
Socks and shoes. I pick up a sock, then lift my foot to about hip level, thigh and calf horizontal and knee bent, then put on the sock. Reach down and grab the shoe without setting the foot down, put the shoe on, tie it. Repeat with the other side.
I prefer to drink water at room temperature, but water coolers insist on depensing a selection of either ice cold or boiling hot. Therefore, I fill up most of the cup with cold and then mix in some of the hot. If I get the ratio right, it’s immediatedly drinkable! One coworker called me on it, but agreed it made sense, so now he does it too.
I forget things in the microwave all the time. It’s all your fault. I get caught up in reading threads on here, and forget I was going to eat. My gramma goes to put something in the microwave and gets mad at me for leaving things in there. Happens almost daily. Thanks a lot you guys.
Every time I see a cop car, I always say, “Hello, officer of the law.” This came from, ah, a warning system. Of sorts. To ensure that… “things”… don’t get seen. By officers. Of the law.
I rotate things. Dishes, glasses, socks and underwear mostly.
See, if you keep putting the stuff you just cleaned up front or on top, the other stuff doesn’t get used as much, and the stuff you’ve been wearing/using wears out faster.
A very economically sound policy, and one my OCD GF can’t understand.
I rotate my coffee and tea cups, too, Sean. I do it because I don’t want the ones in the back to get lonely and feel sad and then get mad and then plot my downfall and jump on my head when I open the cabinet.
I once left te oil cap off an engine after having added a quart. I discovered many mles down the road when I investigated a burning oil smell that would not abate evenafter I was out of heavy traffic.
From then on, whenever I change/add oil I am compelled to re-check the oil cap within a block of home. Ditto radiator,power steering, automatic transmission dipsticks, should I have added to any of those. Curiously, I usually don’t feel compelled to double-check windshield washer containers.
I’ve tried to restrain myself, especially on those occasions when my wife and I have hopped right in the car after a change or addition. My discomfort level is so great that at the first stop sign from our home, the wife simply says words to the effect of “Stop fidgeting and just open the hood, already.”
I do this too. With 2 dogs and 5 cats nothing of the food garbage variety is safe in the indoor or outdoor trash can. I keep it in a bag in the freezer and toss it out on trash day.
I do this as well but I say “Hello, Bedford’s Finest”
People think it is weird that I have no less then 5 pens on my desk at any given time. I think it makes perfect sense as I can lose pens quickly and with a large amount I can pretty much guarantee that when I get a call I will have something to write note with.
Double-check that I’ve locked the car. Sometimes three times.
Double-check that I’ve set the alarm and turned it on, even when I haven’t changed the time in months. I have trouble waking up in the mornings, and it’s a battery clock, too, so sometimes I’m not sure if it was the battery or operator error.
I go up stairs sideways (i.e., put my whole foot, heel and all, horizontally along the step). Last year when I was in a production of High Society, my co-star and I had a dance number on a massive set of stairs, and if you try rock-stepping on stairs in character shoes with just the toe or heel on the step, you’ll break your neck. Two months of rehearsal and one of performance, and a year later I still worry about falling down that enormous staircase!
My husband does that. Half the time it’s because he’s on the SDMB. Normally I’m the one that finds it a day or so later.
I have to separate the silverware when I load the dishwasher. It just doesn’t make sense to toss everything in there only to have to separate them later. Might as well just do it as I’m loading it.
My old cat, Snowball, died ten years ago. Both my mom and I still block the front door with our foot when we open it to prevent him from running out.
It’s automatic: Turn key in lock, position foot, turn know open door just a bit to see if he’s going to make a run for it, then open door the rest of the way.
Whenever eating fries/chips (take your pick), I never apply the salt to the fries themselves. Instead, I salt the ketchup, and stir the salt through with the fries before eating.
Because, you see, salt crystals are cubic. And fries are rectangular cuboids. And the salt just bounces off of the fries unless there’s oil attached. And fries are rarely regularly oiled when I get them. So I would end up with unevenly salted fries. By salting the ketchup, I get a homogenous mixture with an even salt concentration throughout, and as long as I use the same technique to dip each fry, I get the same amount of ketchup on each fry, and thus the same amount of salt.
I cannot eat fries & ketchup without doing this. I’ve converted a few people, even. But most people find it absolutely shocking.
