More Senior Moments

       My garden has not been as bountiful as in years past. Only a couple zucchini and ZERO hot peppers. I'd been so proud of my scorpion and ghost peppers harvested in prior growing seasons. This summer my Carolina reaper pepper sprouted nary a blossom. But at least we picked a healthy zucchini.

     To celebrate the fruits, well fruit, of our labors, my wife Wendy prepared a vegetable/chicken stir fry, complete with onions, green peppers, yellow squash and chicken to accompany our fresh-picked zucchini. As we were eating the dinner that night, Wendy all of a sudden cried, “Oh!”

     What was it?

     She had forgotten to add the zucchini. Funny that I didn't notice until she mentioned it.

     My father recalled a similar senior moment involving himself. He and my mother were sitting outside when they heard the phone ring. Rather than hurrying inside to answer, my mother told my dad to answer instead on the extension in the garage. As my dad walked towards the garage, he took out his hearing aid so it wouldn't interfere.

     Then he hesitated as he approached the garage. “It stopped ringing,” he called out.

     “It's still ringing,” my mother called back loudly enough for my dad to hear her since apparently without his hearing aide he couldn't hear the higher pitched phone.

     Then Wendy and I made a trip up north to the Upper Peninsula. On the way we stopped for coffee at a bakery in Mackinac City. With Covid still spreading here and there, you never know what to expect when you walk into a new business. Will they take currency? Will they even allow you to enter their business? This bakery had a limit of customers that would be allowed inside.

     They had plexi-glass shields dividing clerks from customers. So do I reach around to give them my credit card? Or over? Under? A couple times I've nearly knocked plastic shields loose while absent-mindedly thrusting money in hand towards a cashier. At this bakery, it was different even yet. She passed over a portable credit card machine and I inserted my card into it.

     Transaction over, right? No. Even though my bill came to only $6 I had to sign the screen on the portable credit card machine. With my finger yet! Not only did that not seem sanitary, my finger shook (another senior malady) to the point that my signature looked encrypted. Happy to leave that place finally.

     But after we crossed Mackinac Bridge, journeyed 100 miles into the Upper Peninsula and stopped finally for dinner at the Taquamenon Falls, I discovered that credit card missing. No doubt I hadn't retrieved it out of their portable machine. Was that my job to take it out of there?

     That led to another frustrating series of events as I tried to cancel the card from a phone at our motel only to find out that “long distance calls haven't been working in some of the rooms” according to the front desk clerk. Wonderful! She let me use the front desk phone but when I called the credit card issuer I had to give her detailed personal information out loud, including my social security number--this as other guests were checking in.

     It all ended well as the credit card was canceled without further issues. But as we continue on through our golden years, one thing we can count on is that there won't be an end to senior moments like the ones we've been encountering with increasing frequency.