I Forgot Something!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

It happened again yesterday.  I forgot something.  The older I get the less I seem to remember.  I spend hours each week searching for my car keys, my phone, my purse, and my glasses.  And if I am truthful, I have even forgotten where I parked my car in a parking lot.  Sometimes, I wonder how I got anything done when I worked, but maybe it is because I now lose so much time just trying to find something.  It usually starts with my car keys.  I go to take the dogs for their walk and can’t find my keys.  John tells me to put them in the same spot each day when I get home, but I forget to do that, too.  In my defense, if I come home with keys in hand and the dogs are home, I am usually trying to fend them off at the door and just get in the house.  The only benefit to their exuberant greeting is I often forget to take my keys from the door lock and I now know to start there when my keys go missing.  It has gotten so bad that John refuses to let me touch his car keys.

 

The home phone is another issue.  Someone set the answering machine to two rings before the machine picks up, which means I have a very limited time to find the phone when I get a call.  The kids like to call on the home phone and then hang up immediately when the answering machine comes on.  I have asked them repeatedly to start talking into their phone in the hopes that a long-winded response will allow me to find the phone. Instead, as I scramble around looking for the home phone, my cell phone starts ringing and starts another search for that phone.  Megan will call the house, then my cell, and finally John’s phone, in such rapid succession that I am sure there has to be some kind of major emergency, only to finally find a phone and have her say, “what are you doing?”  She gets mad when I say, “trying to Google how to place a call block on three phones because some pesky person won’t leave me alone.”  The past two weeks I have only been able to find one of the home phone handsets…we have two…which means that when I forget to charge the one phone I can find, I have absolutely no way to answer the phone.  Luckily, I was doing laundry yesterday and looked down to see the other handset on the ground.  Who knows how it got there? 

 

Don’t get me started on my glasses.  Unless I am wearing them, I can’t find them and even then, I might forget they are on top of my head.  I walked the dogs the other day in my reading glasses. I am near sighted.  Keep in mind I drove to the park and can’t explain why I didn’t figure it out until I was already down the street.  The way I figure it, it is only a matter of time until someone finds me wandering at the park saying, “I forgot where I put my dogs!”

 

Yesterday, John and I were out all day and came home late. I wanted to take the dogs for a walk to tire them out and so we drove up to our local park.  It was only when we got there that I discovered we had forgotten their leashes.  We were tired and because I pride myself on never turning back, I made an executive decision.  I assured John that this had happened before, and I had a plan.  In the past, I have used a belt and a scarf as makeshift leashes and I was prepared to find something in the car to use this time, too.  The trick is to avoid all people, places, and things, in case the leashes don’t work out.  Vern is the number one puller of all times. We have tried every leash, every collar, and every harness.  I have walked him with love and I have walked him with hate.  Truthfully, it is like walking a bull on the way to a rendezvous with a cute little cow in pasture A. 

 

Somebody I know on Facebook recently wrote that everyone should be able to walk their dog with one finger IF they are in touch with their dog.  I can barely walk Vern sometimes with one whole hand and an arm and I am not about to lose my finger, which I might need when I see some guy waving while walking his dog with one finger.  I have settled on a prong collar and I don’t really care what the critics say, because Vern gives no indication that he even knows he is wearing one.  None!  He is as happy with it on as off and he rolls so often that he turns the thing inside out.  He does occasionally give me the courtesy of a backwards glance when I shout, “Easy, Vern!”  I get the feeling he is thinking, “I hear what you are saying and I choose to disregard it.” 

 

Luckily, we had one 30 foot long leash in the car yesterday and a bungee cord.  John said we could hook one dog to the leash and tie the other end to the other dog, but he was taking too long to make it happen, so I said I would just use the bungee cord.  Several times, John mentioned that seemed like a bad idea, but I was tired and wanted to get home to watch a Christmas Hallmark movie.  So, I hooked the bungee cord to Vern’s regular collar and off we went and by off we went, I mean the give and take of the bungee cord allowed Vern lots of leeway.  Did I mention it was icy out and John kept saying he didn’t think this was my best idea ever?  Did I also mention that as John kept chiding me, I was thinking about using that one finger?  Well, I can be stubborn, but I could quickly see John was right and his one leash idea might have been the better solution.  I mean I didn’t want to end up in the ER with the doctor asking me how I broke a hip and lost an eye.  It felt like I would be one Psych evaluation away from being held on a 72-hour watch if I answered, “I was walking my 110 pound dog with a bungee cord.”

 

The good thing was John only said, “hmmmm, I wonder where you came up with that idea,” when I said, “I think we should tie the other end of the leash onto Vern’s collar.”  There was no “I told you so,” and I didn’t have to use that one finger after all. 

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Getting old sucks!  I have come to the realization that I need "back up strategies" for everything.  There are always extra treats and leashes in my car....because too often I have forgotten them and "improvising" didn't work so well. 

[Carol and Banjo]

Yikes!     Glad you re-thought the bungee cord idea!!!    Those things could "Put your eye out kid!"

[Deborah Shafer]

Misplaced not mislead. Agh. Spell check

[Deborah Shafer]

I totally understand. My son bought me a Tile last year for my keys. If you have iPhone you can track keys or if you misled ipone you press the letter e on the tile and it can find your keys. Has been a lifesaver for me

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Yes, this sounds very familiar to me. I started keeping extra leashes in the car a few years ago after arriving at the park one day without one and having to explain to JD why we'd have to go back home without playing ball. I still don't think he's ever gotten over that. And several weeks ago, we arrived at JD's weekly therapy appointment without his treats. Don't even ask. Now I have a bag of treats in the car, too. 

My DD keeps telling me to cancel my landline because it's a waste of money and I never use my home phone anyway. But I do! I use it to call my cell phone so I can find it. :)))

[Bonnie and Kona]

Oh wow! You are a brave soul. Glad the dogs had their outing and everyone made it back home. I keep my cell phone in my pocket 90% of the time and lose it multiple times a day. seriously. 

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We use a prong on Charlie and just switched Clancy to one. Both boys can back out of a flat collar in seconds --- and charlie needs little reason not to try to. As for forgetting, I bought my grandchildren new xmas stockings last summer but have misplaced them. I had them as recently as Thanksgiving. I have searched everywhere at least 5 times. I have given up. Hopefully I'll find them to donate to a rummage sale for next year.

[F, Calla & Luca]

Loved this blog. Aside from the bungee cord I have done all this and keep doing some of it. As you know prong collars are my life savers. One time a kind soul drove me around several areas of a parking lot and we found my car just before I called the police to report it missing. It makes life so much more interesting :-)