Catching up

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Well, I'm glad that you were able to retrieve some of the items, it's just a shame that happened.

Another method of preservation that I also use for photos/documents, especially fragile and deteriorating pieces is large zipbags. As any old paper material will eventually deteriorate the longer it is exposed to air, and if it's exposed for too long it will crumble into dust, especially if the paper already has damage to it.

Of course, depending on exterior conditions, it usually takes a few hundred years of exposure to air and other elements for that to happen to most paper, but if you're thinking long term, and you want to preserve them for generations to come, then I suggest acid free zipbags, if it says that they are made with PVC then don't get them, you have to specifically get the acid free bags. When you're sealing them just make sure that you gently press the air out of the bags before you seal them, you don't want to have any air trapped in there. This method will also prevent your documents from being damaged if there's a flood.

For any large items that don't fit in the bags, I wrap them in flame retardant blankets. These are some of the methods I do before placing them in a fire proof safe, where they will sit until I can determine which relative will be the right person to be tasked with their continued preservation.

I guess that's one of the great things about living in the digital age, I can make copies for everybody to enjoy without exposing the originals to potential harm, and since the younger generations are growing up in a ever evolving digital world, it's probably the only way that some of them will ever have access to their family history.

[Murfreesboro]

I'm actually very impressed that you can carve out time to do all these things for your extended family, while simultaneously building a successful business and raising a young family of your own. Well done you!

[Andybev01]

My guess is caffeine.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Insomnia is the gift that keeps on giving.

On one side it's great because there's always something to do, whether I'm up doing paperwork for business, building something, watching shows and movies, shopping online, or even archiving family history, I can always find something to occupy my time at night.

I'm always awake, I usually only sleep between 2-4 hours a night, and most nights I can get by with only 2 hours of sleep and I'm still able to function at full strength. It's been that way since I was a kid, doctors can't explain it, along with my capacity for memory, they have called me a anomaly. The doctors said that while it's unusual and they don't know of anybody else like me they don't seem concerned about it, and they said that as long as I'm still operating at full ability then I shouldn't worry about it.

When I do actually get some sleep, I'm usually plagued by nightmares, it's like a horror movie, and it's always monsters, zombies, demons, and the standard end of the world scenarios. I also have a unbelievably high volume of Halloween related dreams, at least a few times a month, some of them are good, and some of them are nightmares. So sometimes I would rather be up doing anything other than sleeping.

At least I have the pets to talk to when I'm up at night, well, I talk to them, they stare at me and probably think I'm crazy, and the only reason they stick around is because I feed them.

I've mentioned before that I miss having a baby around the house. One of the reasons is because when the girls were babies I would stay up and take care of them and talk with them while I worked on things, it was great because I got to spend more time with them, and my wife could get the sleep she needed.

On the negative side of it, uh, well ... hold on a minute, I'm thinking ... oh yeah, here's one ... I don't get to spend more time in bed with my wife. Yup, that's really the only negative thing that I can think of associated with my lack of sleep.

I do wonder though, will I still be this way when I get older? I'm 44 now and this is the only way I have ever lived, so will I still be up every night 30 years from now? I guess it really doesn't matter, as the old saying goes ... I can sleep when I'm dead.

[Murfreesboro]

That's certainly unusual, both the sleep pattern and the eidetic (? I guess) memory. As long as you're healthy, though, I guess it gives you an advantage over the rest of us. My mother used to say that the only truly democratic or equal thing on earth is that we all have 24 hours in a day. But if most of us have to spend 6 to 8 hours of it asleep, and you need only 2 to 4, you effectively have longer usable days than most people do.

[Andybev01]

Well hold onto your hat, cowboy, because Martha Stewart claims that her usual nights' sleep is 4 hours, and oftentimes times much less.

I don't\nKnow if that's why she ended up in the hoosegow, so just watch your step.

[Murfreesboro]

Not being very knowledgeable about Martha Stewart, I'd never heard that about her. But it might help explain her extraordinary success.

Speaking of whom, most of my stores around here have pretty much eliminated magazines, so I'm wondering if the seasonal Halloween magazines will show up.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

Murf - it's the same around here, but our Walmart still has magazines, so you should probably check there.

When I was younger it was actually harder on me to go without sleep, especially when I was in high school and working a full time job at night, and another job on the weekends, but now it doesn't even bother me in the slightest way, I think my body is just used to it.

