I recently had a wellness visit with my primary care physician, something promoted and paid for by Medicare. I filled out standard forms, and so did the PA and doctor.

PA Kayla said, “I’m going to give you a list of three items to remember, and I’m going to ask you to draw a clock face on this paper to show 7:10. The words are table, pen, and apple.”

Before I could panic, I asked Kayla to spell pen. Growing up in West Tennessee, I cannot hear the different between pin and pen. I can understand and pronounce disk and desk, but not the other two. I’m disabled when it comes to tin and ten, too.

How hard could it be to remember three items? If they gave me only three, it must be fairly difficult. I put a table in my memory and placed the pen and apple on it. After drawing the clock, I successfully listed the three items. Now, a week later almost to the hour, those three items are still cluttering up my memory. It’s almost as bad as having an ear worm (a song that keeps repeating in your head).

I told John about the memory test and pointed out that my memory is still good. We laughed about the grocery list. During the week before the doctor’s visit, I picked up the grocery list on the way out the door. After doing a couple of errands, we drove to the supermarket. The list was missing, later found stuck to newspapers I’d thrown in the recycle bin. He handed me a piece of scrap paper from his pocket, and I wrote down the ten items I could remember. After recovering the original list, we found we had bought everything on it. Now that’s what I call a victorious Senior Moment!

I walked alone to the creek, having a nice chat with Marla on the way and a short one with neighbor Dawn on the way back. John was attending a funeral on Long Island. Attached is a photo taken on the steep part of Qualla Road. It’s quite deceptive, looking like an ordinary country lane meandering through the trees. I was panting when I came back and wouldn’t have thought to turn around to look at the view, thinking it enough that I made it to the top without falling out. Anyway, the sun was shining on Purchase Knob with the mountains behind me casting a shadow on the scene. This is a winter view, one that you wouldn’t see when the leaves are on the trees.

Note to khof and Dritter:  you should have gotten an email notice about this post.  Of course, if you didn’t, you won’t see this note.