Unfinished business

I see it clearly in my head.

“Yes, your honor, forgive me. I plead guilty as charged.”

I’m standing in front of an angry looking judge in a black robe. He looks over his glasses at me. I’m in the center of his line of fire. His face gets redder and angrier anytime I make a joke or try to lighten the mood.

I tell him that my wife asked me to store the cushions to our deck furniture. We were expecting another rainstorm. We’ve been getting a steady stream of thunderstorms. However when a wee bit of sun managed to peek out of the clouds, we had pulled the cushions out. We knew the nice weather wasn’t going to last, but it was nice to take a break.

Of course, I meant well. I started to put the cushions away, but I never had a chance to finish the job.

In my head, the judge cares little about the circumstances. He holds up a photo of the drenched cushions — proof of my neglect. He cares only that I forgot to hold up my end of the bargain. He puts down the evidence and throws the book at me. Ten days in imaginary jail. He bellows out from his perch, “Next case!”

I generally have a pretty good memory, but our drenched cushions got me thinking about other tasks we intend to do. Yet, we somehow miss or forget to finish them in the highs and lows of our day. Here’s a few:

–Forgetting to stop to pick up milk, bread, dinner on the way home from work.

–Forgetting to pack our phone charger when we travel. Or worse yet, remembering it, but forgetting to put it back in our suitcase, leaving it at the hotel.

–Forgetting an important password. This feels like a daily occurrence for me.

–Misplacing the remote control, keys, work badge, laptop, etc. In my home, my wife points to me. I point to her. “Who stole the remote?”

–Forgetting to take something out of the freezer to defrost it. “Oops, looks like a cereal for dinner kind of night!”

–Walking into a room and forgetting why we walked into it in the first place. “Umm, what did I want?”

What about you? What do you forget? Or am I the lone person losing their mind?