I'll give you a idea of what my average day was like in high school starting when I was in grade 9. We will use 7am as a starting point for the day.

7am - I would arrive at school before the teachers and sit in the hall and do homework until the teacher got there around 8am to let me into the class, where I would continue to do homework until the start of the school day at 9am.

12pm - I would skip lunch and go to the library to finish the homework for my afternoon classes. On the days that I didn't have homework I would just read books, that's another reason why I know as much as I do.

3pm - After school I would go straight home and eat dinner, and then I would help my mother and younger siblings with anything they needed and then go to bed at 4pm.

8pm - I would wake up and shower for about 10 minutes and then I went to work from 9pm-5am.

5am - I would get home shortly after 5am and I was tired but I would force myself to stay awake, so I would eat something then take a fast shower and then watch some tv before I would wake up my siblings around 6am to make sure they ate and got ready for school, and then I would get to school by 7am.

I did that almost every single day, just rinse and repeat. On the weekends I still worked my night shift, but I also worked a job from 9am-5pm, and sometimes that job requested that I work on some weekdays which I couldn't say no to, so it would interfere with school.

That's where my memory plays a important part, by the time I was in grade 10 my attendance was starting to suffer because of my work schedule, and I was going to school as little as 2 days a week sometimes. I had more than one of my teachers approach me and tell me straight to my face that a student that misses as much school as I did shouldn't be getting such high scores on their tests, and one of them even thought that I was cheating, and they made me sit in a room alone with a teacher watching me while I took the test again. It goes without saying that I got every single answer on the test correct, and they couldn't argue with me about the results, though I didn't ever reveal to them that I have a good memory.

I explained my situation to the principal, I told her the truth about my work schedule and I why I had to work, and she was very understanding and she helped me make arrangements with my teachers to reduce my required attendance as long as I was able to maintain my grades, which I did and I graduated on schedule while balancing both work and school, along with a social life.

I thought that by now my body would be slowing down, and that I would be sleeping more, but it's the opposite, and I'm always awake now and it's normal for me, and sometimes I can still stay up for longer than 24hrs if the situation calls for it, I can usually hit the 30 hour mark before I absolutely need rest, though when I was younger I was able to do more than 48hrs straight and it didn't bother me, but back then I actually had a reason to stay up that long. I don't know if I could still do that now as I don't have any reason to stay awake that long, but maybe out of boredom I might try it again just to challenge myself.

Regarding my memory, I'm not sure exactly how it can be classified, I know there are people out there that can remember everything in their life, regardless of what it is, but my memory isn't that precise. I usually only remember the information that is associated with my life directly, anything that I have been exposed to, that includes what I learned in school such as historical events and major stories on the news, but I can't tell you every single news story that happened on X day like the people I have seen in documentaries. I will try to explain how my memory works the best way that I can.

Picture the largest warehouse you could possibly imagine, and it is filled from floor to ceiling, wall to wall with filing cabinets, and each and every person/subject that I have ever been exposed to has a file that has everything I know about that person/subject filed in the chronological order in which I learned that information, and as soon as anybody mentions that person/subject I can instantly pull up the info I have on them.

That's why when I read/watch anything, no matter what it is, even here on the forum, I can recall something you wrote a few years ago, and to you and everybody else a few years have passed by, but to me it was yesterday. I can still remember every single conversation that I have ever had in my life, verbatim in most cases, and I can always remind people of what they have previously said, even if they forgot it.

Sometimes it can be annoying, it's hard to explain, but I could be at work talking with a customer and all of a sudden a memory from 1985 will just pop into my head without any reason and nothing to trigger it, I wasn't doing anything that was related to that memory, but it just shows up, as if it's saying I'm still here. It's weird, I still remember everything I learned in school, even the stuff that you know you won't ever use in your life unless you enter a career that requires it, like I still know how to do calculus but I won't ever have to use it. I'm actually really good at math, and it's definitely helped me in business, so I'm glad that I was paying attention in math class.

To me, my memory officially kicked in on my third birthday, I have a few memories before that, but that day was memorable for the wrong reasons, and I won't ever forget it as long as I live, and I can remember every single day of my life since that day. I know that might seem unbelievable to anybody reading this, but I swear to you that it is the truth.

Man, I just realized how much I just typed. I've got to find a new hobby to do at night, you guys must be getting sick of me.

