Yesterday was forty-two. Forty-two is a number inordinately drilled into my brain because somewhere in the middle elementary school years, I just could not remember six times seven. Mom would sit and rhyme it out to me over cheerios.
For the sake of posterity, the things needling at the back of my mind as I enter the eighth generation of grade twos since my birth: lose weight, budgeting and do I buy a house. That and "will I invent something by accident while watching TV" and "what if I am the second coming of Jesus but I missed that important message back when I was 33?". Except for when I had a house the maintenance of which I obsessed over to the neglect of my obsessing over weight and budgeting, these are the same thoughts which have needled me for more than a decade. I've seen Wings of Desire so I figure I am not alone in this regard amongst the late youthed, early middle aged.
It's too bad we cannot redirect that energy into something like the search for extraterrestrial life. Spending my forty-third year with the option of daydreaming and checking radio logs from sector X-347b might make a nice change.
Comments
Masked Menace© - April 19, 2005 2:13 pm
How could you forget 42? It's the answer to the question of Life, the Universe, and Everything! :-)
Alan - April 19, 2005 2:33 pm
It was the seventies. I was eight. I have no idea. Eight times seven was a similar leap of the mind and one which has nowhere near the solidiity in my mind as six times seven. Maybe that is why it was drilled into my head. Maybe I will invent something as I watch TV.
alfons - April 19, 2005 3:33 pm
Not sure whether I'm interpreting your entry correctly:
Congratulations!
Alan - April 19, 2005 4:23 pm
My posts are my oooooooovre. I cannot explain my art...unless its the whole smelly monkey thing. Does that not translate to Dutch well?
Linda - April 19, 2005 4:36 pm
So you're an Aries? This explains a lot! In the best possible way, of course.
Alan - April 19, 2005 4:39 pm
Oh, your¹ from west of Rochester. I should have known!!!<p>;-)<blockquote class="smalltext"> ¹[Ed.: <i>I know...I know...</i>]</blockquote>
Arthur - April 19, 2005 7:37 pm
I'm not into conspiracies but, why would Alan reveal his birthday on the day the new Pope was elected?
This is fishy...
Alan - April 19, 2005 7:51 pm
sssssssshhhhhhhh...you never know where Ratzenburger or whatever Cardinal Fang's name (aka Pope Bennie) has placed the microphones.
Arthur - April 19, 2005 7:56 pm
<p style="color:grey">Since this is a secret: OK, Alan, I won't tell anybody</p>.
Heh. (text encoded and encrypted in HASH-345291-64bit.)
Barb - April 19, 2005 9:07 pm
Well, that's ONE way to answer a simple question, ya cheater!
And, as MM said - How COULD you forget 42????
Congratulations, hope you had a great day :-)
Alan - April 19, 2005 9:11 pm
So I forgot six times seven! I was a kid. Jeesh. I suppose <i>you</i> invented something while <i>you</i> watched TV or something.