Senior Moments

Namaste Jesus

Namaste Jesus

Praise the Lord and Enjoy the Chai
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This was touched on in another thread and I thought perhaps it might be worthy of discussion. In her later years, my mom would sometimes lose her train of thought or enter a room and forget what she was after. She'd just get a puzzled look on her face and say, "Oh well. Guess I'm just having a senior moment."

She didn't have Dementia, Alzheimer's or anything, just from time to time things would seemingly pop out of her head. Names for instance. She had raised 5 children and later in life she'd often go through the entire list before getting to the right one. She knew instantly she had misspoke, but would misspeak again trying to correct herself. "Damn, another one of those senior moments," she'd say! Then there were things she'd flat out forget. Like recipes for dishes she had quite literally prepared 100's of times in her life.

Now, as I reach the upper rungs on the age ladder. I find myself doing the same thing. I mean, I still have a great memory for detail and can recall things that happened long ago, but I'd be hard pressed to tell you what I just had for breakfast. The other day I was jotting numbers down as they were read out and couldn't remember for a few seconds which direction the number (3) goes in. Then there's music. Music use to be a big part of my life. I played lead guitar semi-professionally at one point in my life and composed a good many tunes. I still play pretty well, but somehow I seem to have completely forgotten how to [read] music, let alone write it. WTF?

Anyone else having Senior Moments?
 
Both the phrase and the events are common.

For decades I've headed to the garage for a tool or something, and stopped at the fridge, looking in and wondering what I was going to get. Can't ever find the screw driver in the fridge.

https://www.retiredbrains.com/senior-moments.html

I lost a couple weeks of memory with the strokes and it seems lack some detail here and there since. It is different having to keep notes on life, but definitely helps.
 
You know, about 8 years ago give or take, I suffered a series of mild strokes while visiting the Fiji Islands. The result of a high fever associated with a tropical virus. The effects were relatively short lived, but for a time my motor skills and speech were greatly compromised. It was the strangest thing. I knew exactly what I wanted to say, but when I opened my mouth, nothing but gibberish came out. Likewise when I tried to walk. I knew where I wanted to go, but my legs and feet wouldn't follow my commands. Just as well, my sense of balance was also way off.

All functionality has since returned to normal. The way it was explained to me, other parts of the brain have taken over those tasks. Still, every now and then there seems to be a disconnect. Like when I look at sheet music. I know what I'm looking at and what the various symbols represent, but how that corresponds with notes played on the guitar escapes me. Yet, I can still play. Just not from a staff sheet.

My current doc says, it's kind of like when a key member of a business abruptly leaves the organization. Business still takes place, but not at the same level of efficiency. There's a lot of missteps and blunders until the new guy gets the hang of things. May even take more than one person to fulfill all of his tasks. Problem is, as we age and more and more brain cells leave the organization, there's less and less 'New Guys' to pick up the slack and things start to deteriorate. He theorizes what happened in Fiji is also the root cause of my current heart rhythm issues.
 
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There's a few more things I'd like to do whilst still in the flesh, so I'd just as soon stay a while longer, but I'm ok with the hereafter.
 
I don't think I officially qualify for senior moments yet, but I have tons of these: where's my car parked; which student said what; did I mail that form? I used to call them brain farts, even in class, but my principal while student teaching informed me that the word 'farts' was unacceptable in school. She subsequently followed that up by telling me rolling my eyes at her wasn't going to help my evaluation :)
 
The eye rolling isn't intentional, it just happens when I fart.

Got paired up with this nice young lady to carpool to a festival couple years ago. It was gonna be a 10 hour drive, the car was loaded to the gills and stuff strapped on top. We weren't out of the neighbourhood before she reached over, tapped my shoulder and said 'fart touch' ...what is that I asked. 'It is now up to you to roll down your window, whatever, but it absolves me of all repercussions'. She was a junior high teacher and learned it from her students. Sure made for a relaxed car ride.
 
StevePame said:
I don't think I officially qualify for senior moments yet, but I have tons of these: where's my car parked; which student said what; did I mail that form?
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I've been doing things like that since I was kid. I could take things apart and remember exactly where every piece went and in what order. Yet in the process, not remember where I had just laid a tool. My mom use to say I was just concentrating on too many things at once. Perhaps that's the problem as we age. Too much in our heads to keep track of.o_O
 
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wil said:
The eye rolling isn't intentional, it just happens when I fart.

Got paired up with this nice young lady to carpool to a festival couple years ago. It was gonna be a 10 hour drive, the car was loaded to the gills and stuff strapped on top. We weren't out of the neighbourhood before she reached over, tapped my shoulder and said 'fart touch' ...what is that I asked. 'It is now up to you to roll down your window, whatever, but it absolves me of all repercussions'. She was a junior high teacher and learned it from her students. Sure made for a relaxed car ride.
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I haven't heard of fart touch....now I'm curious to ask a few trusted students next week.
 
Senior moments for me are when I try to find out when the next bus is coming, but I forget the bus stop number just as I'm about to enter it into the automated telephone system at the bus company.

It's worse if it is a different stop number than usual due to one thing or another.

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine said:
Senior moments for me are when I try to find out when the next bus is coming, but I forget the bus stop number just as I'm about to enter it into the automated telephone system at the bus company
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Dang, last time I rode the bus you looked up the schedule in the yellow pages to find out where and when the number serving your area would take you and which number to transfer to if that one didn't go in the direction you needed to go. After that it was 1/4 mile walk to the nearest bus stop. I haven't a clue how it all works today. I can just imagine the senior moments I'd be having. o_O
 
I have a bus app on my phone, it tells me when the next bus will arrive and how long my walk is to get there. It also allows me to see where all the busses are at.

Living in the future.
 
Had a "senior moment" yesterday when I couldn't remember the name of a couple of neighbors, and I couldn't recall how I knew three more.

They instantly recognized me due to my "strange appearance". o_O

Phyllis Sidhe_Uaine
 
Been there. Mostly former co-workers and customers. Apparently I'm more unforgeable to them then they are to me. Then there's folks that think I should remember them because they saw a band I was in play 40 some odd years ago or know me from a video I was in and think I should therefore know them, but I digress. Gee, think I just had a senior moment. :)
 
Namaste Jesus said:
I should remember them because they saw a band
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This is the toughest... As a performer your job is to connect, whether your audience is 50 or 50,000. Ya get off stage you've just given all you could and absorbed the energy of appreciation, ya shake hands, hug, smile and years later people think you actually connected with them on a personal level...no that was a blur and is a blur...what show, what year, whose wine, where the hell did I dine?
 
wil said:
This is the toughest... As a performer your job is to connect, whether your audience is 50 or 50,000. Ya get off stage you've just given all you could and absorbed the energy of appreciation, ya shake hands, hug, smile and years later people think you actually connected with them on a personal level...no that was a blur and is a blur...what show, what year, whose wine, where the hell did I dine?
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Thing is, I don't look a damn thing like I did back in the day. Yet every now and then, someone recognizes me and asks if I remember them. Sometimes I just play along, "Oh yeah, you were with that wasted dude in the red shirt."

I know music can leave a very lasting impression and all, it's just hard for me to wrap my head around a guitar player in a short lived garage band having much impact in that regard. Amazing how many lives we touch during our stay on this planet without even realizing the impact we've made.
 
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