When you’ve been doing things the same way for a long time, you begin to develop a routine. But it’s amazing how quickly you can unlearn something.
Some years back I got up one morning and proceeded to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee. Because I have lived in the same house for going on 17 years now, a very regular pattern had developed. The same sleepy routine happened each morning: get up; get out of bed; turn on the news channel; head to the kitchen to get the coffee going; go to the cabinet next to the stove to get a filter to start the brew; stand on tiptoe with hand on stovetop to brace myself in order to reach filters at the back of the second shelf