Dee Ray sent us this about Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder. I do this sort of stuff every day.
Like this morning, I was going to sort the laundry, but my coffee cup was empty. I refilled the coffee cup and washed a few dishes while I was out there. Came back through the living room and saw a dumbell lying there, so did a few curls, while sorting out some of last week's stack of mail lying on the sideboard. Ate a piece of gooey cake left from last night (goes so good with the coffee, don'tcha know) and then realized I probably needed to get to work on a post for my self-imposed 1 PM deadline. The laundry, apparently, has been abandoned.
Here's Dee's version of AAADD:
I decide to water my garden.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.
As I start over to the garage, I notice mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier. I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.
I lay my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can, and notice that that can is full.
So I put the bills back on the table, and decide to take out the garbage first.
But then I think that since I'll be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first and put them in the mailbox when I take out the garbage.
I take my checkbook out and notice that there is only one check left.
My extra checks are in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Coke I had started earlier.
In looking for my checks, I move the Coke aside so that I don't knock it over, and notice that it has gotten warm. I decide to put it in the refrigerator.
As I head for the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers catches my eye. The flowers need water.
I put the Coke on the counter and discover my reading glasses, which I'd been searching for all morning.
I decide I'd better put them back on my desk, but first, I'm going to water the flowers.
I set the glasses on the counter, fill a pitcher with water, and notice the TV remote which has been left on a kitchen counter. I know we'll be looking for it tonight when we decide to watch TV. I decide to put it back in the den, but first I'll water the flowers.
I pour some water on the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills. I put the remote on the counter, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill.
Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I was going to do.
At the end of the day:
The car isn't washed.
The bills aren't paid.
There's a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter.
The flowers don't have enough water.
There's only one check in my checkbook.
I can't find the remote.
I can't find my glasses.
I don't remember what I did with my car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled, because I know I was busy all day, and I'm really tired.
I'll try to get some help with this. But first, I think I'll water the garden.
And of course, it's not just a product of getting older. Bil Keane's Billy does it all the time:
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