Changing Channels

Just how elastic is the human mind? I ponder this on a daily basis as I settle in to my new digs in upstate NY. Sometimes it is not elastic enough, other times it seems just a bit too giving. Sitting at the breakfast table this morning, I heard a military helicopter approaching. This is a sound that I have heard countless times before, just not in my new home. For an instant I was back in MA. I had to shake my head and re-orient myself by looking around the kitchen to bring myself back to NY.

A week ago, shopping down at the Walmart supercenter in Halfmoon, I knew I was in the Walmart in Halfmoon, but when I exited the store, into the sunlight, for some reason I was surprised to be in NY, not in the familiar parking lot of the Walmart in MA that I usually shopped at. How could my mind be anticipating MA when I know I am in NY?

It may have something to do with time. When we moved from the house we had lived in 13 years to a new house in a neighboring town, for the first few months I was constantly going to the wrong drawers in the kitchen for potholders and silverware. Where was I going? To the locations that my mind had been used to for the previous 13 years. That continued until I left our second house a scant few months ago although as time went on I went to the wrong places less and less. If I put time into the equation, having lived in MA for 40+ years, I guess I can see why my mind still reverts to familiar patterns no matter how hard I try to reprogram it.

Still, the shock of newness should have some effect on my mind and how it adjusts. While we looked at many houses and had some familiarity with the NY area in which we now live, by no means were we transitioned from one area to the next. One day we moved from MA, a few days later (after staying with family and hotels due to moving delays) we were living in NY. Sometimes the shock of newness gives the brain an instant pattern to be followed. I guess that has happened in some areas (like my new ATM card code) but not in others (as in where am I).

Somehow, some way, in my mind's eye, I can still see myself in NY but with MA overtones. The other morning my mind was playing through what I could do this week with my younger son who is home alone as his older brother is at soccer camp for the week and his friend is at boy scout camp. It briefly flashed through my mind that we should go down and walk along the Cape Cod Canal. That was before reality charged into my mind and reminded it that we now live about 5 hours from the canal as opposed to the 1.5 hours before. Definitely a no go.

Times like that, I want to shake my mind and slap it to get it permanently adjusted to the fact that the MA thoughts are unnecessary and unneeded. I can't do that though because I know it is, as they would say on a soap opera or a movie: "doing as well as can be expected." Which leads me back to the time factor. I think it just needs time to build up more of a NY pool of information. While I doubt that the NY information would ever trump the sheer amount of MA information I possess, I do have hope that I will get to the point where I am not surprised to be in NY when I walk out of a store.