What Did I Just Do?

[dirtybuck]

I swear, my brain was not functioning at full capacity Friday night, and I was thinking of a million things all at once.

I had gone to Dillon's (a mid-west grocery store chain) to get some gas and then to the store itself for something to eat. I went to the pay window and gave the clerk my debit card (I don't do the pay at the pump thing, because of the hold some of the banks put on your card), entered my pin number and walked back to my car, got in and drove over to the store. While inside the store, the thought suddenly occurred to me...I DIDN'T PUT GAS IN MY CAR!

I quickly made my purchase and high tailed it back to the gas pumps. The clerk gave me a sly smile and said "I knew you'd be back." He voided out the previous sale so no one would be pumping extra gas into their car, so all I had to do was pay again with my card. THIS TIME, I put gas in the car.

Whether it be forgetting to put gas in the car or soap in the washer or some other task, has anybody else out there had one of those moments?

I'm sure we'd like to hear about them.

 

[petek]

Good grief YES and unfortunately they're becoming more frequent. I can't tell you how many times I go to the store to pick up something we're out of, get there, buy some other things and then when I'm pulling up the driveway or get back into the kitchen I've forgotten to buy what I went for in the first place. I've even gone back to get it and forgotten what I was there for.
There are more examples but I've forgotten them right now.

 

[toggleswitch]

.
1- Can't tell you how many times I go into the basement and forget WHY or WHAT I am there for.

2- Go into the supply cabinet and work, and forget what I need.

3- Want to make a few phone calls and forget who I just dialed.

4- On the work computer- switch from a report to the internet to get needed information and in the time it takes to switch screens( 1/2 second?) I have forgtoten what I am doing.

I am conviced (read: NEED TO BELIEVE) that G-d /Allah/ Moses/ Buddha/ the donkey's @$$ that is worshipped /the Universe takes away our memory such that we dont rember the

looks
youth
charm
friends
lovers/partners
opportunities

we had as we enter our trolldom!

You can't miss what you never had, and you certianly can't miss what you don't remember!

 

[sudsmaster]

Lists

It helps to make a list before you go to the store.

And then it helps to remember to bring the list.

And then it helps to remember to consult the list once you're in the store.

As for going to some room of the house or property to fetch something and then forgetting why it was you went to that room in the first place... happens all too often. Sometimes I just repeat to myself the name of the object I need to retrieve before I launch. That can help. Usually if not, once I return to the original starting point of course I remember exactly what it was I forgot to fetch. And this has been happening for DECADES! LOL.

I usually carry around a micro composition book (Walmart, item #W31809) in my back pocket so I can put the lists there, and it's always with me. Also helps for taking notes on all sorts of things, such as model numbers and prices of things I might see in a shop and want to research further before making an impulse purchase. Or dimensions of a room I'm going to paint, etc... I also have a smart phone that can store all sorts of info, but the advantage of the micro book is that it doesn't require a battery, it will survive (more or less) going through the wash, it won't break if dropped, it can be sat upon stepped upon crunched upon with no ill effect, and it costs less than $2 a book.

When a micro book fills up, I just store it in a desk drawer and date stamp a new one and I'm good again.

 

[xraytech]

It is rather scary isn't it?

I find myself doing things like that on occasion.

I have on more than one occasion when arriving at work in the morning went to the break room to put my lunch in the fridge and stored my cell phone and my keys in the fridge, then proceede to our work area and lock my lunch in the cupboard where everyone stores their purses and keys.

Though the scariest of the forgetful things was the day I left for work and the next thing I knew I was half way to my grandmothers house, which was in the opposite direction

 

[qsd-dan]

has anybody else out there had one of those moments?

I put my dry cereal in the fridge and the open jar of jam in cupboard this morning. Ugh!

I used to remember everything, I mean loooong lists of stuff in alphabetical order. Now I can't function without writing everything down.

Does anybody ever find themselves going in circles remembering bits of what needs to be done, and you end up accomplishing next to nothing? I hate that......

 

[polkanut]

I had a very frightening experience this last Thursday evening. I was driving to church for choir practice, just like I've done for the last 24yrs, and about halfway there, forgot where I was going, and why. I can only imagine how terrified a person with Alzheimer's, or dementia must feel at times.

 

[vacuumfreeeke]

I've forgotten things too... once I put a whole bucket in fried chicken in the pantry instead of the fridge and found it a week later... yuck! Did that with raw bacon once too, talk about nasty! I've also called people and forgotten who I wanted to call... at least with cell phone you can look at the name/number the phone is dialing and that helps.

 

[frigilux]

Just last week I went through the drive-through at McDonald's. I paid at the first window, then instead of pulling up to the second window to get my food, I drove home. I walked into the house, put my briefcase down and thought...something's wrong, here.

I returned to McDonald's and the woman working the pick-up window (we know each other well) ribbed me to no end.

I no longer need to use drugs: Middle age is trippy enough all on its own, LOL.

