Coping Mechanisms

Now, ladies and gents, I don't think I'm quite yet a doddery old fool, but I do find myself requiring more lists and reminders these days.

For example: yesterday I had an appointment at the hospital for X-rays at the undivine time of 8:15. So, I put it in my Google calendar knowing that the Good Googlers would send me an email reminder.

But wait a minute! I was supposed to be at the hospital 20 minutes early. Hmmm, that's 7:55; I'd better calenderize that as well.

So ... I should leave the house at 7:45 — better add that.

That means I should get up at 7:00, so onto the calendar it goes.

Are you counting? I had four reminders for one event.

I generally have no problem awaking by 7, but just to be sure, I decided to set the alarm on my Playbook and place it beside my bed.

Well ... while I was at it, I thought that I might as well set my iPod alarm. Double insurance.

Come morning I didn't need the alarms and likely not the reminders because having gone thru the exercise they were pretty prominent in my mind. But I think I was more relaxed and confident having taken the precautions and probably slept better.

Later that day, we decided to have the extended family over for supper. In the afternoon, having already done much prep, I needed to rest my sore back before tackling the next stage of preparations, so I reclined in my Lazy Boy and stuck my earphones in to listen to a podcast. I was pretty sure that I would remember to get up in a half hour to attend to the next item on the list, but I decided to set the iPod timer anyway. Not that I exactly fell asleep, but that half hour sure zipped by and I was pretty startled when the alarm went off, so it was a good thing that I took the precaution.

Such are the coping mechanisms that I use to try to keep my feeble and aging brain in check. But perhaps my absent-minded self always needed such reminders, and now I have become smart enough to figure it out? Yes, that's it; I'm smarter than ever. Uh huh.