2022, home, Mysteries, Travel, Uncategorized

Losing Track

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I am over-calendared.

Handmade on dresser in bedroom.  Daytimer on chest of drawers in bedroom.  Birthday calendar in studio.  Daily holiday calendar in studio.  Calendar on refrigerator.  Lighthouse for the Blind calendar in the breakfast room.  Calendar on my phone.  And two calendars at work (one on Outlook, one on Teams – these two are not by choice).   

Two weeks ago, I took a day off work to get the house picked up and cleaned a bit because my friend from Madison was coming for a weekend visit on April 8.   First houseguest since before pandemic.  On Wednesday I texted her about what kind of milk she likes so I could order the right thing from my milkman.  Then on Thursday, I texted her about what she wanted to do for dinner once she arrived.  This text she answered a little distractedly that we could work that out later.  Then on Friday, knowing that she was coming from Rochester (follow up medical stuff), at 5 p.m. I texted her to see if she had left for the Twin Cities yet.   About 2 minutes later the phone rang.  When I answered, she said “May 13.”   Took me just two seconds to scroll back to the very first text about her visit.  May 13. 

I’m still not sure how my brain translated May 13 into April 8.  All I can think is that I was looking forward to her visit so much that my gray matter shoved it up a month.   For someone who has 9 calendars, it’s a little embarrassing.

If you were stranded on a desert island, how would you keep track of time?  (Or would you?)

35 thoughts on “Losing Track”

  4. My brain problem has slowed down my thinking and clarity of thinking. I used to have my calendar in my head. But twice in conversation with my PT she was talking dates for appointments I had the wrong month in my head and forgot she can see my appointments. I just could not process that my dr. appointment is in June not May. That mental processing issue is why I don’t talk much anymore. I did figure out one trick. I use a separate keyboard attached to my laptop at home. I found a calendar that fits over laptop keyboard as a dust cover and puts calendar right in my face. So I can still think if given time. And my mind used to be so quick.
    Clyde

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  5. Rise and Shine, Baboons,

    I suppose on the desert island I would add an S to the word, then fantasize about desserts and simply allow time to pass without marking it. Otherwise, I think the header photo is perfect. I have had enough post its on the screen that it was hard to see the screen.

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  9. ya see, sometimes we get so much knowledge in our minds that other stuff leaks out or gets all mixed up. And that’s why May 13 becomes April 8th.
    You betcha I’d be keeping track of the days. Yeah, my first thought was the sand…but maybe scratch it in a tree? On a soft rock? collecting dry leaves? Sticks?

    But what is time? Are we keeping track of days? or the minutes? Can always use a sundial… correlated to the time of year and rotation of the earth of course. But at the same time, why would I care what time it was? Unless I’m trying to catch the attention of a ship that passes by at the same time every three weeks out on the horizon.

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  11. I think I’d love to be stranded on a deserted island – for awhile. I might like it so much that my heat-addled brain would neglect time and I’d forget to mark it somehow. Then I’d wake up one day wondering how long I’d been there.

    I have much more brain fog when I haven’t slept well or there’s been too much on my plate. My mom, who had Alzheimers, had several calendars before we really stepped in to help her, and it was really hard for her to understand why she was missing appointments and dates with people. Since that confusing experience, I use only one calendar – a small paper one.

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    1. I remember one Christmas a few years into my mom’s Alzheimer’s, we gave her some wall calendar for Christmas, and she kept taking it down, hiding it. I finally realized keeping track of time had become really uncomfortable for her, not something she could relate well to at that point. We took it home, and kept track of her appointments. from then on.

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      1. Since losing her vision, my mom has been having a real hard time keeping track of the time. AM/PM doesn’t mean anything anymore and and while she is constantly asking Alexa the time, it just doesn’t sink in.
        She can’t keep track of if she just had breakfast or it’s almost supper time.

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  12. It’s probably lack of imagination on my part, but I’m having a hard time figuring our why you’d have more than one calendar? Wouldn’t maintaining one “central” calendar where all appointments are entered, possibly coded in some way to indicate what kind of appointment we’re talking about, be much more efficient? I’m also trying to figure out why you’d put post-it notes on the screen of you computer?

    I use my laptop a lot more than I do my cell phone, but appointments I enter on my cell – at the doctor’s office, say – are automatically entered in my computer as well, and vice versa. Granted, I don’t have a very busy schedule and not all that many appointments, but it seems that the more of those you have, the more you’d have the need for all of the pertinent information in one central location. What am I missing?

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    1. If, like me, use paper rather than online calendar(s): –
      – small purse size month-at-a-glance to clock appts. right when you make them
      – transfer to wall calendar located near the phone (see Jenny Wren’s 2nd sentence, beginning “Occasionally…”
      – I keep a week-at-a-glance desk calendar (currently with Sierra Club photos on opposing page) to write down what actually happened, i.e. health-related information, or movies watched, books completed..

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        1. It’s that “IF” that’s usually the downfall of this system, I think. Back when I was working, we didn’t have computers and cell phones to keep track of appointments. I used Day-Timers, and that system worked as well as it did for many of us only because we had really good secretaries.

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    2. I have to admit that most of my calendars are decorative. The one in my bedroom is handmade every year and I don’t keep anything on it – I just like to look at it. Sandra Boynton calendar is just for looking up what weird holiday it is that day. Lighthouse for the Blind is a calendar project I do for my mom and sisters – make one for myself and it has a perfect spot in the breakfast room.

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      1. Oh, so you don’t actually use those for keeping track of appointments. So glad to hear that, vs, that sounded like an absolute nightmare to me.

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    3. I started putting everything on my Outlook calendar and that worked well. Then another organization started using Google calendar, and the family started putting mom’s things on it. And then Outlook stopped coordinating with my iPhone so the calender stopped syncing. So now I have to double check two outlook calendars, plus the Google one.

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  13. I keep one paper calendar and also use my cell phone. Occasionally items seem to fall off the phone calendar so I am very grateful for the paper copy and check my phone against that weekly. I am not sure I would track time on a desert island, probably would worry about getting drinking water instead. I love checklists which help as well.

    Actively planning gardening now-that one sunny day was all I needed. Still have to pull up some dead plants that supposedly are used by many helpful insects during this colder weather. Since last year was so dry, some of their roots are firmly fixed deeply in planters. Great work for anyone frustrated by the world; you feel so good when the roots come out!

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  14. Since I routinely ask people what the date and time is as part of their psychological evaluations, I have neither a clock or a calendar on my office. I can’t have people cheat on the orientation questions.

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  15. I imagine that I would keep time by A.S. and B.S.
    Before Sequestration and After Sequestration.
    Got my standby notice for jury duty yesterday.

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  16. I have a calendar on a spreadsheet on my computer, which I have resisted put on something like Google. I would rather have it be more private. I also have to have several work-related calendars, because the company requires you to schedule your work hours on one, schedule meetings on another, and keep a timeclock on a third. Wish they would integrate all the calendars.

    A notebook-style calendar is a nice thing to have, but it repeats some things I have on other calendars.

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