Memory--The Gigabytes are Failing

To contact us Click HERE
Now that I am approaching "double nickels" in terms of age, I am just starting to notice the subtle slips of mind that creep into your everyday existence. At first, it would manifest itself in things like looking for my sunglasses while I was already wearing them. Comparing notes with reluctant buddies, some much younger than myself, confirmed this happens to them also. I don't worry too much about losing my keys in the house, I've been a master of that art for decades--long before I could assign the cause as the advance of Father Time.

But now, more examples seem to creep into the mental dialog. I love music, have about 4500 tunes on my iPod and usually "can name that tune" or even the artist is less than 5 notes. Yet, twice in last two weeks I've struggled to remember the name of one of Fleetwood Mac's lead vocalists. The first time, I simply could not muster the name "Stevie Nicks" at all--I was forced to do a quick Wikipedia check on my cell. A week later, when one of songs came over the radio, I kept trying to make her Nikki Stevens, which I knew wasn't quite right.

A couple of times, I found myself--in a hurry and usually late for a meeting--talking on the cell phone, as business calls only arrive when one is in a hurry to be somewhere. And twice, while talking on the cell phone I caught myself frantically searching for the self-same cell phone throughout the house before I realized where it was--stuck in my ear.

Last night I was covering a story for the Voice at a restaurant. I use three cameras for stories depending upon how complex I think the photography required will be for the story. Since pictures are now stored on those little discs, I discovered early on that if I was working on a story with my laptop there was a good chance the memory card was also inserted into my computer. On occasion, I would leave the card in the laptop when I finished the story and discover I had no card when I was out in the field the next day. So I bought extra memory cards for each camera case to prevent a disaster.

So there I was at Mulligan's last night and ready to take pictures of the owners and the food- when I realized-the memory card was still in the camera from a story I wrote earlier that morning. Completely forgetting I had specifically prepared for such a contingency, I told Gus and Shannon (the co-operators of Mulligans) I needed to run home and get a card. Gus brought several cards from his office, none of which fit my Nikon. So, after 30 minutes of deciding what to do, just before I got up from my seat to make the short trip to the house, I remembered I had an extra card in the case. Sigh.

I am heading to Subway to get some sandwiches right now--the new one at MP 10.5. I hope I remember where my house is located after I pick them up.