“You never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.” |

“You never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”

The morning is chilly, but the sun is shining which gives hope for a warmer day. Rain is coming maybe tonight but definitely tomorrow. I love this time of year when my world is wonderfully spring green.

This morning I realized I know too many useless facts. They are taking up space in my memory drawers, and they don’t seem to have much value beyond a bit of cocktail chatter. Who really cares that the Mona Lisa has no eyebrows or eyelashes? I didn’t even notice until I had read this somewhere. In the shower, most people wash starting head first. I know I do. It makes perfect sense to start at the top and work downward. We all have lyrics in our heads to songs we sang years ago when AM radio was it, was all we had. I even remember the singing commercials. They and the lyrics don’t ever disappear, but ask me state capitals, and I hesitate. Is Helena North or South Dakota? It’s neither. It’s Montana’s.

My descriptive powers are growing in leaps and bounds. Adjectives are my friends. I don’t remember names of famous people as much anymore, but I can tell you how tall they are, whether they have facial hair and sort of describe the movie they might have been in. I read an entire book and forget the title, but I can describe perfectly the plot. The names of authors disappeared long ago. I look to friends for help, and they are as perplexed as I. Every morning I wake up and figure out the day of the week.

I have always been a list maker. Long ago I learned that lists make life easier. Now I find them essential. I keep a grocery list and add to it as I run out of stuff. I have my to do list with items in no particular order or set for any specific day. That’s sort of an out in case I don’t feel like doing anything but lolling. My calendar is a tear off day by day desk calendar with, of all things, a trivia question each day. I put a reminder on my calendar the day before any event because I missed a couple of events by not tearing off the old day. Tomorrow is breakfast with friends.

I think my most important memories don’t ever disappear. They seem to stay around, vivid and almost alive. For the rest of them, there is always Google.

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This entry was posted on June 12, 2014 at 12:14 pm and is filed under Musings. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: adjectives, cocktail chatter, forgetting, Helena, important memories, lists, memory drawers, rain, showering, state capitals, sun

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8 Comments on ““You never know the true value of a moment until it becomes a memory.””

olof1 Says:

June 12, 2014 at 2:20 pm
I don’t start with my head when showering 🙂 But of course it’s important to know that Mona Lisa doesn’t have eye brows and eye lashes 🙂 🙂 My head is filled with those things too. Much of these facts actually comes to use, especially at work where they can have the most odd questions sometimes 🙂

I’m not however a list maker and have never been. I sort of guess most of the time when I’m out grocery shopping 🙂 Sometimes I actually bring home most of what I actually need 🙂

Finally it’s cooling down here so I’m hoping for a good nights sleep now, haven’t had that for at least a week. But I guess that this coo, weather might stay for long, it usually does after a longer period of hot weather. Well my vacation doesn’t start until week 28 so I hope it gets a bit warmer by then again.

Have a great day!
Christer.
- katry Says:
  
  June 12, 2014 at 5:01 pm
  Christer,
  I never seem to get to use my odd facts. My guess is nobody thinks to ask.
  
  My list comes from stuff I’m out of or close to being out of. That way I get what I need. The other stuff comes from my browsing the aisles.
  
  It is cool and damp right now. The sun has been gone for a while, but I think the rain is still a while away. The weather isn’t pleasant.
  
  Enjoy your evening!
Caryn Says:

June 12, 2014 at 11:18 pm
Hi Kat,
I have a load of odd facts too. I blame Mr Feudo, a science teacher in high school. He had us keep a small notebook which was to be labelled MUF or Million Unrelated Facts. We were to add them in there when he said to. He told us always to remember that “Pseudo means false but Feudo means truth”. He was only slightly tongue in cheek. 🙂
From that I developed the habit of keeping an ever-growing section of my brain labelled MUF. There’s a lot of stuff in there now. Much of it was useful at one time but a lot of it is completely random as is proper for a collection of unrelated facts.

Rocky might be getting a younger brother. They’ve met in day care and will play together there again tomorrow. I’ll bring them both home tomorrow night and we’ll see how it works out.

Enjoy the day.
- katry Says:
  
  June 13, 2014 at 11:20 am
  Hi Caryn,
  I love that science teacher. He is a man after my own heart. My facts, though, sort of just stick there without any prompting and they pop up when needed without any prompting.
  
  Wow, Rocky will have such fun with a little brother. Lucky dog!! (both of them!!)
flyboybob Says:

June 13, 2014 at 12:32 am
Of course you would start to wash from your head down unless you take a shower standing on your head. I wash my hair after I have washed everywhere else. There is no reason for it just a habit. Tomorrow I will wash my hair first and then my body from the top down.

Memory fades so very slowly with age. I have more trouble remembering names that anything else. I make lists but then never complete the items I really hate doing.

My spouse never makes grocery lists and then comes home without the toilet paper. I’ve learned not to mention that if she made a list. Men who say things like that to their wives wind up in divorce court followed by living in a cardboard box under a freeway bridge. The best response to any mistake or request is ‘yes dear’.

Nice rain this morning which I think has taken us from a severe drought to just a bad drought. Summer in Texas comes early when the high temperatures are in the low 90s. After the summer solstice we really get the hot dry weather.
- katry Says:
  
  June 13, 2014 at 11:23 am
  Bob,
  Some people start with their chests and shoulders first. I always wash my hair first then work my way down.
  
  I am good at completing my to-do lists. Sometimes they take longer than I expected, but they do get done and that’s all that counts.
  
  Your grocery paragraph gave me a laugh. You are a wise man!
  
  We won’t get really hot weather until August, and it will periodically rain all summer long. Some summers we have more rain than others. One summer I swear it rained every weekend. I’m glad you got doe rain and hope you get more.
MT C Says:

June 14, 2014 at 10:19 am
Kat,

I’ve pondered often on how it came about that I am the way I am. Numbers and facts make a lot of sense to me (I have been an engineer, amongst other technical things), but names of all but a few close friends/associates escape me. Movies and movie characters of the odd or unexpected sort, I remember vividly, but the names of the actors or screen title absolutely escapes me. Music is something I truly enjoy and adds much beauty to my life, but seldom do I remember the artist or the title. And on and on, to the point that some think I am lacking any social skills.

Now, I am thinking that I probably have sopped up so much useless information that my rememberer is plugged and that something old has to slide out to get the new in. Yet, the old never disappears and the bog just gets deeper. And its not like anything is available immediately, but must arise like gas from a mud pot in Yellowstone. Just kind of oozes to the surface and is not immediately recognizable.

And I’ve tried many of the tricks to remember the right things, but somehow they never seem to take. I am what I am I guess and there’s not much to be done about it. LOL

Carl
- katry Says:
  
  June 14, 2014 at 10:34 am
  Carl,
  I have always been a words person. Numbers flummox me. I love learning a new word. As for facts, my mind absorbs them and keeps them. I never try to remember. I just do. When I was in school, I could see the pages not too clearly, but I could still see them when I was taking a test. It was a skill I recognized when I was in the sixth grade. It was when I realized I had a great memory.
  
  I have trouble pulling stuff out of the ooze as well. As I get older, the ooze gets deeper. I figure that’s just my lot in life and it seems to be yours as well!!