Henry Rifle Forums

Your friends and family used to laugh at until they didn't?

For example...

I always smell the milk before I pour it, (or drink it if we are out somewhere,) to make sure it's not spoiled. Stems from a terrible cereal incident when I was a kid, I don't get into, but lumps were involved. People will laugh and say, "The use by date is on the carton."

One couple, really good friends of ours, had invited us over for dinner. We had a great meal, she had picked up a pie, made coffee. She knew I took cream and sugar from their visits to our place, so she set the half gallon of milk out. I unfolded the spout and sniffed. Nope. They were laughing until I set it across the counter.

"Yeah Right," she said, " It's just a few days old. Her husband picked up the carton and sniffed, "Pour that out, I'll be right back..."

I told him I could use non dairy creamer... "Two blocks..." He called over his shoulder. "

He was back in ten minutes, and set a new quart on the counter. I opened the spout and sniffed. "Really?" He said. "I just got back from the store."

I sat it across the counter. "Not funny." He said.
" Not kidding, " I replied.
Sometimes I like the coffee with powdered creamer.

His wife called later that week.
"Thanks, now you have Bob sniffing the milk.".

Oh, I've got plenty of quirks. I can remember years ago reading about all the signs of Autism, and how they cover a very broad range, not all being to the level of what some would call a disfunction. Quite a few were me and things I do. There's a lot of what people call OCD that falls right in with that too. I have those little repetitive movements that I do while not even thinking about it. I have some very pre-defined procedures for things that I do, and have to follow those processes while doing them. (this is actually something that I feel helped me greatly in a lot of sports and hobbies) I also find that I need to count things, like when a flock of geese flies over, I'm counting them. This has also been a big plus for me at work, and I got a bit of a rep for being detailed. One of my co-workers used to call all these little quirks my "tisms". I fully embrace them now. I'd be willing to bet that a lot of others here can relate on one level or another too.

As for the milk example, I'm almost completely opposite. Can't tell you how many times I've eaten a bowl of cereal that was a little bit tangy, and dumped the milk when I was done, but I ate the cereal first. My mom used to get pissed that I examined my food before eating it when I was young, but I'm the opposite now. When I'm hungry, I ask my GF what is the thing she's going to throw out from the fridge, and I eat that, I hate wasting food. She laughs about that and says that's why I never get sick.

I live on milk and drink about two gallons a week. Mostly in coffee. Instead of cream I pour eight ounces of milk into eight ounces of coffee and then nuke it for thirty seconds. It’s a poor man’s latte.

I have a few ocd rituals I guess. I liken them more to habits. I always mow the lawn on the road side of the house first. I like knee high socks or down to the ankles. Anything in between bothers me all day. All crew length socks and boot socks become ankle socks. Yes, I can be seen walking around my place in shorts and knee high socks sometimes.

I think we are all a little (or more) quirky in some respects. I always smell the milk too, but I haven't drunk milk since the kids moved out. We have it for the grand daughter. The date is not as accurate as the smell for me.

When every I open a peanut butter jar, new or opened, I stick my nose in an smell it. Don't know why, never had a bad experience with PB.

No quirks, but I have had interactions with quarks of various flavors - up, down, charm, strange, top, and bottom.

I'd say I'm a little OCD as well. I print checklists I have tweeked over the years for various things. I think they came from the various checklists we used in the military, but THOSE worked. I had checklists and cheatsheets at my various jobs, they just carried over into my homelife. For example:

I had pre-trip checklists, and I'll ADD to the checklist if the trip has a special purpose. When we get where we are going, I tuck the checklist over the visor and use it to prepare for the return trip. I also go thru the "room" and open every drawer, every door and look under everything, check every plug. So far we haven't left anything behind. BUT I have found chargers, books, and kids games (Back when they travelled with us...) AFTER I was told "WE have everything, let's go...

The family got used to the sweep.

One the Doc's and Nurses Love:

I have a med and allergy list, I keep updated. Before any visit I hit print on the computer and then hand it to them with any forms I have to fill out in the office. "You can keep that," I tell them. No trying to remember the spelling or doses, I have copied them to the list off the prescriptions.

I have a check list for our motorhome. The last item irks the dear Wife.
It's check Wife and dog on board.

"Do you class me as a DOG!"

