Premature senior moments

In spite of the fact that I frequently find invitations in my mailbox beckoning me to join the American Association of Retired Persons, I have always thought of myself as a "relatively" young man.

Relatively, indeed!

As the average life-expectancy of the American male is currently 75, I now know that I crossed the statistical midpoint of my life about four years ago.

In my mind, I may see myself as "relatively" young, but the truth is in reality, I am "middle aged."

But here’s the problem.

Although I’m not quite a senior citizen yet, I am starting to show some serious symptoms.

It’s getting harder and harder for me to remember stuff.

You can ask my wife.

At least three or four times a month I’m frantically pacing around our house chanting, "Where did I leave my glasses, where did I leave my glasses, where did I leave my glasses?"

It’s not just glasses, either.

It’s all sorts of things – car keys, wallet, cell phone, children.

Just last month I got up and walked out of a convention luncheon and left a really nice leather notebook holder right behind my chair and I didn’t realize I had misplaced it till the next day.

Today, as I was getting ready to leave the office to interview a young lady who won a gold medal at the state track meet, I was frantically searching for a recorder that I had held in my hands just five minutes earlier.

"I JUST HAD IT FIVE MINUTES AGO!" I screamed in my mind as I rummaged through all the stuff in my office in a frantic attempt to find the gadget.

I didn’t want to be late, so I left with a "backup" recorder. Unfortunately, the batteries in the backup recorder were dead so I had to rely on handwritten notes.

After the interview, I continued in my search for the recorder.

I found it.

It was in my camera bag, but I had completely forgotten that I had put the thing in one of its many pockets.

Jimminy.

There I am at the interview frantically trying to write everything down and the recorder was right there in my bag – within arm’s reach the whole time.

A lot of people refer to these kinds of situations as "senior moments."

Seems I’m having more than my share lately.

I have to program reminders for just about everything into my computer at work and also the one at home.

Maybe with vitamins, a healthy diet, exercise and lots of rest, things will get better.

I sure hope so.

I would not be at all surprised if one day I showed up at work, looked down and realized that I had forgotten to put on my socks and shoes.