Loss of Interest

[tedln]

"Can't Remember Stuff"

The kids interrupt Grampa in mid-story:
- "Gramps, we've heard all that before!"
- "I know but I enjoy telling it."

Is constantly repeating yourself a symptom of anything? Is constantly repeating yourself a symptom of anything? Is constantly repeating yourself a symptom of anything?

[applestar]

Pens and scissors — I hate it when I need a tool and have to go looking for one. So I always have multiples and put them wherever they tend to be needed. I have scissors in practically every room of the house (pens too). I never understood why my Mom kept ALL her scissors in the same drawer in a single room of her house. I had to go to that room get one from that drawer when I needed a pair of scissors, sometimes from the other end and another floor of the house.

Now that she is older, she still keeps her scissors in the same one location, but often forgets where that is....

[jal_ut]

I got up and walked into the other room........ then stand there looking around and ask, "Now why did I come in here?"

[Vanisle_BC]

Has this forum become a senior care center for old gardeners?

I believe many folks - especially city-bred - come to gardening only in later years. Kids moved out, job secure, maybe retired; and with time available for more than just the money-oriented consumerist scramble.

Younger folks have different interests, priorities & claims on their time. I know that's been true in my case. If my mother were alive she'd faint to see me now, cultivating & tending a vegetable garden - actually down on my knees weeding!

"...and add to these retirèd liesure,
that in trim gardens takes his pleasure."

Trim garden; liesure? - Not here, mate!

For all the benefits of a wage-earning lifestyle I much prefer this later-life experience of a more direct connection between my labour and my food, even if it has to be a bit more frugal.

[digitS']

...Has this forum become a senior care center for old gardeners?

Maybe so ...

"Can't Remember Stuff"

The kids interrupt Grampa in mid-story:
- "Gramps, we've heard all that before!"
- "I know but I enjoy telling it."

Really, that should be a good enuf reason!

... When I can't remember why I came to town, I usually fill my tank with gas and head home to ask my wife why I went to town. I forget that cell phones also make phone calls. I could have called my wife and asked her why I am in town but she would simply say "I forgot you left the house, where are you and why are you there?"

Ha!

Okay, here is something that might help when having left one room you can't remember why you are now in another. But, I'm not sure if it would work if you drive off to town ...

Forgetting why I'm there happens to me most often when I walk into the garage. Or, I'm outdoors and I walk back into the house. Maybe living in a small house helps with knowing what I'm doing, moving one room to another. As I grow older, I'm thinking of removing all interior walls - you know, that "open floor plan."

Okay, leaving one familiar environment and finding oneself somewhere else. Why are we there? We have something that is now being called "muscle memory" by those who know more about this sort of thing than I do. If I understand it right, it's something like the idea that we supposedly always remember how to ride a bike. We don't have to think about how to walk. It's muscle memory.

So there I am in the garage. Where have I moved to within the building? What direction am I facing? What am I looking at? Chances are, I was thinking about something quite unrelated to my most immediate task when I walked in. Now, I'm aware of the different surroundings. Beep, I don't know why I'm there!

My feet carried me towards a destination before this sudden awareness of surroundings thrust itself on me. I try to be sure not to turn my head, not to cast about like a birddog after a pheasant. Sometimes, I ask right out-loud, "okay, show me!" Look. That nearly always does it.

Steve

[tedln]

One of the television channels was remembering people of note who completed their journey in 2018. The commentator would show a photograph of the dearly departed and provide a name. Each person was remembered with his or her age at passing. Almost all of them were seventy six years old. I'm seventy six years old and still kicking pretty well. It did cause me to wonder if I should be concerned. Gardening is my senior citizen care center. My memory really is getting a little dimmer with age but I can't remember to be concerned about it.

[Gary350]

I have been 2 years trying to learn to use my cell phone. It took me a month to learn to answer the phone then hand up. It took me a month to learn to make phone calls. The old flip phone was so easy. The new phone has 2000 options I know how to do about 4 of them. I finally learned how to answer voice mail an check weather. If I want to check weather it is easier to look out the window. Cell phone stays on my desk 99.8% of the time. It is hard for me to remember to take my phone with me when I go someplace, I don't like carrying this thing around. My phone rings about 15 times every day someone telling me car warrant has expired so I play their game waste there time until they get mad and hand up.

[Vanisle_BC]

... I play their game waste there time until they get mad and hang up.

I do that too and am sometimes hostile, insulting. Then afterwards I can feel guilty - it may be the only job that person could find; all that puts bread and maybe butter on their table. I guess just quickly hanging up would be better, so they can get on with the next call.

But those calls are really annoying. I don't have call display; at home I've threatened to stop ever lifting the phone when it rings - let the machine get it and only pick up if I hear it's a legitimate call; but the idea doesn't fly with my wife. I even have trouble convincing her not to sprint for the house if the phone rings when we're outside. How did we get so enslaved to our machines?

Would it be possible to ask the telemarketer for contact info to the company they're touting, so that appropriate feedback could be appropriately directed? I'd like that.

In my youth we had no phone. When folks left on holiday trips they might as well have gone off the edge of the earth, except for the 'wish you were here' postcard that often arrived after they came home. Social visits were spontaneous, unannounced. You were always ready to receive guests. Nice surprises. Life was fine.

Ah, the good old days

[tedln]

I answer the phone and say "your call is important to me, please hold" and set my phone near a small radio and start the music playing, I check in a few minutes and see if the call has ended.