[Murfreesboro]

Not at all. I think that's fascinating.

Good memories run in my family, too, but nothing quite like yours. I also remember my third birthday quite vividly, for good reasons not bad, and I probably also have a few from before that. My mother could remember when she learned to walk. Apparently it was scary to her, so she never forgot it. I can't go back that far. But I do recall my childhood in great detail, so it always surprises me when I hear people say they don't remember much about theirs.

I've never had great eyesight. I mean, I can drive and stuff, but I was extremely nearsighted as a child and didn't get glasses until I was almost 10 (I hid it before then) . Maybe for that reason I've never been as observant visually as most people are. I'm very good with sounds, and of course smells, which I think are triggers for most people.

Your teenage work schedule sounds insane. I think my maternal grandfather must have had a similar dedicationn to providing for his family at a young age. Hard times can build character for sure.

[Murfreesboro]

Magaz8nes: our Walmart has completely eliminated magazines and has greatly reduced its book and physical media section. They dron"t even have magazines at check out anymore.

Our Kroger has done away with its book and magazine section, but it still has a few titles at check out.

Books a Million at the mall has a magazine section maybe 1/3 to 1/2 its previous size.

Someone has told me they still have magazines at Publix and at Barnes and Noble. Sprouts, where my daughter often shops, has a few at check out.

It makes me sad, because magazines were always my impulse buy, and it made me happy to look at seasonal photos. I care nothing at all about the candy and gum and soda they push on you at check out now.

[TheHeadlessHorseman]

I know that you have a excellent long term memory just from reading your posts about your life, Murf. I think it's interesting that you mention clearly remembering your third birthday, as I have talked with 2 other people that have a great capacity for memory as well, and they both said that their third birthday was also a starting point for their memory.

Your mother's ability to remember her experience learning to walk is astonishing to me, as I have only ever heard of one person in a documentary that could remember that early in their life. Of course, it has been proven that kids as young as a year old are capable of recognizing and emulating patterns of behavior that they observe from the people around them, but they usually don't ever remember it themselves because they are too young.

I do recall my childhood in great detail, so it always surprises me when I hear people say they don't remember much about theirs.

I know exactly what you mean, that is the same reaction that I have when people tell me that.

I'm very good with sounds, and of course smells, which I think are triggers for most people.

This is also true for me as well, though I can be triggered by any of the senses, even touch. Sometimes I can touch a surface or type of fabric and I'm sent back to the first time that I felt that material, or a situation where it was present.

When I was in my early teens and I realized that I had a good memory, I started wondering even back then exactly how much I would be capable remembering and for how long? I mean, I'm in my mid 40s now and I still remember everything clearly, but how far will it go? I have met plenty of people that are older than 80 that have a good memory, they don't remember everything through their whole life, but they do remember the important events. On the other side of that, more than 90 percent of the older people that I have met struggle with memory, so it's hard to say what the reason for the large discrepancy is, maybe it's genetic, and a good memory is passed on through family generations like other physical traits?

I know that Millie has a exceptionally good memory for somebody her age, and she is still sharp day to day as well. As far as I know, she is the oldest person in our family history, and she has lived through so much in her life just in terms of experience and longevity, and it seems like she can remember most of it, though there are obviously things that she has forgotten just because she's been around so long. But observing her gives me reassurance that, under the right circumstances, a good memory can last for as long as a person can live.

Regarding magazines, I'm surprised that the Walmart and other stores in your area don't have them. They aren't abundant around here, but the large book stores still carry them, though there is a smaller selection these days simply because there are less magazines being published now than before.

[Murfreesboro]

Losing your memory in old age is by no means a given, and there are different reasons people do suffer memory loss. I think most older people with memory loss suffer from varying degrees of senile dementia, which happens when they can recall 50 years ago, but not this morning. That happened to my MIL, who suffered a series of very minor strokes before she ultimately died of a big one. Since I was her chauffeur to drs in her declining years, I used to engage her in conversation about her early years, and I learned things from her that I don't think even my husband knew.

Alzbeimers, OTOH, is a very specific illness. I once heard that, if you go to the refrigerator and forget what you went there for, that's normal, but if you forget what the refrigerator is for, that's Alzheimers. I think nowadays lots of people confuse these two conditions.

In my observation, most people who make it to, or almost to, the century mark are mentally astute. I don't think people with declining brain function typically make it to those very advanced ages.