Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Another Sure Sign of Aging

I have a legendary ability to recall numbers. Series of numbers, series of digits, it doesn't matter. I remember every phone number I've ever had. I remember my father's office number, and the business has been closed since 1980. I recall both phone numbers at my best friend's childhood home. People at work know I have ridiculous numerical recall. Once, in a college psychology class we did an exercise where a series of numbers was read aloud and we were asked to recite them in reverse order. I won the competition handily. I've always been proud of this little gift.
Last night, I pulled into my neighorhood and the gate was closed. No sweat. I pulled up to the keypad and couldn't remember my gate code. It's four digits.
It dawned on my that I was in trouble when I realized I was keying in my phone number for some absurd reason. Then, absentmindedly, I put in my ATM PIN. That didn't work. I started rifling through a mental Rolodex: Windows password, e-mail password, laptop password, pascode for my voicemail. The gate code would not reveal itself.
Sitting in my car foolishly staring at the screen, I called my daughter on her cell phone. That number, I remembered. I just said, "I'm having a brain tumor and can't remember the gate code." She reminded me and I made way way through the gate safely.
For a good time call 867-5309. Rikki, Don't lose that number. Four and twenty blackbirds baked into a pie. 88 piano keys. 13 stripes on the American flag. 444 days of the Iranian hostage crisis. 5280 feet in a mile. Four quarts in a gallon. I could go on and on, but who wants that? It's getting old that's got my number.

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3 comments:

Linnea said...

Darrell, I must say I laughed out loud when reading this post and the one above it. Great stuff! I hope you and yours had a great 4th.

Darrell said...

Leave it to the beautiful and forever young to laugh at us old codgers.

-DR

Anonymous said...

This is hilarious because I've been there before trying to remember my phone number. I've been there done that! This is your prior TV station colleague that adopted Bear, I believe the dog you found around the TV station.

What drives me crazy is going to a conference and someone comes up and says hello - you know them, but can't remember the association. So - hats off to FaceBook!