Friday, July 9, 2010

Routineous Interruptus

Amazing isn't it? How lost one can get if a major interruption screws up a morning/afternoon/evening routine.

Case in point.

About a month ago (6/8), I was sitting at my computer, eating my breakfast and doing my normal blog maintenance and blog reading, when in the middle of responding to a comment left by a reader, the power went out in the house.

I thought to myself, 'Okay, I'll just finish writing my comment as soon as I find a wireless signal.'

Notice that right off the bat that I'm already lost.

It took about a minute or two for this particular thought to sink in: There was no power in the house, therefore household computer was down, therefore no wireless signal.

So.

I closed out what was on my screen, and sat there in a room illuminated only by the glowing screen, trying to figure out what to do next. At first, I thought I would play a couple of computer games to while away the remaining half hour or so.

That quickly fell by the wayside when I decided that I should save the battery on my computer for as long as possible. So I exited the game and exited the computer, and for the next thirty seconds, sat alone in a dark basement with only my thoughts to keep me company.

That also quickly fell by the wayside, as while I don't mind being alone with my thoughts, it's not part of my morning routine to be alone with my thoughts.

So.

I grabbed my writing tray and pen and paper (what, you don't have your personal work area memorized?) and made my way upstairs. Once upstairs, I decided to try to go outside and write. And being New England, our late spring weather had been goofy as of late, so when I went outside, I froze my butt off, because temps where in the mid-50's (early June peoples).

So.

What to write about became a moot point. Since my morning routine was interrupted, I decided to start writing about "routineous interruptus". I wrote up to the second stand alone 'so' sitting on that rocking bench freezing my butt off, while the rest of it was composed a couple of days later elsewhere.

The rest of my interruptous consisted of showering in almost total darkness and getting dressed in natural sunlight.

As it turned out, the rest of my day went as per normal and I found out later that power was restored by 10a.

So.

My question to you is this: Ever suffer from "routinous interruptous" and how badly were you thrown off (if at all) in the process?

25 comments:

  1. As a mom, I do have what I call my mama robot routine each day. With kids, I know it is inevitable to have frequent routinous interruptous. With kids constantly changing things up, I've become like a cat who always lands on her feet when something stirs up the day. Now my poor husband, that's a different story. He hates it when the schedule has to be changed. I guess it's the organized, tech guy side of him. When the power goes out here, all of my computer happy kids look lost for a while. Then I go off and tell them about those dark ages when mama actually had to keep herself busy without technology :)

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  2. When I was a kid once the temperature hit 50 we went outside for gym. So mid 50's is a heatwave.

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  3. G, it is funny how our minds travel such narrow paths. I'm completely lost if I have no computer access at home and find myself spinning in circles chasing my tail like my dog.

    Than I have to take a nap to recover from the trauma.

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  4. It always seems to happen when I haven't saved what I'm working on and frequently when I'm sending the latest Weekly Punch over at BEAT to a PULP.

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  5. It always seems to happen when I haven't saved something or when I'm sending the latest story over at BEAT to a PULP.

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  6. It always seems to happen when I haven't saved something or when I'm sending the latest story over at BEAT to a PULP.

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  7. It always seems to happen when I haven't saved something or when I'm sending the latest story over at BEAT to a PULP.

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  8. I can not STAND it when I lose power. It messes up everything. Sounds like your day wasn't too terribly ruined though.
    This reminded me of a friend of mine once who would make tea every morning by microwaving a cup of water. When his microwave broke he could NOT figure out HOW to make tea without it!

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  9. Actually, I think my routine has been interrupted so much lately that I am beginning to consider the interruptions my routine now. Sigh. It definitely throws me for a loop.
    In the last month, I got sick (no writing then) the youngest had to go get stitches (ditched everything then--flowing blood tends to command my attention), the basement flooded, (more of above) and several major appliances or necessities went out.
    I don't know why--but it seems to take 2 days to deal with these things too. One day to actually deal with the stuff and another to remember what the heck I was doing when I was interrupted.

    Good post!

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  10. It happens. I've learned to go with the flow. Children seem to be the biggest routinous interruptous around. I take a breath, remind myself to be in the now and go with the flow. It's always surprising how something interesting happens when I least expect it. :)Bea

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  11. I had a ruinous interruption just a few hours ago, myself. I was in the middle of painting & suffered a long, severe bout of vertigo that left me in tears. I couldn't do anything for a while--not even move my eyes. I don't really want to work on the painting now much anymore. I want to start something completely different right over it because it's psychologically linked to feeling completely horrible now. I may try to continue on with it, but I suspect I'll never really like it, because of the link.

