Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder:

This is how it manifests itself:

I decided to water my garden.

As I turned on the hose in the driveway, I looked over at my car and decided my car needed washing.

As I started toward the garage, I noticed that there was mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mail box earlier.

I laid my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and noticed that the can was full.

So I decided to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first.

But then I thought, since I’m going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first.

I took my checkbook off the table and saw that there was only 1 check left. My extra checks are in my desk in the study, so I went inside the house to my desk where I found a can of coke I had been drinking.

I’m going to look for my checks, but first I needed to push the coke aside so I won’t knock it over.

I saw that the coke was getting warm and I decided I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I headed toward the kitchen with the coke, a vase of flowers on the counter caught my eye – they needed to be watered.

I sat the coke down on the counter and I discovered my reading glasses that I’d been searching for all morning. Then I decided I better put them back on my desk, but first I’m going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter, filled a container with water and suddenly I spotted the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realized that tonight when we go to watch TV I will be looking for the remote, but I won’t remember that it’s on the table, so I decided to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I’ll water the flowers.

I poured some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spilled on the floor. So I set the remote back on the table, got some towels and wiped up the spill; then, I headed down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:

—the car isn’t washed.

—the bills aren’t paid.

—there is a warm can of coke sitting on the counter.

—the flowers don’t have enough water.

—there is still only 1 check in my checkbook.

—I can’t find the remote — I can’t find my glasses.

—and I don’t remember what in the world 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 long and I’m really tired.

I realized this is a serious problem and I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my email.