Tuesday, August 18, 2009

I don't mind telling you ... ...

Well, I DO 'mind' telling you, but I don't know how I can avoid it, OK? There are a few potentially awful things going on in my life right now and I'm a little scared, to tell you the truth.


First off, I fear that my short term memory might be going. While my partner (s) and I have done well, generally ... ... within the last week or two, in particular, I have begun to notice slights in almost every aspect of my bridge game. I find that scary. Very scary!

(My father's bridge game deteriorated during the last few years of his life to the point where he no longer enjoyed the game as he once had. He couldn't always remember which cards had been played, and that's a deathknell for both declarer and defender. The worst thing of all was that he knew it! Kind of reminds me of Charlton Heston and Ronald Reagan, who knew early on the devastating effects Alzheimer's would have on their lives and those close to them and who both chose to bravely go public with their goodbyes while they were still lucid.)

Now, Julian and I are scheduled to play in a Swiss team game tonite at the studio. I'm going to share my fears with him after our game. I don't want to alarm him unnecessarily beforehand. I'm pretty sure he will give me an honest response. We go WAY back and I consider him a good friend.

I'm scheduled to play bridge again Tuesday evening, will be teaching a class Wednesday evening, plus Rick and I will be playing 'speedball' on BridgeBase Thursday for an hour in final preparation for our being one half of a two-session Swiss team event at a Houston sectional tournament coming up a week from today.


[This post was started Sunday afternoon. It's now Tuesday. Any bracket notations you see have just been added. In regard to my short term memory loss fears, I think they might have been imaginary. I played very well Sunday night in spite of having had very little sleep. See next section.]


Has any of you ever missed the pottie? I've heard about this, but never had experienced it until last night. I woke up in the middle of the night, having to tinkle. I stumbled around in the dark, feeling my way as per usual - I'd only done this a few thousand times before - and sat down heavily on the left side of the toilet, landing somewhere between its seat and the tub rail. I knocked the toilet off its hinges and found myself trapped in the shower curtains while water was cascading from the commode.

Some many seconds later - I was still trying to ascertain whether or not any bones had been broken in my fall and why the devil wasn't I able to get up while water was still pouring forth and drenching my feet - I managed to extricate myself from the shower curtains, upright the toilet and stop the cascade.

My first thought was, "How much is THIS latest gaffe going to co$t me?" (It seems I'm always doing something to screw up the works!) I got very little sleep and my dreams were all over the place, as you might imagine!


[I thought, when I first uprighted the toilet, that I was successful - somehow, by some miracle - in reattaching it. The first time I flushed it was 'as written'. The second time I tried was not. And so, as I write this, I am not using that bathroom. I am a little hopeful that - when I DO call ARS (plumbing/AC/heating) - they will reassure me that all that will be needed is to reattach the thing properly to the floor and I will not have to purchase a whole new commode. Meanwhile, of course, I have made 'other arrangements'.]


All is not always "golden" in my world. In fact, often it is not! I have hesitated publishing this post, but then I decided, "Why not? This is life. This is reality. This is truth." (Btw, this latest incident will not be included among my 'transformative' moments!)

6 comments:

steven said...

hello goldenrod, i know that there's a bit of a gap in our ages but let me remind you that this process you're describing has ctaully been going on for some time. right?!! do you remember at 52 realizing that you keep forgetting things and people commenting on it?! i'm there. not to be overly graphic - (but you started it) but i've overshot the thundermug on more than one nightly visit, although not quite as calamitously as you seem to have. it's because we're wobbly when we get out of bed. so one solution i recommend: get a nice railing put in by the biffy to grab onto. stop being so hard on yourself!!! you're as lucid as they come!!!! your card playing posts leave me in the dust but i am certain that the vast knowledge you share in them is ramping up people's game out there. so there. steven

Craig Peihopa said...

Well said Stevo! Goldenrod, I felt you were being hard on yourself as well. I appreciate how difficult this post may have been to share. If the truth be known life is not golden for most of us all the time. but you are loved and appreciated by your loyalists Goldenrod.

Chuck said...

I had some advice for your memory concerns, but now I can't remember them. Sorry.

The Bug said...

I'm so sorry, but I couldn't help laugh at your toilet escapade - It's so ME! Oh, now you've put the possibility in my head & I'll surely do it one of these days. Steven is right - I'm very wobbly when I get out of bed (& I'm "only" 45) - I have to step very gingerly at first.

Tammy said...

"Life is not golden for most of us all the time."...so true Craig.

Chuck, I love your sense of humor. :)

Goldenrod said...

Hey, Steven, wonderfully-supportive one! I don't think a 'nice railing put in by the biffy' would help at ALL in your case, would it? And you know what, Bug? It IS funny, only I wish that it had not happened to me!

Luv right back atcha, Craig! And Chuck? What can I say here? You're my junior by a few years, but you can't even remember what advice you were going to give me?!? Tut tut and tsk tsk.

Hi, kindred spirit and soul sister Tammy!

I've got to tell all y'all that I told this story (about falling off the pottie) to my bridge students tonight. This class consists of only two people ... a husband/wife combination ... I told each of them separately. She laughed. He just looked at me incredulously, trying to ascertain whether or not I was 'putting him on'. THAT, in and of itself, is almost funnier than the actual incident, don't you think? Cheers!