Change of routine leads to paranoia

When we go to our cabin, we usually make a couple of stops before we leave Duluth.  At the last of these, I plug in my iPhone for a podcast of Wisconsin Public Radio's "To the Best of Our Knowledge".  The podcast lasts about 52 minutes, a bit less than the time it takes us to get our cabin.

Yesterday we planned to go to our cabin with no special stops.  Instead of listening to Minnesota Public Radio until we made our stops, I plugged in my iPhone before I even backed out of the garage.

About ten miles away, I wondered if I had shut the garage door.  My wife said I probably did.  After all, whichever of us is the passenger almost always checks that the driver closed the door.

I didn't turn around, but it kept gnawing at me all the time we were at our cabin.  I had visions of our lawnmower and snowblower being stolen.  I wondered if my wife's car would be broken into.  Around and around rattled these thoughts in my mind.

When we returned today, I forewent a couple of stops that I wanted to make and we came directly home.

Whew!  The garage door was closed.  As it opened I saw that my wife's car, the lawnmower, and the snowblower were all there.

A couple of hours later I'm still feeling the sense of relief!

Moral?  Don't be distracted as you pack and definitely don't be distracted as you lock up.  Have your paranoia about doing all you should before you leave, not after you are on your way:)

Wrong person, wrong street, but right broadcast

After I posted "Remember where you were when you heard…" I started thinking about the Wikipedia entry on Lillian Hellman.  The broadcast about the famous person's death mentioned her sister, but the Wikipedia entry on Lillian Hellman didn't mention a sister.  Then I realized I was thinking about Lillian Gish.  Then I started to rethink my location when I heard the broadcast.  The Crystal Post Office was not on 42nd Street but Bass Lake Road east of Broadway.

But my short-term memory is failing me more and more.  This morning I could think of the first names of a couple we sat with at a church dinner last night but I couldn't remember their last name.  And we've known them for years.  I won't go into the details, but a mundane set of unrelated observations set up the link in my head to their last names.

Is Rick Perry anti-Constitution and anti-Republican?

One of the two departments that Rick Perry could remember that he wanted to abolish was the Department of Commerce. He seems to forget that Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution gives Congress the power "To regulate Commerce … among the several states…" He also forgets that the Department of Commerce and Labor was created in 1903 during the tenure of the second good Republican President, Theodore Roosevelt. He forgets also that TR was the trust-buster, but Perry wants to be the lackey of today's trusts.

The department whose name he forgot is the Department of Energy. He probably wants to abolish it because, among other activities, it seeks to find alternatives to oil, something that made Texas rich, and to coal, something that made his bosses, the Koch brothers, rich.

The agency that he named to eliminate rather than the Department of Energy was the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that was proposed by President Richard Nixon. Its charge was to protect human health and the environment. So, he wants to stop the regulation of commerce that prohibits polluters, using Texas oil and Koch brothers coal, from putting their pollution in states downwind or downstream of the polluting sites.

If Perry is a favorite of some in the Tea Party who want a strict interpretation of the Constitution, where is his civic virtue? Civic virtue and common good are something stressed in the Federalist Papers, written by three of the signers of the Constitution: James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay.

Did I or didn't I?

Yesterday I decided that I had enough skiing for the season; it was just too rainy. I drove to Spirit Mt. to take the rest of my gear out of our locker, leaving only our skis. We thought that leaving the skis in the locker would be better for them. It would be drier than in our basement.

On my way out I looked at our locker through the window and thought it looked locked. I thought about going back in to double-check, but I didn't want to get involved in conversation again.

When I got home I convinced myself that it would be OK. If I didn't lock the lock, somebody else would. Then in the middle of the night I started worrying about it again. I couldn't specifically remember closing the lock. I couldn't get the thought out of my head. I took some valerian to go back to sleep and it worked.

I still worried when I woke up in the morning. I didn't want to worry all summer about this. I decided I would leave at a time that would let me get there after the doors were open but before the near parking lot filled up. I did get there earlier than I normally would, but the near lot was already half-full. It is Saturday, but it is a drizzly, warm Saturday!

Sure enough, the lock was locked and both sets of skis and poles were still in the locker. I put the lock back on and pushed it closed.

As soon as I was outside again, I wondered if I did. Should I go back and double-check? Well, this time I had a clear memory of pushing the lock closed. Or was that a memory from another time?

I forgot that I remembered not to forget

Today when I went to our cabin, I placed my wallet and Duluth keys on the counter by the door. I did this because they often chafe my thighs as I work around the area.

On my way back to Duluth this afternoon, I checked my pocket about 10 minutes away. There were no keys in my pocket! Oh, great! I could use my wife's keys but it could be inconvenient.

I pulled into a dirt road/drive and double checked. No keys in any pocket. I watched for oncoming traffic and backed out. As I started up I looked in my rear view mirror and there was a car right behind me. So much for looking carefully. But it could have been worse than the other driver's inconvenience.

I arrived back at our cabin and decided to back in rather than back out. I was only going to the gate and would walk back to the cabin. Backing in is a little dicey because we have a short culvert over the drive. I could back into the ditch very easily. I made it and reached for the keys to turn off the engine.

Those are my keys!

Besides nearly getting rear-ended for this "undersight" and possibly getting stuck in the ditch, I arrived at my bank eight minutes after the drive up closed. I wanted to get quarters for tomorrow's newspapers. Guess I'll have to use a fist full of dimes and nickels.

Is this another of those senior, what's the word?