Clueless is worse than forgetful
The Battle of Hastings was fought in 1066. Rico Petrocelli played third base for the Boston Red Sox in 1975. Carl Yastrzemski won baseball’s triple crown in 1967.
Legendary baseball pitcher Cy Young both won and lost more games than any other pitcher.
In trigonometry, sine is opposite over hypotenuse, cosign is adjacent over hypotenuse and tangent is opposite over adjacent.
The visible color spectrum is red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet.
I am able to pretty much recite such useless tidbits of information — OK history, math and science teachers, give me a break. I don’t REALLY need to know any of the above — yet I can’t remember my wife’s cellphone number or what I had for breakfast.
For the most part, I have to assume this is part of the normal aging process coupled with just too many bits of information to process.
About a week ago I was getting abused on the tennis court at Etowah Park. I drove home, and when I got out of my elegant 1994 Pathfinder I noticed my cellphone was on the roof of the vehicle.
Did I JUST put it there and forgot I did it, or did I put it there at the park and then drove home to my palatial Robin Hood Road home? MIKE COLOMBO Illustration by Lee Field, RN-T
When I noticed my wallet was not in my pocket, I had a real, real bad feeling. Yes, you know the one.
I drove back to the courts and asked my buddies if anyone had seen my wallet. Nope. Then I drove along Kingston Road looking. First, I saw a business card. I stopped and walked along the road. I found my wallet and all of its important contents.
So what I did when I first left Etowah Park was put my wallet and cellphone on the top of my vehicle and then drove away. I know, right??!!! A few years ago I was renting a movie from one of those kiosks. For some reason, I put my credit card on top of the kiosk. Why did I do that? Who knows?
When I got home, I realized I left it there. I raced back to the kiosk and, voila, it was still there. Big sigh of relief.
I still don’t know where my keys are. They have been missing for two weeks. I think I left them at my sister-in-law’s house, but she has seen no sign of them. I’m beginning to worry about myself. Mrs. Colombo made me feel better by telling me I am simply a man with very poor repetitive habits instead of sliding down the road of dementia.
She has a point. Sunday, yes tomorrow, is our 34th wedding anniversary. She knows me well, good habits (few) and bad habits (many).
She remembered a day years ago when apparently I called her to say I mysteriously found red paint on my shoes. She pointed out that she knew that already because I had tracked it through the house after I spilled a can. I didn’t even notice.
I also have an issue with dresser and kitchen drawers. Often I don’t close them all the way. Why? I have no idea. Simply put, it’s not a habit for me. I have to think to myself “close that drawer.” It’s just so hard.
Much of this can be cured by simply paying attention to what I am doing instead of worrying about what I think I am going to do.