It isn't Friday, again. Is it?

 Is it just me? Or, do most people try keeping up with what day it is and at the beginning of the week have, at least, a semi-schedule of what needs to get done each day? In a way, setting a schedule for the week as to what day to go to the grocery store, what time limits may exist on completing other tasks like getting prescriptions refilled or picked up, and running other errands. Do they plan those activities around not only the day of the week, but even the time of day? I don't know. Maybe I'm weird, but I plan my excursions, literally, around what time other people are most likely to not be where I need to go. This past year has completely destroyed any faith I had, not only in the method I had developed and mastered over the years in how to schedule around others, but in my ability to compensate for change and continue to functionally accomplish simple goals.

  This destruction of my daily activities started last March, when every child got out of school for spring break. Because I am disabled and no longer work, I knew by hearing the school bus go by in the morning that it was about 730 which meant that I could sleep a couple of more hours. The same sound let me know when it was about 4:30 in the afternoon. So, from the time of the first school bus until the time of the second one was a better time to go to the store because it is going to be less busy. Until the kids were not going back to school from spring break! Although I agreed with the decision to not to send them back, I had no idea how dependent I was on the departures and arrivals of the neighborhood’s bus riding kids! But, the whole thing turned my time orientation into mush. I lost track of "my time" which is, among other things, time that I can go where I need and to be free of toddlers at the store; to be able to shop without giggly preteens in groups hanging around the clothes or food in the mall; and to avoid the traffic of idiotic teenage drivers. That list is far below the complete list of standards for "my time", but they are things that from Monday through Friday, I could generally avoid by keeping to my schedule. I lost the ability to plan anything within "my time" when Covid came along. Now, I know what time it is by what is on TV when I wake up in the morning. I know that sounds horribly lazy and not a statement from someone who is scheduled, but it is all I've got! I guess the other option is looking at a clock, but what fun is that? It may sound crazy, but there is always logical reasoning behind my madness. 

  This interference in my daily life led me to become a pathetic, inexperienced, accidental shopping procrastinator. You lose your "routines" based on years of observing others schedules. After years of doing this, you learn what times best fit your different needs. When a disruption such as I've described occurs, it destroys not only your orientation to the time of day, but it also gets to the day of the week and, as if I didn't need help forgetting the date already, this took care of that. In short, it screws up everything in your life for a long time.  

  How did I get from hearing the school bus in the morning to my whole life being screwed up? Well, this has resulted in me staying up too late which, in response, I end up sleeping too late. That then interferes with the time I am awake during normal operating hours of most places during the day which, in turn, limits the time I have to complete what I need to do. It has caused my good intentions, and often necessities, to be late or to simply not occur. And, somehow, it still shocks me every time I ask myself, “What day is it?” that, without fail, my response to the answer has become, “It’s Friday already?” At which time I realize that I have not done what I needed to get done all week. And, the results of this have been most irritating. 

  Another full week is once again gone. And, I continue to realize that I had intended to go to the pharmacy on Tuesday, but am now going to be out of my medicine for 2 days. I had planned to go to the grocery store and get milk, drinks and cat food or litter earlier in the week. But now, I'm out of what I needed. So, I get to run to a store, hoping that the store will be open but not too busy, and have what I need. And, it dawns on me that I haven’t even walked across the street to get my mail in days. I start to ask myself, where have you been? What happened to the rest of the week? Most often, I can remember nothing to help me account for the days that have passed on without even a nod. 

  I start to ask myself, “Is this really a result of the pandemic's interference on everyone and just worse for me because of my pre-pandemic need to control my exposure to other people? Or, could it be that “the older you get, the faster time flies”?

  I prefer to blame it on the pandemic, because I can't be getting old. There was a time when I really liked Fridays. Now, they surprise me every week with the reminder that I managed to, again, accomplish nothing all week. 

  So, with that, I again am asking myself and checking the phone for what day it is. But, this time, it is to answer the 

question of when do I need to finish and send this story in to compete? And, regardless of how I intended to get this written and submitted days ago, today is now Friday. Thursday left about 3 hours ago. All I'm left with is to rethink whether to blame the Covid pandemic, or my age.