© 2024 | WUWF Public Media
11000 University Parkway
Pensacola, FL 32514
850 474-2787
NPR for Florida's Great Northwest
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Carl Wernicke: What Was I Doing?

IHMC

It’s heck getting old. Younger listeners hearing these words won’t understand that for awhile, and older listeners already get it. Or will soon be getting it.

Perhaps the first real hint that being old is not the same as being young comes as your memory begins to slip. You forget things, you can’t remember other things, and your mind meanders down all sorts of false trails.

Recently, for instance, my wife and I were making breakfast. We have one of those devices that grinds the beans for each pot of coffee, and breakfast started out badly when my wife put the coffee beans into the filter basket instead of the grinder, and I got hot water instead of coffee. I stepped in to repair the damage, but failed to remember to put the top on the grinder compartment and instead of coffee I got a burst of irritated beeping noises.

Meanwhile, I was going to warm up some syrup for our pancakes; a friend had told me that if you put blueberries in the syrup and nuke it, the berries explode and make blueberry-flavored syrup. I put the syrup, butter and blueberries into a small pitcher, but just then I realized that Patti was cooking bacon and I decided to take a plate to the stove with a paper towel on it to receive the cooked bacon.

On the way I passed my iPad and, remembering that the Yankees had played the night before I decided to check the score. That was when I saw the mail stacked next to the iPad and remembered that I hadn’t opened the envelope that probably had my new credit card in it. I opened it and, in the interests of efficiency decided to call the number that activated it, so I carried it over to the sideboard with the landline phone on it. That’s when I realized I hadn’t plugged by cell phone into the charger. I also remembered that I had left the phone on my reading table in the living room, so I went to get it.

That’s when I remembered that the John D. McDonald novel I was reading had only a few pages left, so I decided to finish it. But I realized I had left my reading glasses on the computer desk, so I headed there to get them, and discovered that the reason I couldn’t find my work boots was that for some reason I had left them in the bedroom. Worse, they had mud on them and needed cleaning so I headed for the laundry room, where I found my shoe-shine kit I had been looking for, which reminded me that I had been meaning to polish the shoes I had worn to work for something like three straight weeks and were looking worn.

On my way to the bedroom with the shoe polish kit I passed the kitchen and noticed that Patti was at the stove, and I remembered that I was supposed to heat up the syrup, which I decided to do as soon as I checked the Yankee’s score, which I did not do as I puzzled over why my new credit card was sitting out by the phone.

By this point we both agreed that going to Waffle House for breakfast was an excellent idea, and that we should do so as soon as we could remember where, exactly, it was.

Carl Wernicke is a native of Pensacola. He graduated from the University of Florida in 1975 with a degree in journalism. After 33 years as a reporter and editor, he retired from the Pensacola News Journal in April 2012; he spent the last 15 years at the PNJ as editor of the editorial page. He joined the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition in 2012 as Senior Writer and Communications Manager, and retired from IHMC in 2015.His hobbies include reading, traveling, gardening, hiking, enjoying nature around his home in Downtown Pensacola, as well as watching baseball and college football, especially the Florida Gators and New York Yankees. His wife, Patti, retired as a senior vice president at Gulf Winds Federal Credit Union and is a Master Gardener. Carl is a regular contributor to WUWF. His commentaries focus on life in and around the Pensacola area and range in subject matter from birding to downtown redevelopment and from preserving our natural heritage to life in local neighborhoods.