Letting our brains keep up

Good morning, everybody, and welcome back to another Cecil’s World in Print. Well, finally the holidays are over and we can get back to work. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the holidays, but I am also ready to get back to work.

How many of you have a “forget what you are doing” problem the older you get?

Don’t laugh. I have found out through my un-scientific survey that the older we get, the more we forget.

I have discovered there are some different things we can do to sharpen our brains, but so far they are not working for me.

How many of you use your answering machine at work and home to help you remember things you are supposed to do?  I do it all the time because it saves me the time of having to write it down. Sometimes, however, when I dial my home to leave a message for something I need to do, I forget what I am calling for. I really thought I was entering into the early stages of Alzheimer’s, then I realized this was a just a part of getting older.

Here is something a friend of mine sent me that you will get a kick out of, especially if you are older than 60. (This is me all the way. AAADD: Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. Thank goodness there’s a name for this disorder. Somehow I feel better, even though I have it!)

“This is how it goes: I decide to wash the car; I start toward the garage and notice the mail on the table.

“OK, I’m going to wash the car. But first I’m going to go through the mail. I lay the car keys down on the desk, discard the junk mail and I notice the trash can is full. OK, I’ll just put the bills on my desk and take the trash can out, but since I’m going to be near the mailbox anyway, I’ll pay these few bills first. Now, where is my checkbook?

“Oops, there’s only one check left. My extra checks are in my desk. Oh, there’s the Coke I was drinking. I’m going to look for those checks. But first I need to put my Coke further away from the computer, oh, maybe I’ll pop it into the fridge to keep it cold for a while.

“I head toward the kitchen and my flowers catch my eye, they need some water. I set the Coke on the counter and ooh oh! There are my glasses. I was looking for them all morning! I’d better put them away first. I fill a container with water and head for the flower pots — aaaaaagh! Someone left the TV remote in the kitchen. We’ll never think to look in the kitchen tonight when we want to watch television, so I’d better put it back in the family room where it belongs. I splash some water into the pots and onto the floor, I throw the remote onto a soft cushion on the sofa and I head back down the hall trying to figure out what it was I was going to do?

“End of day: The car isn’t washed, the bills are unpaid, the Coke is sitting on the kitchen counter, the flowers are half watered, the checkbook still only has one check in it and I can’t seem to find my car keys!”

Don’t laugh! If this isn’t you yet, your day is coming.

— Cecil Chandler is a veteran reporter at WBTW News13. His column appears Mondays in the Morning News.