I am my own worst menace

So. I put a kettle of water on to boil. Then, without thinking, I took Diego for a walk. A long walk. I went down the street, around the corner, then around another corner to see the new construction happening next to our neighborhood, then down that street to see the warehouses and laundry that are rumored to be replaced with low-income housing. I wandered back into my neighborhood and up my street, and when I came to the front of my house, I heard something. A squeal. An alarm. It didn’t occur to me until I got to the door that I had left a kettle on the stove to boil.
All was well, it hadn’t even boiled off yet, which was why it was whistling.
I’ve done this before, put water on to boil then BOOM — forgot about it, coming back to the kitchen an hour later to discover a burned pot. I don’t know why I do this, I’ve never forgotten anything else on the stove other than boiling water. There’s something about that activity that suddenly snaps something in my head and makes me forget that I did it.