Due to my family history, I’ve always joked about getting Alzheimer’s. My husband V—who has a vested interest in keeping my brain from deteriorating–was hoping that having a blog would benefit me by somehow keeping my memory sharper. Today he told me he’s dismayed that since I started blogging, I seem to be getting not better, but worse.
And I think he’s right.
One example is something that happened last week. It was the middle of the day and I was home alone, absorbed at the computer, when I heard a noise on the other side of the house. One sound–that was it–loud enough to carry across several rooms. Usually when I hear a noise like that, it’s the cat–but she was asleep on my lap at the time.
So I got up and went to the other side of the house to investigate. As I walked towards the kitchen, I could see a pot sitting on top of the stove, and I suddenly remembered that I had started to boil some eggs. Maybe 45 minutes ago. Oops.
By now of course there was no water in the pot and all the eggs were burnt and so was the bottom of the pot. And the noise I had heard—this is pretty embarrassing—was the sound of an egg that had actually exploded and landed on the floor of the kitchen.
Did you know eggs could do such a thing? Not only explode loudly, but leap out of a pot? I never knew that.
(I’m thinking maybe they should put something on the side of egg cartons like they put on packs of cigarettes. Like “Warning: Explosive Material.”)
Fortunately I do have enough memory remaining to remember this incident with the eggs. So today, when I was about to boil eggs again, I set the kitchen timer. And I went back to the computer.
A half hour later, V comes in. He tells me, “You almost had another explosion.”
‘What do you mean?” I look up from the computer. “I set the timer.”
He shakes his head. “It went off ten minutes ago.”
Just great. In addition to getting senile, I’m also getting deaf.
I do that all the time. My daughter saves me–and the house. I’m thinking that maybe you are keeping Alzheimer’s at bay since you can get so involved in something and stay so focused.
Unfortunately I also knew that after boiling eggs boil dry they explode… There’s good research, though, that even middle aged rats grow new neurons if they are presented with new problems to solve. So time to start working out that Twitter stuff.
D — I loved this one, unfortunately it spoke to me more that I would like it to! Oh well, at least we can READ and girl can you WRITE! I have just sat and read all of you blogs I hadn’t read — feel inpired and truly entertained. Some of your stories (Ali’s ring for example) I have heard, but reading it and feeling its meaning all over again was —–I have no words to express it!
love you – Barb
d – one more comment — my mother who was brilliant off the scale, a lawyer when there were very few female lawyers, phi beta kappa etc etc — never got anything below an A (except in cooking because she was afraid to light the stove! got a D) cooked eggs for my father just after they married — guess what – didn’t put water in the pan! Same result as yours — eggs blew everywhere.
hugs – b
Hi and thanks for stopping by my place and sending me the email. What a fun blog! I’ll be back often and just for the record, I feel the same way about my memory. DHEA is helping, as do lots of note taking and good people to nudge me say…hey, did you forget to…..
Good luck and keep on bloggin.
to my knowledge (only from working at the alzheimer’s association), the difference between alzheimer’s and ‘normal’ memory loss is (a) forgetting that you are boiling eggs versus (b) not remembering how to boil eggs.
Thank you for all the support and information on memory loss. It’s much appreciated not only by me but especially by my husband V. By the way, next time I’m planning to have him boil the eggs.