[jal_ut]

when the call starts out: "Don't hang up..." That is what I do immediately.

[jal_ut]

Tedlin: " I'm seventy six years old and still kicking pretty well."

Well...... here I am 77 and still able to stand up and walk and go do things. For this I give thanks every day. Some my age not so fortunate.

I find it interesting that I can remember many things about my younger days, but can't remember what happened this morning. It is the short term memory that has problems........

[jal_ut]

Cell phone: When it came time to get a cell phone, I wanted one with a good camera, so went shopping for a camera with attached cell phone. Found a nice one. It takes some nice pictures. It is always in my shirt pocket so I can take a picture whenever I see something picture worthy. Landline was jerked. So no phone book. Ya just put your contacts in your phone. The phone will take pictures, do texting, get on the internet, keep a contact list, or even make a phone call. Quite a gadget.

[jal_ut]

Yep, when the last post can sit at the top for two days with no comment and no other new posts....... there is definitely "Loss of Interest".

[tedln]

All of my tomato, pepper; and egg plant seedlings have germinated. They are only about 1/2" tall. I'm not in a rush for them to grow large because the distance between the grow lights and table top is only about 24". Some years, the plants are touching the lights because I can't lower them any further and I'm trying to avoid the last frost of winter before planting out.

I've been growing open pollinated varieties for many years after growing hybrid varieties for many years. This year, I will plant mostly Big Beef and Heatmaster hybrid varieties along with a few heirloom varieties. I've found those two hybrid varieties to have exceptional disease resistance, heat resistance, production; and taste.

I planted ten Heatmaster plants this past July in 110 degrees F heat to replace some open pollinated varieties which had died in the heat. They loved the heat and produced blossoms and fruit in the high heat. I harvested great tasting tomatoes from them until the first frost of fall. I also harvested all of the large green tomatoes before the first frost and allowed them to ripen in my shop. We ate the last ripe tomato on the third of this month.

A couple of plants were growing in the partial shade of tall poblano pepper plants. They didn't perform as well as the plants in full sun and full heat. I suspect the heatmaster variety may not perform as well in northern and north eastern climates.

Lets see if those comments cause any conversation!

[Gary350]

Pens and scissors — I hate it when I need a tool and have to go looking for one. So I always have multiples and put them wherever they tend to be needed. I have scissors in practically every room of the house (pens too). I never understood why my Mom kept ALL her scissors in the same drawer in a single room of her house. I had to go to that room get one from that drawer when I needed a pair of scissors, sometimes from the other end and another floor of the house.

Now that she is older, she still keeps her scissors in the same one location, but often forgets where that is....

I get tired of my tools always being out in the work shop so this summer we went to, yard sales an flea markets. I bought about 10 pair of pliers, about 6 needle nose pliers, about 5 wire cutters, 3 wire strippers, 4 copper tubing cutters, 6 scissors, 8 gas cans, 3 step ladders, several straight tip screw drivers and several Phillips screw drives, shovels, rakes, ax, hatchet, saw, hammers, more. I paid 25 cents each for most of the hand tools. I bought about $400 worth of stuff for about $30. At my age it is a big deal to walk 100 ft it is nice to have things I need in several places.

[tedln]

I put a tool bag together which includes everything I can imagine needing. If I need to work on anything, I grab my tool bag and I'm ready. A lot of my work occurs outside like repairing lawn mowers and power string cutters and leaf blowers. I hate running back and forth to the shop and house to grab a tool when I'm working outside. I've installed or overhauled carburetors on three different pieces of equipment this month. I still need to repair the carburetor on a small Honda generator, but I shouldn't need it before spring or summer.

[jal_ut]

zr6tmg

[jal_ut]

sfyrj ryujd7i

[SQWIB]

I carry scissors with me.
Leatherman Wave.

[PaulF]

As soon as spring comes around, my twenty year old Leatherman straps on the belt and on the other side is a Hori-Hori gardening knife. This year for sure I am putting up a mailbox at the garden to put the garden journal and a few extra tools in along with pens and pencils so they are handy. My computers are in the house, my telephone is a land line with an extension in the garage and the cellphone is in a drawer somewhere. The garden is a sanctuary away from phones.

[jal_ut]

t7i;iol;

[Vanisle_BC]

.... on the other side is a Hori-Hori gardening knife.

I also have one of those. It's a quality item but I'd rather have a flat blade. The cross curve makes it awkward for me to use as it's near impossible to make a straight cut. I wonder why it was designed this way; maybe intended for some special purpose? I don't generally use it as a trowel.

[jal_ut]

ztdjbn bn

[Vanisle_BC]

Altitude sickness .

[tedln]

I've used the Leatherman multi tool in the past and they are very good. On this past black Friday at Home Depot, I bought a real nice Gerber multi tool in a black nylon belt case for $14.00. I have been very happy with the multi tool and have used it a lot in my garden. The tool has been great. The nylon case was a piece of trash. The stitching which held it together began unraveling within a week and the Velcro on the flap stopped Velcroing about the same time. I fixed the stitching with a bead of super glue on all the stitching. The Velcro stopped working on the flap and my multi tool disappeared. I hope the person who finds it enjoys it as much as I did. I think I have a couple of multi tools in one of my storage containers. I'm not sure which container in the shop. (it's that memory thing again) I may need to go shopping for a multi tool pretty soon. I will pay as much attention to the carrying case as the tool.