My day so far
[WARNING: Trivial whining and carping about minor problems ahead. Or, you can just jump to the video at the end.]
It’s not that my day so far has been bad. It’s just—well—you be the judge.
A while back I was invited to a big bash that’s due to take place this weekend. I’ve had my outfit chosen for about two months, which is uncharacteristically organized of me.
Except…except…
This morning I tried on the outfit. In the last two months, I’ve lost a few pounds due to strict adherence to a diet, and I found that the previously well-fitting and flattering outfit is just a trifle big. Sometimes you can get away with wearing something big, but not this outfit. It edged towards the shapeless and boxy. So i thought it needed minor alterations—just a couple of side seams to taper it.
I can sew. But I’ve learned that when I try to do something like that myself it never looks quite right. Better to have it done professionally, even though the cost of alterations these days is surprisingly high ($28 for that type of little job is the going rate).
I found a tailor who assured me on the phone that he could have it ready in just a few days. And so I went to his shop. I’ve been there before, so I thought I knew where it was.
Thought I knew.
I parked nearby, took a hike in the blazing heat to purchase the permit, and just as I had put some money in the machine, a woman came charging up to me asking, “Do you need a ticket? Mine still has time on it.” Alas, since I had just that moment purchased one, I thanked her profusely but said I didn’t need it.
And then I went into the stop. It looked different than I remembered. What appeared to be the same little old (probably about my age) guy with the same foreign accent was in the back. But when I showed him my garment and asked about alterations, he said they only did men’s at this shop. So I asked him where the regular tailor was and he told me one block up.
And so I started up the hill to the next street. But when I got there, I couldn’t see anything like a tailor shop. I walked a couple more blocks and knew I had better turn back.
In the car again, I turned on my GPS and saw that the shop’s address was now on a side street. I drove there, walked in, and saw that it was the right place. I asked the owner if he’d once had a shop a block down on the main street. “Yes,” he answered. “But a long long time ago.”
“How long?” I asked.
“Eighteen years.”
Eighteen years. My goodness.
The whole thing took about an hour rather than fifteen minutes.
And while we’re at it, it’s time for a rerun of this. Enjoy!:
Look on the bright side, at least you didn’t forget where you were or why you were there! 🙂
Here are some tales on that. I grew up in rural New England, but left 40 years ago.
I visited a childhood friend in my hometown. He lived at the end of a paved road, about a mile and a half in length, that branched off a state highway. I drove down the road, and didn’t see the house. I called. I just had to go further on. What had thrown me was that there used to be a dirt road that branched off the mile and a half paved road to my friend’s house. The dirt road was no more-it had been paved with loose, white stone. That change from what I remembered had thrown me off.
When I was three years old, my parents moved from the house on a back road they had been renting for four years to a house they bought, some 9-10 miles away. When I was in my 20s, the rental house where I spent my first 3 years burned down. In subsequent trips back home, I would drive by the place where the old rental house used to be. When I last was in my hometown three years ago, I could no longer locate where the old rental house used to be.
On a more positive note, on that last trip to my hometown, I stayed with a family friend. I decided to walk a mile through the woods to my childhood home- a walk I had made many times in my childhood. I ended up on the state highway about 200 yards north of my childhood home. Had I walked in a more southerly route, I would have ended up in a swamp. BTW, I noticed that the swamp had dried up considerably. In addition, a lot of meadows had turned to forest.
“Mama said there would be days like this.”
I was going to write a reply, but I noticed the laptop needed to be charged. As I was going for the charging cord, I heard the teakettle in the kitchen start to whistle, so I went to turn that off. Of course the dog’s water bowl is right there, and it was empty so I went to fill that before turning off the tea kettle, and remembered I had not yet started the dish washer this morning, so I went to start that. But the whistling tea kettle was such a nuisance, I decided — where was I going with this?
Must be Trump’s fault!
Although Neo’ travails are more the result of a changing environment, in response to “F” above, how ’bout a chorus of “The Short Term Mem’ry Loss Blues” courtesy of Ray Jessel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhsPYMdxxM4
Funny. Couple of years ago, I was passing by the town where my grandmother grew up, and I’d spent many happy days at my great-uncle’s place. Hadn’t been there in 40+ years, yet navigated straight to what had been his house.
It was smaller than I remember.
My sister told me that she had put the remote in the refrigerator a week before. She is worried that things might be getting a bit too much for her.
I don’t watch TV anyway so it wouldn’t have mattered to me.
“Age-activated”? Some of us have always been easily distracted.
I forgot what I was going to write.
Pingback:Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder – Other People's Videos
Unless I make a plan for the day, that video pretty much mirrors my activities. Busy all day and nothing really done. Some days I only accomplish one or two of my intended tasks before my AAADD takes over, but at least some things are getting done. 🙂 I still can’t find my glasses, though. 🙁
Re the video … I have that very same wallpaper design-and-color in my living room.
When we woke up this morning I told what’s-her-name (my wife of 51 years) that I suspect my memory is something or other.
One of my all-time favorite videos. I’ve shared it over the years with so many friends. I laugh every time I watch it!
It gets worse, Neo….
Or, as I exclaimed to my own cheap self this morning, as I placed neatly folded undies in the dish shelf in the kitchen: “Oh my God… What’s she putting dishes in my closet for?!”
Dagnabbit…This Senior Shit ain’t for Sissies!!
NeoConScum:
Dishes/undies—easy to mistake one for the other 🙂 .
Yesterday, I paid very close attention to my “Life Interrupted” and only allowed myself 2 layers of distraction per task before returning to the original activity.
Except on the computer, where I find that sitting down and noticing that I still have unread articles open will keep me from sending the emails I intended to write, or looking for the recipe I need for supper in the next hour, or moving on to the next scheduled chore after my lunch break.
And I sill haven’t found my keys…..
Neo: Amen!!!
And….as my Aunt Lena used to write in her monthly letters to me and my esposa: “Ohhh, Kids, Just to be in my sixties again.”
We now see what’cha mean, Aunt Lena!!!
This started happening to me when I was still in grade school.
Maybe that’s why my mother often bragged (I think she was bragging) that I was unusually mature for my age.
Thanks for the LOL, Neo. So true! 😆