Creatures of Habit...

This is a blog about garbage.

Actually it is about my garbage can. See, in our kitchen we have a very slick looking garbage can. I'm not quite sure why, maybe it is all the testosterone coursing through my veins, but I have always wanted a stainless steel garbage can. So, when I moved back north, I bought one. It currently resides in the kitchen and looks really shiny. The best part is that this bullet can has a foot pedal that lifts the lid of the can. I made sure it had this feature, not because it is handy, although it is handy when you are scraping leftover Chinese food into it, but because of a deep seeded reason in my childhood.

When this garbage can pedal was first invented my grandpa (who as a small child I considered the richest man I knew because he would give us five dollars in quarters) had one and I thought it was the coolest thing ever!!! I would just stand there and stomp on the pedal and make the garbage can lid lift up and down like a puppet mouth. I would pretend the garbage can was speaking to me, not that I still do that...

All that to say, now that I have a garbage can with a pedal I have picked up some rather strange habits. I went into the garage the other day to throw some cans in the recycling bin and stomped on the ground three times before I remembered this particular bin does not open with a pedal. I got so mad! I was outraged because my hands were full. And as I reflected I realized that lately I have been annoyed each time I go to someone's house and have to (God forbid) lift the lid to the garbage. Not only that, but if you watch me approach a garbage can, while you are checking out my butt, slide a little to the south and look at my feet. My right foot will be right where the pedal would have been... positioning me closer to the can than I would naturally be. It is almost as if I have developed an "I'm throwing this away" stance where my right foot has to touch the can.

There seem to be a lot of things in our homes that we just assume work the same way in other peoples home. Or they are put away in the same cabinet, etc. I'm I the only one who does this?