Today is Sunday, September 9 and there are only 98 days until National Chocolate-covered Anything Day, so start stocking up on the things you want to cover. Today we remember the birthdays of Leo Tolstoy, Harland Sanders and Jimmy “The Greek” Snyder. On this day in 1776 the Continental Congress renamed the United Colonies the United States, in 1850 California became the 31^st state and in 1966 John Lennon met Yoko Ono at an avant-garde art exposition. In Bulgaria and Luxembourg it is Liberation Day, in California it is Admission Day and in the US it is Grandparents Day, National Teddy Bear Day and National Wiener Schnitzel Day.

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but last week I started using only one space at the end of each sentence. For years I had been using two spaces, which I was taught was the correct spacing. Published work these days rarely features two spaces after a period. In the era when type was set by hand, it was common to use extra space (sometimes quite a bit of it) after periods, a practice that continued into the first half of the twentieth century. And many people were taught to use that extra space in typing class. Many people prefer double sentence spacing for informal use because that was how they were taught to type. I read an article about this recently and went to my source for this type of thing, the ”Chicago Manual of Style.” 

Years ago, I was introduced to the “Chicago Manual of Style” as the style guide for American English. It was first published in 1906. It is one of the most widely used and respected style guides in the United States. It has been some time since I have needed its assistance, but I was assured that one space was sufficient, so if you had noticed the difference and were wondering, let me put your mind at ease.

I have begun to notice that my mind is wandering more and I am not keeping track of things as well as I used to. I think part of the reason for that is because I am retired and do not have to pay attention to all the details that I did in the past. In my last job, I worked in the call center of a credit union. I needed to keep track of all the different types of accounts that we offered, interest rates for savings accounts, CD’s, loans, etc. I needed to be able to pay attention to a member and work the computer in an effort to answer their questions.

In addition, I needed to remember all the various passwords I used (we were required to change them every 60 days), track the passwords for my personal information on my computer at home and  keep track of all the various meetings and appointments I had both in and out of work. Some of the stuff I could put on a calendar, but passwords needed to be confidential. The point is that I was able to do all that without much trouble. Nowadays, the big thing is to remember to put on pants before I go out to get the paper. 

Let me give you an example of my lapse. This past week, we had the opportunity to spend the afternoon down the shore. I keep our chairs and beach cart in the car so that we can just go when we get the chance. When we got there, I took my beach slip-ons out and put them on the ground. I took Barbara’s beach shoes out and gave them to her. I unloaded the car, got the cart set up and put the chairs on it. I closed the car up and we got ready to head to the beach. Barbara stopped and pointed at my slip-ons and asked if I was forgetting something. I had to stop, change my footwear, put my shoes in the car and then lock up the car, again.

That is just one example of what I mean. I have a routine that I have to go through before I go out the door to go somewhere. I check to make sure I have my sunglasses, my wallet, phone and keys. As I get older I also check to make sure my fly is up. This is just another thing that can be easily forgotten if you get distracted. Getting distracted is one of the main causes of my problems. In the example with the beach slip-ons, I took them out and intended to change them, but first I took Barbara’s shoes to her. At that point the slip-ons were out of my head. If she had not noticed them on the ground I would have gone off without them.

Another cause of my memory problems is not following routines. This is an issue all the time, but especially when it comes to taking my medications. In the morning, I get up, get the paper (yes, with my pants on)and start reading it while I eat breakfast. Once I eat, I get coffee and the take my morning pills. In the evening I make a cup of coffee and while I wait for the coffee maker to heat up I take my evening pills. If any of that changes, I have been known to look at my pill container in the evening or the next morning and exclaim, “Oh,crap. I forgot to take my pills last night (or this morning).”

Yes, I know what you are thinking – it’s your medication! How can you forget something like that? For those of you who are around my age, you already know the answer. For those of you who are younger, you will understand as you get older, if you remember that I discussed it here.

I had something else I wanted to mention, but the idea has slipped my mind. If I think of it again, I will try to write it down for next week.

This week our fact tells us that in the US, a pound of potato chips costs two hundred times more than a pound of potatoes. I have tried making my own chips in the past and it is just easier to buy them and not think about the cost issues. Besides opening a bag of chips is a lot quicker than peeling, slicing, frying and cooling them enough to eat. Someone has already done all that for me. I thank them!