h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Which is when I open the front door and stand on the doorstep I'll always pat my pocket to make sure my keys are there. Even if I've just put them there and am damn sure I haven't dropped them in the ten seconds in between, I'll still pat my pockets. And even then if I can feel something and am 99% sure it's them, I'll still plunge my hand into the warm darkness and have a quick fiddle just to make sure. Still talking about the keys there, by the way.

yeah,i do that too. By always keeping things in the same pockets of particular garments, a quick pat on the pockets ensures that the correct shaped things are present.

Doesn't work 100% of the time though- still occasioanly get to work and find i've forgotten my pass card or something. That irritates me cause i'm in such a habit of the feeling pocket thing, that i am usually very surprised when it doesn't work!

Probably do feel pockets as normal,but 'feel' the item there even whewn it isn't 'cause i'm conditioned to expect it there
Kind of makes a sham of my technique, really ...

I do very much the same sort of thing. Only I pat my pocket with the keys in it immediately *after* slaming the door shut.

There have been the odd occasions when to my shock I've felt nothing, and then it becomes an exercise in climbing my neighbours garden wall to get back in again

Hey, I do the key-thing, too! I wished my boyfriend would get used to it as well... He's very good at forgetting his keys, and the last time he did he came to my office in the afternoon to borrow mine. 2 hours later, when I came from work, I rang - and nothing happened... I phoned - and nothing happened either... He was fast asleep and it took me about half an hour to wake him up...

I can't pull the door all the way shut behind me unless my hand is in my pocket on my keys. This becomes a bit difficult when I'm carrying other packages, but I'll set them on the ground or put them in the car and come back to shut the door to make sure I have my keys. It certainly beats shelling out $70 or more for a locksmith in the middle of the night!

Actually this habit was bourne out of a much more humiliating incident involving my car keys: one evening in my youth after a disagreement with my parents (over something that was surely inconsequential, teen angst hard at work here) I left the house and drove to the riverfront to vent my frustrations with a walk through the park.

Upon returning to my car I discovered in my earlier haste I had locked and closed the car door while the keys were hanging in the ignition!

The irony of having to call my father and ask him if he would mind to please bring my spare car keys to me at the riverfront was not lost on me. He did this graciously, but seldom have I ever closed a locked door without the keys physically in my hand since. Thank heavens these days for remote lock key fobs (which unfortunately don't work on houses).