Old Timer's Disease

[Fulvio]

Earlier tonight, I had a chat with AJ to see if we can help a sick mate trying to get back to Melb from Tweed. He seems to have unexpectedly outlived his cash, and I'm trying to find him a few rest-stops along the way so he doesn't end up in a hospital or morgue.

Anyway, the conversation went from terminal diseases and hospitals to general ageing complaints and dementia. You know, the sort of fun medical complaints your grandma used to talk about all the time. Over and over and over, usually.

And while we were talking I decided to have a bit of a clean up. Because if I didn't move them, something bad would happen to the pile of new fivers on the desk.

Now, I have a box of notes, and a wallety-type mini file thingy that I stash new finds into, then when I have enough, and time and motivation, I catalogue, bundle and label and add them to the box. Because of this process, this box is not in the money bin. I kinda need it here where I can get to it. And its been safely stashed in an unlikely spot for many years.

Well, when I went to get it, it wasn't there. The loose notes were, but no box.

It hadn't been nicked, I was 100% certain of that. But the last time I can positively remember handling it was about 18 months ago, when I took some pics for a Reddit post I was writing. So, I tore the joint apart looking for it. After all, $100 test notes add up faster than 5¢ errors, y'know?

Nothing. Just like my box of ANDA "S" Privies from last year. I know I have them, but where? Curse this old age caper... I'm sooo over it! Well, that's about 3 hours of my life I'll never get back, eh?

And then, I figured I would tidy up some non-numismatic stuff. And in the bottom of a box of assorted computer bits and clothing, you guessed it, the missing box. And a bank sack. Full of envelopes of notes. Which I have no recollection of. DOH!

Now, I should be used to forgetting stuff. Ever since a severe car crash many years ago, I've had short-term memory loss, and nothing has really helped with it. I'm terrible with names and faces, and I've misplaced things before. Which is why I'm particular about keeping things in their place and hate people moving my stuff. But long-term memory, no problem. Well, until now, anyway.

So, am I the only one in this boat? Have I got one foot on the boat and the other on a banana peel? Do I need to start photographing everything just to remember it, and will I then lose the pics? Am I going to turn into my grandmother?

Enquiring minds NEED to know! :idea:

[trout]

All is good Fulvio Old Mate, you are definitely NOT alone, I forget stuff all the time and it can be a Good thing and a Bad thing.
The Bad thing is it is bloody frustrating and pretty much drives you nuts when you know you have something and for the life of you it is impossible to find and you cant do it.:dash1:
The Good thing is that every now and then you come across something nice that you had totally forgotten about

I don't keep records of what I buy or have my collections on a nice neat bunch of spreadsheets, mine just get put in various albums and draws/filing cabinets and I hunt through them whenever I want to find a particular coin.
Sometimes I put a coin in the wrong album and stumble over it later and the slabbed coins are a nightmare trying to find a specific coin amongst the various blue boxes I have stashed away :angel:
I do have some of the graded coins in special albums and various fancy wooden boxes and this makes searching for these coins dead easy   :yahoo:

So NO Mate you are definitely NOT the only one in the boat

[Fulvio]

So NO Mate you are definitely NOT the only one in the boat

So how to deal with it?

Documenting stuff would be a nightmarish full-time job, so that's out. I came up with systems, which I wrote about here, but upkeep was just too time-consuming.

Storage systems which take care of the sorting/location problems would cost a fortune. Hence my quest for better solutions.

Surely there's an answer?

Maybe photographing everything in its final resting place is the solution after all? But then instead of searching thousands of coins, you get to search thousands of pics. :dodgy:

Or maybe its time to hire a good Secretary/PA?

[trout]

So how to deal with it?

I simply accept that there will be times of frustration and times of Joy and plod along with business as usual

If things get to be too much of a pain for me with coins I just bugger off fishing for a while, Then get back into it refreshed :angel:

[Nevol]

I've had  Old Timer's Disease for quite a few years now, but it got much worse in 2014 when I had some epileptic seizures and completely lost chunks of my short term memory. Gone forever! Even significant things I had just done the day before were gone.  Long term memory seems to be normal.

I have recently 'lost' some coins that I thought I had stored in easily found places, like in a divided tray with each section numbered by year, but no they were gone.  A couple days later, guess where I found them, in their rightful place in the tray.  I'm totally gobsmacked, and this has happened more than once, so it seems I'm moving things around and forgetting it immediately, but when I do find them, at least I remember that they had been 'lost'.  :scratch_one-s_head:

I don't know where all this is leading, it's a bit scary to even think about it. I have 2 older brothers, 85 & 78, both were a bit vague, but the 78 yr old has recently been diagnosed with Alzheimers.

By the time my Mum was 70, she had no idea who I was, one late sister was similar in her late 70's.

[robbiegal]

Perhaps the Lord is teaching you a lesson  about sharing with your mate who seems to be needing the help of your other friends. Maybe those lost and found sacks of money could afford a friend in need some safe overnight accommodation  if the alternative option here is the morgue. Likewise perhaps he should be on a bus or train.

[Basil]

Earlier tonight, I had a chat with AJ ..................

Shame he's not posting,he seems to enjoy expressing his views and opinions by the tone in the majority of his posts and also seems to have a genuine interest in Coins.

Police traditionally organised help for people with health/welfare problems,these days they seem to refer them direct to St. Vinnies. or the Salvos.