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  12. Kelly: That's very kewl. Usually I have no problem with sudden interruptions to my work routine because quite frankly, work is really boring. It's the sudden interruptions to my home routines that often get me flummoxed.

    Bearman: The reason I froze my butt off (so to speak) was that I was dressed in my usual sleepwear: shorts and a shirt. It was an unusually chilly June morning for my neck of the woods that day.

    Pamela: I'm often like that at work (don't really have that problem too much at home, in spite of the post). Because my job is so computer centric that on the day it goes down for processing paychecks, people often become lost for most of that day.

    David: Wasn't sure if you were trying to be funny or not, so I took a chance and published all of your comments. Brilliant show and tell of having a routine interrupted.

    Extra Ordinary Me: You're right, it wasn't terribly ruined, but it did throw me for a loop just the same. I sort of felt like I was running behind for most of the day.

    Funky story about your friend. I think the same applies in my family as well. Without a microwave, they can get quite lost trying to do things the old fashioned way.

    Christine: Glad to see you again.

    Wow, sounds like an adventurous time frame. Sometimes the best laid plans can often be chucked overboard when the situation calls for it, and by the time you're done doing what you're doing, it takes forever and a day to do what you wanted to do in the first place.

    Bea: I think children are about the only interruptions I can deal with (so long as they're under the age of 10) without getting aggravated.

    Lana: Woah. That definitely is the worst thing to go through (can sympathize having experienced that a few years ago), and can also sympathize about not wanting to finish the painting.

    Sometimes it can take anywhere from a few weeks to a few years to finish or do something that had a negative impact. Good luck in coming back to and finishing the painting.

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  13. Your subject line cracked me up! I'd have to say power failures, water being shut off for maintenance (even for just an hour or two), and - sadly - having the network down at work all pissmeoffus at myselfus because it makes me realize just how dependent on technology I am. How's that for a run-on sentence?

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  14. Hey there young lady, I was wondering where you was today.

    Purty good runon sentence.

    Yeah, I would say not having any of those (and actually experiencing those at work over the past several years) would make for an extremely miserable day.

    Pretty sad commentary on how dependent we are with computers nowadays. Oh to experience life without a computer again.

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  15. I was swamped trying to tie things up at work before a weeklong trip...have finished part 3 btw. :)

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  16. G, I wasn't being funny and this damn service kept rejecting my comment. No kidding. Ha. So, it actually happened while I was commenting. That's strange or is it irony?

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  17. R.K.: Gotcha. Ain't nothing like trying to get things squared away befoe leaving on a trip (vacation or otherwise) to make yourself frazzled. And thanks for the update.

    David: I can sympathize. Mine hiccuped while I was writing my lengthy answer to everyone and posted it twice.

    I think it's a little of both, and thanks for the explanation. I didn't want to nuke the others on the outside chance you were trying to do something funny and then have me ruin it by nuking the redundancies.

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  18. I like routine, and work with itineraries, to-do lists, that sort of thing. My days are pretty well set out ahead of time. I try to keep interruptions to a minimum, but sometimes they're unavoidable. Your power outage reminded me of Hurricane Gloria back in the day. Remember that one? We were out of power for seven days, but there was no "technology" to speak of back then. Wow, today that would be a tech-nightmare!

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  19. I vaguely remember Hurricane Gloria, and unfortunately I don't remember if we lost power at all.

    But most definitely, if something like that happened today, it would definitely be a tech nightmare. Everything that we do is so computer related that people would probably get brain freeze if they had to do things by hand.

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  20. Woah...well, I can see where having a power outage would create havoc in your world.

    I only have just a sprinkling of OCD, which is usually confined to be 1) being obssessively punctual to places, meetings, etc. and 2) overly obssessive about expiration dates on perishables.

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  21. When all else fails I just read a book

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  22. I've done that from time to time, especially at work. Probably would've done it this time if I had actually thought about it. Sad part is, even though I'm a heavy reader, my reading has fallen by the wayside as of late.

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  23. Cripes, just about everything interrupts me - although I have a feeling it maybe because I'm inherently lazy:))

    Oh - interesting you're a bit OCD about perishables G - I'm the exact opposite. I never turn down an out of date sausage. Just ask my hubby....:)

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  24. Jane: "An out of date sausage"?

    I salute thee and say, "I'm not worthy" to be in the presence of such pure genuis. :D

    Yeah, I drive my family insane with my compulsion about food freshness.

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