Longest trip to town in my memory. We were on the road by 7:15, and I didn’t see Lair Sweet Lair again until five.
And at 7:30, well down the road, I had the awful thought: “Did I turn the oven off?” Because at six this morning I turned it on and opened the door just to take the chill off, since I sure wasn’t going to light a fire and let the woodstove heat the cabin just in time to leave. And I didn’t remember turning it off. I considered calling my neighbor J, who arguably owes me a favor. But he’s got horses so I keep the boys away from his place, and so they don’t know him well. Might not go so well if he tries to go inside while I’m not there. Don’t want to take the chance of getting one of my best neighbors mauled. Still, the thought bugged me. Finally I called him and said, “Would you mind dropping by the cabin and closing the valve on my propane bottle? Just to settle my mind.” And he agreed, and then I felt better. (ETA: It turned out I had indeed turned the oven off.)
Road trip took a long time, as the folks providing the ride had a lot to do in town. My part of it, refilling my glaucoma meds, didn’t fill very much of it so I spent most of the day sitting around, guarding the goodies in the pickup while [neighbors] were in some other store or office. And we got back to the little town nearest where we live just in time to go to this church where there’s supposed to be a food bank. This was right at 4 PM.
And oh, how there’s a food bank there. And I remember, now, seeing a huge number of cars and people around this otherwise small and unassuming-looking church and wondering what that was all about. Now I know. I stood in the line that snaked around three sides of the building for about twenty minutes while absolutely nothing happened except for a lot of ladies who obviously knew one another loudly catching up with this’n’that, and it was clear that this would not end anywhere near before dark. I had lumber to help unload and a couple of dogs who’d been indoors for over nine hours. Or at least that was my excuse as I bravely turned my tail and fled.
Maybe I’ll try again another time.
So, had you turned the oven off?
Oh, I forgot to mention that. Yeah, I’d turned the oven off.
Guess your habits are better than your memory. I know mine are. My memory sucks, so I’ve adjusted by creating very good habits.
Back when I use to have one, I taped a list of things to turn off on the inside of the front door. No way of forgetting to turn anything off other than to forget to read the list. Of course when one never leaves for long or very far or very often, it’s kind of a silly idea. A friend of mine who was a shrink use to tease me that it wasn’t as much my paranoia of what I forgot as much as my paranoia that I was leaving home in the first place. I’m not sure which of those thoughts creeped me out more.