How I'm like Einstein

Through the years, I've often compared myself to Einstein. No, I've never invented anything, other than excuses, but like Einstein, I tend to be a bit absent minded at times. It's said that Einstein often forgot to eat. I've never been accused of forgetting to eat, but I have done a lot of other absent-minded things.

My mother, as well as two of her siblings, had Alzheimer's. In the back of our minds, I know that's one of the worst fears of my siblings, as it is mine. But every time I forget something essential, I think of Einstein and it makes me feel better.

My mind is a real mystery. I spend half my time looking for something I've misplaced, like my glasses. I often can't remember people's names. But put me in a situation where there are trivia questions and I usually win hands down. I have no idea where the answers come from, and it really doesn't matter. I'd rather remember where I left my glasses.

Recently I've found that when I go to the computer to look something up online, by the time I get to Google, I can't remember what I was going to look up.

These things were really worrying me till a while back when I went to a new doctor in Tulsa. They took my blood pressure and then afterwards called me back to recheck it. They said it was too high and I should visit my family doctor when I got home. Looking up the symptoms of high blood pressure, I found memory problems to be one of them. "Ah," I thought. "Now I have a reason for it."

But when I finally got in to see my family doctor, he said my blood pressure was fine. I'm sure it had been high only because I was seeing a new doctor for the first time, and was also stressed out from the big city traffic, which I'm not accustomed to. So much for that excuse.

Most people blame forgetfulness on old age. That isn't always the case. My dad lived to be 87, almost blind, almost deaf, suffering intense pain, yet his mind remained clear. Once when he fell and cut his head, I took him to the emergency room. A young doctor was examining him, and Daddy couldn't see well enough to tell who he was. When he asked, the doctor said, "I'm Dr. Smith."

For some reason Daddy jumped on it and asked if his father was P.J. Smith. He said, yes, as a matter of fact, he was. Daddy said, "And he lived around Monroe?" I started reminding Daddy that P.J. was our school superintendent at one time, so he would have lived in our town. It must have been at least 40 years since that time.

The doctor quickly confirmed that his parents had, indeed, lived at Monroe, and added that he hoped he would be as sharp as Daddy was at 85.

Many of my brain duds involve electronic gadgets. When my son was in college, one day he caught me trying to change TV channels with his calculator. While laughing at me, he confessed that he had found that the remote didn't help him much with his math homework, either. I so hope he isn't going to be like me.

VCR's, DVD players, fancy cell phones, and even computers are just too much clutter for my poor little clogged- up brain. I wouldn't be able to do email or write for AC if I didn't have my husband around to keep the computer going.

But the thing that really gets to me is when I do just really stupid things without any realization of what I'm doing.

During the cold weather of the last few weeks, I've had more back pain than usual, so have spent quite a lot of time in my recliner with a heating pad behind my back, watching the good shows on the Hallmark Channel. My recliner is quite near the wall with the furnace behind it, and when the furnace comes on, I always have to raise the volume on the TV in order to hear it.

A few nights ago, my husband was sitting on the couch across the room from me and wanted to read something to me. I turned off the TV and tried hard to concentrate on what he was saying. When the furnace came on, it drowned him out. Suddenly I realized I still had the remote in my hand, pointing it at my husband, and trying desperately to raise the volume of his voice.

But I don't let these things bother me too much, as most of my friends are in basically the same boat. I keep telling them and myself that the problem is only that we've lived long enough to have so many facts crowded into the available space in our heads, that we can't find them when needed. Just like a stuffed file cabinet. We're not senile, we just have too much knowledge for our own good.