[trout]

Earlier tonight, I had a chat with AJ ..................

Shame he's not posting,he seems to enjoy expressing his views and opinions by the tone in the majority of his posts and also seems to have a genuine interest in Coins.

Police traditionally organised help for people with health/welfare problems,these days they seem to refer them direct to St. Vinnies. or the Salvos.

AJ Loves his coins and he loves to talk about them and other things on the forum.:good:
I think that he just gets So frustrated at times because he isn't allowed to say what he really thinks about something that is brought up on the forum and he just walks away for a while.
He always comes back eventually though because he knows that most of us here Miss his posts and his humour :yahoo:

[keldaw]

Jayson is a true friend and he will go out of his way to help anybody out , we have stayed at his place twice now and he has always put out the welcome sign out for us ,
and as for his mother , well  , what can I say , she is one of the most beautiful person I have ever met ,they are as honest as the day is long , and we love them just like our family .
may god bless them both .

[robbiegal]

agree
he is a gem

[Fulvio]

I don't know where all this is leading, it's a bit scary to even think about it.

I find it the scariest thing of all, actually.

Pain I'm used to. I've had so much of it for so many years, and not being a fan of side-effects, I've mostly just put up with it unmedicated.

Disability I can also deal with. I have a number of friends with severe mobility issues, and my own, while mild still, present their own challenges. All can be dealt with in one way or another, and you need look no further than the paralympics to see what wonders technology offers.

Death isn't scary either. I've gotten over my previous delusions about grey-haired old men in robes and red blokes with horns and spears. Depending on what reality actually is (and doesn't quantum mechanics offer some tantalising possibilities), something may happen once we're done with this place, but being assigned to clouds or fire and brimstone ain't it. Either it will be like falling asleep and never waking up, or it will be a new adventure. Either way, it doesn't scare me.

Poverty doesn't scare me either. Been there, done that. Losing everything and learning to live on nothing sharpens the mind I found. Bring it on!

But while losing my money, health or even life is all a bit meh, losing my mind, well, that scares me shitless, TBH. I love my chats with AJ, because he's one of a very small number of people I know who has in fact lost part of his mind. Quite literally. And he's not only survived it, but recovered nicely and I would say conquered it. And he's the most lucid of the bunch. I have another friend with an ABI who forgets what she just said, and tells you the same thing ten times in a row, for example. I spent many days with my uncle in his last months, and we talked about all manner of stuff. He remembered things from the 30's like they happened that morning, but forgot names and conversations, and would ring you up at 3am and stuff like that. He was living in a fantasy present, convinced the doctors and nurses were trying to do all sorts of bad things to him. He spent his days hiding under the covers, and they took absolutely everything away that might conceivably cause harm to himself or others. If they actually had padded rooms, they would have put him in one, I'm sure.

I can only imagine what that horror would have been like for him. I once lost a whole week due to some severe trauma while on a trip north. My partner told me afterwards what happened, but I have no direct recollection whatsoever. Its just a rip in my reality of which time has more or less drawn the edges together. But what if instead of a rip, your reality were shredded, and unable to be reassembled?

Worse, what if death is not in fact oblivion, but a passage into another reality, be it a time, place or dimension? And what if any damage extended into whatever comes after? An eternity of batshit-crazy surely would count as a plausible hell? I'm sure Dante would agree. :diablo:

[robbiegal]

https://www.activememory.com/news/2015/neuroplasticity-can-you-rewire-your-brain

[trout]

I tend to deal with things as they happen and try not to dwell on what MAY happen in the future.
In May of 2015 I came within a heartbeat of death when I was involved in a high speed head on collision that caused the death of one of my workmates and put me in hospital for 18 days, Every day since that has been a Gift and it would be irresponsible and rude for me to complain about the quality of that Gift :ok:
One day at a time Mate, It works for me :yahoo:

[autocoupler]

Was waiting for my daughter at the shops this morning when an old bloke sat down beside me. He was the first to engage and I immediately knew from his accent he was Scottish born, a big raw boned man with what appeared to be a pleasant disposition, he would have been a striking individual in his day.  We had a good old talk for quite a while, he wanted to talk and I was happy to listen mostly, and in the short time we sat there I found out he was born in 1928, was a member of the occupation forces for a short while after WW2, came to Australia in 1950, he worked at Woomera and Maralinga during various tests, worked in Darwin as a motor mechanic, had traveled the world extensively and had worked in Germany and France over the course of time. I realised not all was well after he repeated the same information more than once on a few occasions, but I have no doubt all of what he said was factual. Then from the Bank near where we were seated came a sprite old lady who walked directly to where we were seated, and looking at the old fella exclaimed "that silly bitch in there has managed to stuff your credit card up again, don't know how they can get something so simple, so wrong", come on dear." She hooked her arm through his and off they went. As they walked away I could tell he was happy enough with life as it was, and his wife was doing what she had to. All a bit sad really.

[Fulvio]

All a bit sad really.

Well, that made me :cray:

Its funny, when you're young, you never think of this stuff. And then it just kind of sneaks up on you.

I watch Australian Story when I can, and its awesome to see the diverse range of experiences people have had. And that's barely scratching the surface. There must be so many people like this guy out there that nobody knows about, unless someone who is willing to listen happens to be sitting next to them at the shops.

I think you both gained something today. And so did the rest of us. :heart: