- FOR MY FRIENDS OVER 40 ( & those getting close.)
Recently, I was diagnosed with A. A. A. D. D .
Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder
This is how it manifests:
I decide to water my lawn.
As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over
at my car and decide my car needs washing.
As I start toward the garage, I notice that there
is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the
mail box earlier.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.
I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk
mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice that the can is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.
But then I think, since I'm going to be near the
mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as
well pay the bills first.
I take my cheque book off the table, and see that there is only one cheque left.
My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, so I
go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of
Coke that I had been drinking.
I'm going to look for my cheques, but first I need
to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally
knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting warm,
and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.
As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke a vase
of flowers on the counter catches my eye - they need to be watered.
I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover
my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning.
I decide I better put them back on my desk, but
first I'm going to water the flowers.
I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a
container with water and suddenly I spot the TV
remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.
I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I
will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember
that it's on the kitchen table, so I decide to put it
back in the living room where it belongs, but first
I'll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit
of it spills on the floor.
So, I set the remote back down on the table, get
some towels and wipe up the spill.
Then I head down the hall trying to remember what I
was planning to do.
At the end of the day:
the lawn isn't watered,
the car isn't washed,
the bills aren't paid,
there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter,
the flowers don't have enough water,
there is still only one cheque in my cheque book,
I can't find the remote,
I can't find my glasses,
I don't remember what I did with the car keys,
and my neighbor called to tell me he turned off the
hose that was flooding the driveway.
Then when I try to figure out why nothing got done
today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy
all day long, and I'm really tired. I realize this is
a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for
it, but first I'll check my e-mail.
Do me a favour, will you? Forward this message to
everyone you know, because I don't remember to hom it has been sent.
Laugh hard 'cuz if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!
GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY.
GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL.
LAUGHING AT YOURSELF IS THERAPEUTIC.
rzp