Senior Moments…

Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

I get a chuckle out of some of the things I read on Facebook regarding “senior moments”.

There was a time that term related to high school “things”, such as the prom, graduation, homecoming, reunions, etcetera.

Now it’s about forgetting or doing something silly.

First off, though, with respect to our brains, I think it would benefit us we get older to have a “reboot” switch for our noggins.

If you consider the brain as a “computer”, how many times do you need to do a ‘soft re-boot” to keep that system of yours working?

My God! All the info we pump into and past our brains is amazing!

What a computer!

Can’t find very many computers that don’t get “overwhelmed” at times by too much info.

My most recent episode occurred when I went into work on a weekend.

Now for some unknown reason, I took both my wallet and building keys out of my pockets.

The keys?

I often do that.

But the wallet?

Never.

Until that fateful weekend.

I was checking e-mail and noted a fellow employee had a phone number change.

I thought, “I need to add that to my phone” but before I did, I noted another e-mail regarding a recording session.

“Need to get my day timer out of my truck to add that”.

Yes, I still have an old, manual “day timer”.

It’s still reassuring to me to see something on a calendar in my handwriting rather than on my phone.

I unlocked my truck from inside the office and laid those keys back down on my desk.

Upon grabbing the day timer out of my truck and walking toward the building, I had a Homer Simpson “Duh-oh!” moment.

No keys and my wallet with my pass card were both inside and on my desk.

“No problem!” I thought.

“I’ll just call that work buddy who lives down the street”.

Second Homer Simpson moment.

“Duh-oh!” squared.

That e-mail with his new phone number is in my office and I’m locked out of the building.

I called another staffer who lives nearby but he wasn’t home so I ended up calling my boss.

He claimed to be on his way in to check some things, so he’d be there in a few minutes.

I did manage to get into the building but for security reasons, I will not share that with you at this time. Not quite a “lock-pick” job but close to it.

To prevent Homer Simpson episodes in the morning on my way into work, I pat my left rear pants pocket (wallet), left front pants pocket (cell phone), right front pants pocket (keys) and a quick pants zipper check before leaving the house.

Nothing worse than an open fly in the morning on the job.

I sometimes do that “aimless stroll” when I walk into a room and then ask, “Why did I come here?”

Normally within seconds, my brain will plow throw the snow drifts of info between my ears and say, “A glass of ice water, dummy.”

Being in radio most of my life, I still surprise myself on recalling song titles and artists.

Just recently I saw the words “into the night” in a news story and I instantly recalled Benny Mardones.

Ruben Armand “Benny” Mardones was a two-hit wonder with his lone hit, “Into the Night” which hit the top 20 in 1980 and again in 1989.

But I also used to sing, “How much is that doggy in the window, the one with the bockily tail?”

I do find most of my memory issues pop up when I’m pooped.

I did an interview recently with a local attorney on the topic of fatigue.

Did you ever doze off briefly and when you awoke with a start, there was a brief moment when you were clueless as to the day, the time or even where you were?

It’s a fatigue issue called “Micro Sleeps” and is a symptom of other lack of rest issues.

But the Sunday morning I left my keys and wallet in the office was after a full night’s sleep.

Perhaps I need to do my pockets and fly check more often.