I have a few OCD behaviors, too. I count stairs as I ascend or descend them. It's a sub-conscious thing, but I'm aware that I'm doing it and I have always done it. I'm also compelled to straighten pictures on walls and make other adjustments to square, straighten, or align things whenever I feel they're out of place. I'm not quite like MONK or Rainman yet, but I'm close.

But I drink too much milk for it to spoil, though I might begin sniffing first if I ever take a mouthful of dairy lumps. That sounds bad.

There are two dates..
Best by ____ (unopened).
In fine print: Use within ____ days after opening.

I'm not conscious of any quirks or OCDs. But I do diligently maintain a monthly bill/budget spreadsheet.

CT_Shooter wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 30, 2025 2:04 pm

I have a few OCD behaviors, too. I count stairs as I ascend or descend them. It's a sub-conscious thing, but I'm aware that I'm doing it and I have always done it. I'm also compelled to straighten pictures on walls and make other adjustments to square, straighten, or align things whenever I feel they're out of place. I'm not quite like MONK or Rainman yet, but I'm close.

But I drink too much milk for it to spoil, though I might begin sniffing first if I ever take a mouthful of dairy lumps. That sounds bad.

Oh, it was bad... We had a bunch of family down and visiting, and a gaggle of kids in the kitchen having breakfast. You know how kids are, doing three things at once. We didn't notice the lumps when we poured the milk on the cereal, we had the TV going and we were all laughing and joking, not really looking. I was the first at the table and I took one huge bite of cereal and it came right back out. I was done with that cereal.

My older cousin poured the rest of the milk into the sink and it had what looked like cottage cheese in it. I was done with MILK and CEREAL for nearly a year. I was YOUNG too, under ten. What KID won't drink milk or eat sugary cereal? Nasty.

...
Maybe I do have a quirk. Decades ago, after eating a salad at Denny's I got violently sick from both ends. Now I won't eat any raw raw vegetables and I haven't set foot in a Denny's since. Something like that happened with a burger from Jack in the Box. I now call them Puke in the Box. I haven't been back there since either.

For years, I noted the Gas Mileage to tenths, oil usage and fully documented all maintenance on the cars and trucks I owned. It was a thing I picked up from a roommate in the barracks in the Corps. He had a Spotlessly maintained Bug and pointed out that it alerted him to any changes in the car's performance early. I found it a minimal effort but it really paid off, especially when it came time to sell or trade the vehicles. When you are able to show the prospective buyers detailed records on the cars, they are impressed that you have taken good care and less likely to worry about problems cropping up.

Mags wrote: ↑

Sat Aug 30, 2025 2:23 pm

I do diligently maintain a monthly bill/budget spreadsheet.

Yeah. Me, too. I manage two connected Excel spreadsheets; one for bank accounts and equity balances that I update each week (OCD) and an annual monthly expenses sheet that I archive and zero out each new year. I created and started using them in 2002. That's probably an indication of something.

Crooked pictures bug the crap out of me.

I wasn’t always this way but as I grew older it became more prevalent.

At the range I take the bullets out of the box in rows.

I'm also a picture straightener. Usually takes more than one adjustment until I'm happy with it too. We have a restaurant that we frequent near us that has a three dimensional, metal wall decoration of a striped bass. This is well over three hours from any salt water, so not sure why it's there, but it is. I tilted that one slightly tail down, and told my girlfriend that it's looking up to find my popper. Love catching stripers on topwater plugs. That was two years ago, and it's still at that same up angle.

And I'm also OCD about my vehicle logs. Each vehicle has a little bound notebook, the kind that has the elastic that wraps around holding it shut, and the ribbon to use as a bookmark. On the right side of the pages, I log in every time I get gas, and calculate MPG. The left side, which is less populated, is for oil changes, new tires, brakes, whatever other maintenance or repairs I do. My oldest vehicle right now is a 2002 Silverado with about 258K on it, and my book goes back to August of 2002 when I got it. It shows how different tire sizes have impacted MPG, and how long trips and cruise control impact fuel efficiency. It even shows the difference in MPG between winter and summer gas, back before everything was 10% ethanol.

I have to do most tasks left to right. Like trimming the edge of the lawn, going right to left feels weird. Also my wife rarely lets the microwave count down to zero instead open the door and doesn’t zero out the counter. I can’t walk by without hitting the cancel button.