Who needs to deal with the ravages of old age on a day when your agenda is chock full of appointments?

That’s what happened on a recent Wednesday when I dashed to the door to get to an early morning press conference, the first item on my task list.

Getting to the car, I discovered I had misplaced my key ring. Well, never mind. I keep a spare set tucked into my purse for just such an occasion.

When I got to my destination I found my reading glasses were missing from their usual compartment of my bag. I squinted my way through jotting down information in my notebook. Afterwards I dug around inside the car to see if the spectacles had fallen out on the floor.

Back home at the end of the day, I got to searching for the missing items. As I dumped out all the contents of the purse onto the bed, the glasses tumbled out of the deep recesses. The key chain was found buried in the bottom of the backpack used to carry camera equipment and other tools of the trade.

Then strike three. I realized there was no sign of the whereabouts of my cell phone. True panic ensued. The instrument is employed for much more than communication. It is a portable brain accessory that contains a contact directory, photographs, voice recordings, a calendar and alarm system, a calculator and extra notepad.  The physical gadget can be replaced, but the fear was losing the data stored inside. Trembling at that prospect, I trotted back to the car on a new search-and-rescue mission. Luckily, the phone was stashed in the dashboard pocket.

I know from following social media that I’m not the only local senior who suffers bouts of forgetfulness and lost possessions. Facebook sites and web boards abound with postings about lost or found keys, glasses, electronic gizmos and other valuables. Not long after my black day someone reported finding a pricey iPhone in a Walmart shopping cart. There was no follow-up, leaving me and many others wondering whether it ever got back to its owner.

Beyond that scope, our community is inhabited by countless animal lovers who keep up a steady stream of messages about pups and kitties that have gone astray of desperate human companions. Others relay woeful tales of abused or abandoned critters in need of rescue and homes. Often as not, such stories come to happy endings.

On a different tangent, early this week a major worldwide glitch hit Facebook and its Instagram and WhatsApp relatives. While users were able to send and receive text messages, they could not transmit still images, videos or audios. Though the short-lived problem cramped the lifestyles of many, it prompted a bit of relief for those of us living under the veil of real or imagined old-timers disease. After all, if the masters of cyberspace   can lose track of things, we can feel like we’re in pretty good company.