AAADD - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.
This is how it manifests itself.
I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide that it needs washing. As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the front veranda table that I brought up from the letterbox earlier, just after the postman had been.
I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.
I put my car keys on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage bin beside the table, and notice that the bin is full.
So, I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the post box when I takeout the garbage anyway (and the postman picks up the mail at noon), I may as well pay the bills first.
So, I take my chequebook off the table and see that there is only one cheque left. My spare chequebook is in my desk in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find the bottle of Coke I'd been drinking earlier this morning.
I know I'm going to look for my chequebook, but first I need to push the Coke bottle aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. The Coke is warm, so I decide to put it in the fridge to make it cold again.
As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the dining room table catches my eye - they need water.
I put the Coke on the dining room table and discover my reading glasses that I've been searching for all morning. I decide that I better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to put more water in the flowers.
I set the glasses back down on the table, go to the kitchen sink to get a jug and fill it with water and suddenly spot the TV remote on the window sill. Some-one left it there.
I realise that tonight when we go to watch TV, I'll be looking for the remote, but I won't remember that it's on the window sill, so I decide to put it back in the lounge room where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers.
I pour some water in the jug, but spill some on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the kitchen bench, get some paper towels and wipe up the spill.
Then, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.
At the end of the day: - the car isn't washed- the cheques aren't written for the bills to be paid- there is a warm bottle of Coke sitting on the dining room table- the flowers don't have enough water,- there is still only 1 cheque in my cheque book,- I can't find the remote,- I can't find my glasses,- the garbage hasn't been taken out- and I don't remember what I did with the car keys.
Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today, I'm really baffled because I know I was busy all day, and I'm really tired now. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first I'll check my e-mail.
Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don't remember who the hell I've sent it to. Don't laugh - if this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!
GROWING OLDER IS MANDATORY, GROWING UP IS OPTIONAL BUT LAUGHING AT YOURSELF IS THERAPEUTIC!