January 9, 2019 – Am I in a fog, or what?

         I’ve had a series of days where I think I am trying to do too much and not accomplishing much of anything.  Or, other things are at play and we don’t even realize it.  Or maybe, I am just not eating enough for my brain cells?

         Example One:

         We are shocked at our reaction to real sunshine after weeks and weeks of rain.  Saturday we were enjoying the sun – outside and inside.  We smiled, we had a bounce in our step.  I even opened the windows to air out the house for a few hours - thinking fresh air would make everything nicer somehow.

         The windows in the living room were recently washed inside and out in early November and it was such a pleasure to see the sun finally shining in.  Sun beams cascading in the window onto the table and the floor. 

         Oh SUN, how simply beautiful you are after such a long absence.  It seemed like it was last September that I remembered actually seeing sun glinting on anything inside my home.

         We were relaxing and then suddenly I thought – it must be coming up on 3:30 p.m. and we needed to get ready to go to church for 5 p.m.  I glanced up at the clock and was shocked – yes absolutely shocked.  I stated,

         “Well – I guess we won’t make Mass at 5 p.m.”

         “Huh,” my husband asked.

         “It’s ten minutes to five now.”

         We both looked out the window with the sun shining in and then back at the clock.  We were both thinking the clock must be wrong.  Then we both realized – we had been fooled by the bright sun and hadn’t realized how late in the day it really was.

         “I guess we’ll go in the morning.”

         What a surprise on us that we were fooled. Sunshine had been all but vacant for weeks and most afternoons it looked and felt like 5 p.m. at 1 p.m.  I guess that is called conditioning.

        

         Example Two.

         Some days I don’t think I can chew gum and walk at the same time.  One day last week I was loading the clothes washer and my cat nudged me.

         “Yes, you are hungry.”  I answered her as she swirled around my ankles like a shark.

         I measured the laundry detergent into the big cap on the bottle then poured it in the washer soap drawer and pushed it closed.  Next, I opened the jar of cat food kibbles -  we keep a couple of scoops from a big bag in a jar out in the laundry room to keep it fresh and close to her cat bowl.  

         In the middle of pouring a handful of cat food kibbles in my palm, I reached around the corner into the kitchen and answered the ringing telephone.

         It was only one of those irritating ROBO calls you can tell by the “bonk” on the other end of the line and a deadness before a voice comes on. 

         I hung up the telephone, stepped back into the laundry room, opened the washer soap drawer and poured the cat food kibbles into the drawer.

         Luckily, I paused again as the cat re-nudged me around my ankles reminding me that I needed to feed her and I was just about to shove the washer soap drawer in and noticed cat kibbles where the laundry detergent should be.

         Talk about a darn mess. Took me over 5 minutes to scoop out the kibbles. I finally had to use a long ice teaspoon from the kitchen to lift up the rubber flap and drag the balance of the soap filmed kibbles out from the deep recesses of the drawer.  [I never have been able to figure out how that soap drawer comes out.]

         Example Three:

         I have a rectangular tart pan that is perfect for making brownies or a packaged pound cake or nut bread.  It has a removable bottom that I wrap with a piece of parchment paper and then I only have to butter the sides.

         I made corn bread in it yesterday and it is nice – you can cut a 1-inch wide piece.  Brownies are wonderful cut in 1-inch by 3-inch slabs.

         When I washed it, I put it in the sink dishpan to drain – the bottom – long flat metal piece separated from the fluted edge piece.

         When I got home from errands, the husband had put the fluted edge piece on the center bar – he didn’t have a clue where it belonged.  But, didn’t know what the long flat metal bottom piece was and he put that somewhere else.

         I searched every surface of the kitchen, I opened doors and looked in many of the cabinets and then I asked about it.  He answered,

         “What do you mean?”

         I failed at describing it for him for he told me he hadn’t even seen it.  If he hadn’t seen it – why is it no longer in the dish drainer?

         “It is completely useless without the bottom!”  I looked in the trash bins. I looked in the recycling.  I looked in the oven, then the cookie sheet cabinet. I looked in the refrigerator – why I don’t know – but I did. I was simply running out of ideas.

         “Where could you have put it? There were only 4 items in the dish drainer and now one has disappeared?”

         He searched and found it about 3 minutes later on the top of the microwave – it has the same color as the top of the microwave.

         “Why there?”

         He shrugged his shoulders and went back to his TV.

         Is it just cabin fever? Gosh, I hope so – I can’t take too many more days of these miscues or lapses – they are exhausting.