 

[mattl]

I lost a bag of Lettuce!

This is the oddest thing, last Tues I went to store and picked up a few things and bought a bag of Dole Mediterranean salad mix, my favorite. I've searched high and low and cannot find it. Don't know if I left it in the store, picked it up and looked at the date and decided it was too close to expiration or what. I could swear I bought it, just have never found it.

 

[sudsmaster]

Perhaps it's not so much the aging process as it is all the baggage we wind up carrying around with us over the years.

Today I visited my mom in hospice... she's slowly slipping away... don't know how long it will be, but it's definitely weighing on me.... along with trouble at my job... anyway, I did a couple errands - had a bumper scraper in the parking lot at destination A. Coming home from destination B, I blew by my turnoff and had to take a 10 mile detour to get back on course... Just too much on my mind these days...

On the plus side, I got a new DSL modem/router and the internet is behaving "normally" again, whatever that is.

;-)

 

[tomturbomatic]

Add to all of the above

Worsening coordination. It was never poetry in motion (more like pooetry), but it is getting worse.

I usually have to keep repeating what I am going downstairs to retrieve from my pantry to avoid the CRS syndrome upon arrival. If I let one stray thought flash through my mind on the way down, it vaporizes the intent of the mission.

 

[ptcruiser51]

Backwards

When I make my shopping list I sometimes have to write down things NOT to buy! I once had six cans of Crisco in my pantry, had to write "don't buy Crisco" for weeks. (Sit down, Toggles!).

I have to put things next to the front door otherwise I'll forget them; even then sometimes I'll step over them in haste!

My best hint for the scatterbrained: Every New Year's Day I take my new/old calendars and sit for an hour transcribing all the birthdays/anniversaries/memorials and stuff. I'm not late with greetings that way.

Worst is driving and forgetting where you're going. It happens.

Growing old=not for sissies.

 

[sudsmaster]

It's not all bad...

The Scientists say our brains actually get better in some respects as we age...


Brains Can Flourish In Middle Age

"Little stumbles," we might call them -- although they can feel like pratfalls. And we're not imagining them. Scientists tell us that as we careen through middle age, our brains do slow down. We have trouble retrieving names, or we get easily distracted. But the news is nowhere as bad as we think. In fact, science writer Barbara Strauch set out to explain why our brains falter in middle age, and wound up writing a book about how they can flourish.

The book is called The Secret Life of The Grown-up Brain, and by grown-up, she means people roughly between the ages of 40 and 65.

In her book, Strauch details studies that suggest that the middle-aged brain is not on a steady decline, and actually improves in a number of areas as time passes.

"There [are] some studies that started in the '50s that traced the same people throughout their lives," Strauch tells Morning Edition's Renee Montagne. "And they find that in this middle span, we get higher scores on all our tests in a whole range of areas, including inductive reasoning, verbal memory, vocabulary -- we're better in that span than we were in our 20s."

'The Brain Sees Connections'

In addition, Strauch says white matter, which is composed of fat and coats the tails of brain cells, is important to the middle-aged brain.

"As we do things, as we learn things, the white matter increases and the brain signals move faster," she says. "And this was also a shock but they find that the white matter peaks in middle age. So that itself might [help explain] middle-aged wisdom. Because the brain sees connections, it sees the full picture. And one friend of mine, she's an AIDS doctor in her 50s, she says 'When I walk into a hospital room now, I can size up the situation much faster.' We get to the gist of an argument faster."

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www.npr.org

 

[rocky2]

Sounds like a typical day at work.

I'll come out of my office and then stop dead in my tracks with a glazed look on my face. My co-workers just smile at me and say "You forgot again didn't you" !

I'm done getting old, can I get off this ride now???

 

[spiceman1957]

Well this clerk certainly had you back.

Years ago, I went to my local Shell station and filled up like I have done numerous times. There was always something wrong with one particular pump station where it will not give you a receipt and of course I had to use this pump station. Anyway, I wrote down the price of the gas and date on a slip of paper I had in the car and drove off. Later that evening, a good looking policeman rings my doorbell and states I ran off without paying for the gas. I think the clerk forgot to reset the pump station. Fortunately I got it straighten out, but if I don't get a receipt at a pump station, I will go inside and get one from the clerk.
John

 

[mrb627]

Driving

Has anyone ever been driving in the car and had a momentary flash that you don't know where you are? Then you realise and everything is fine. That has happened to me a number of times. I once thought I had missed my expressway exit on my way to work.

I must be getting old.

Malcolm

 

[strongenough78]

There's been a few times I've gone to the store to buy some cigarettes, I'll ask for what I want, pay for them, then walk off leaving them on the counter. LOL. They usually yell for me or I'll go back inside and grab them after getting into the car realizing I left them there. And the whole going to a room or cabinet and forgetting what you went there for, happens all the time lol.

 

[sdlee]

yeah....found the cereal in the fridge one day and the milk in the pantry...I live alone, who else coulda done it?