I might have forgotten to remember

I have made a conscious effort over the past 18 months or so to improve my health. It's an effort I have to make each day, and some days are better than others.

I'll write more about that another time but suffice it to say it's a work in progress.

Along those lines, Wife and I had a discussion yesterday about one component of the aging process -- memory. We are fortunate that, as far as we know, we don't have any signs of Alzheimer's or any form of dementia. Not yet anyway.

But we both acknowledge that our memories aren't what they used to be. I can remember what I did on a certain day in, say, first grade, but oftentimes can't recall events of the same day. Oh, it will come to me after a while, but the instant recall is rusty.

Wife was going to a local mall yesterday to make a return of something and on the way she totally forgot why it was she was going to the mall. Fortunately, the item she was returning, placed in the backseat of her car, jogged her memory once she got there.

With me, I notice it when I get sidetracked, especially at work. I'll be working on something and get a phone call. When I get off that call, I'm lost as to what I was doing before the call came. Like Wife's return item in her car yesterday, an incomplete email or some papers on my desk will bring me back to reality.

Names of folks I haven't seen in a while just seem to go to a file cabinet in the back of my brain. They will eventually come to me but it takes a while to get the file cabinet open.

I've heard that brains need to be exercised just as other parts of our body, so I continue to work the Jumble and Scramlets every day, and the occasional crossword, to hopefully keep the mind sharp, or as sharp as possible.

That's all for today. I might have had more to say but I can't seem to remember.