Four times I have risen from my desk chair in the last 30 minutes and gone to the living room to take some aspirin to ease the headache threatening to split my skull open. Four times I have come back from the living room having forgotten to take the aspirin.

Not that I just walked to the living room and turned around and came right back to my desk. No, I got distracted by other things to do. Things apparently more interesting and important than taking the aspirin to quench the pounding in my head.

The first time, I clipped my fingernails and toenails.

The second time, I sat down and read an article in an art magazine.

The third time, I filed my fingernails and toenails.

The fourth time, I cleaned the Ionic Breeze.

And of course, during the coming and going of each trip from den to living room, I had to stop and play with the wild and rambunctious cats in the kitchen.

I am now going to make one final trip to the living room to take some aspirin. This time, I am going to carry along my mug-o-water and the empty aspirin bottle that is sitting on my desk. Perhaps with such unsubtle reminders in hand, I will not forget what I went to the living room to do and the aspirin might make it into my mouth, enter my digestive system and bloodstream, and knock out this awful headache.

One can only hope nothing interesting distracts me on my way to and fro. I seem to be just a little bit prone to distraction today, or perhaps I am actually becoming senile.