When important days to remember are forgotten over and over...

If there is something I am more useless at than handyman chores around the house, it’s remembering birthdays, anniversaries and days of observation like

Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. It’s all a blur.

When I was younger and more idealistic, I vowed I would never become the cliché of a typical male who forgets important dates despite marking them on every calendar within reach.

Yet, as the years passed and soft middle age seeped in, I am starting to feel more and more like Homer Simpson and less like the young gun who couldn’t keep these promises to himself.

And it’s not that I forget, either. Months before Valentine’s Day I start making plans. The plan slowly takes shape and by December of the year before I have it down pat. But by Jove, that is where it seems to stay, because come 13 February I wake up and smell the crisis. Too little, too late, and silent treatment the next day.

Every year, come my love’s birthday, she’d have been sharing with me for weeks what she would like. But it was shrouded in subtlety.

“Look at that stunning (insert object here)” or “that (insert object here) has been on my mind for ages, maybe I should get it”; these were the signals I had to pick up on, but never did.

This year, my wife had a better plan. Weeks before her birthday she presented me with an e-commerce site with the gift she wanted.

“If you order this now, it will arrive in time,” she said. “Ok, I will look at it later,” I procrastinated. “You will forget,” she said, and I relented. Ordered. And the gift arrived, just in time.

It’s not a great feeling to keep forgetting important days. Recently our wedding anniversary came around, and I was super proud of remembering the date. But, alas, I had confused it with her birthday.

I am already thinking about Mother’s Day...