PATRICIA MISIUK: Something else to organize: your pills

Does your current dinner hour fall within the time frame of early bird specials? Does your dog-eared AARP membership card occupy prime real estate in your wallet? And does the banter among friends focus on recent -oscopies?

Welcome to seniorhood.

A neighbor not yet 40 years old confessed she now uses a one-slot-for-each-day pill organizer. Her comment prompted me to examine my collection of — at least a dozen, probably more — pill repositories. Attend any senior expo and exhibitors give away free pill organizers to anybody visiting their booth.

Not all pill organizers are created equal. For people whose tablet or gelcap intake numbers fewer than five, the one-slot-per-day model normally suffices for storing medications. The containers, emblazoned with logos from predominantly health care companies, come in all shapes (oblong, square, circular), sizes and colors of the rainbow.

Back in the day, my Saturday night entertainment included pizza and popcorn at the local movie theater. Nowadays I fritter away the hours on Saturday night by watching Seinfeld reruns and filling my pill organizer.

A few years ago, a friend — noted for gotcha gags — gifted me a fancy pill storage unit encased in a leather binder that snaps shut. It contains 56 compartments — four per day for two weeks’ worth of pills. For the time being the black cover shielding the empty slots is gathering dust. Not ready for it…yet.

I stored paint in two 14-slot pill boxes but without success. Oops. Not airtight so paint dried up and cracked like parched soil in Death Valley.

I’m in denial mode as I refuse to embrace the two-slot-per-day version. A recent addition to my arsenal of prescriptions and supplements is a long, semi-curved calcium pill the size of — or it seems to be — a banana. Others of various shapes and colors need additional space so will bite the bullet and upgrade to the two-a-day storage compartments.

There’s no time like the present so will arrange the bottles of medications in a line like soldiers marching into battle and begin sorting. After all, it’s Saturday evening.

Patricia Misiuk is a Lakeland resident who stores small paper clips in unused pill boxes. You can reach her at SHOOK46@aol.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: BTW: BY THE WAY