Beyond brilliant ... plus an entry, if one of us is lucky... in These titles mean nothing.

Well it’s a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Sunny and warm/cool in the way September Sundays are supposed to be.

I’m at my kitchen table, thawing Italian sausage in the frying pan, washing a load of jeans in the basement, and looking at Martha Stewart cupcakes. It’s a good day. Nothing thrilling but good.

I started out in bed this morning finishing the week’s sudokus. I had seven of them from the back pages of the Cedar Rapids Gazette. They were in varying states of completion but I completed all seven. Made me feel sorta good. Reminded me too of the test I took at work on Friday.

It might be the last standardized test I ever take. If so, I guess that’s ok with me. I’ve always been good at tests. Better at tests than at real life. Real life is hard, tests are easy. So I’ve always said. This was an employment - god I can’t remember exactly what it was called. Employment Readiness maybe. It was put out by the ACT people who make college entrance tests. We did it with number two pencils filling out little circles. The booklets were sealed and we were the only person to open them. We had to have photo ID and had to sign in and out of the room.

I took all three tests. Reading Assessment, Math something or another and Finding Information. I had taken the same test eight years ago when my long term workplace folded. That time I took it at the employment office and I took it on a computer. That time I got a Gold rating. The test rates you in an Olympic way with Bronze, Silver, Gold and the supreme Platinum. At that time I thought the test was pretty simple. I had forgotten about a tab to access formulas for the math section so I had estimated. I thought had I remembered to look at the formulas I might have gotten Platinum. Oh well, I thought. I’m not doing that again.

And then Friday I did do it again. My rationale was to see if I was as smart now at age 70 as I had been then at age 62. Another thing in my favor then besides youth was that I was coming from a job where I used computers and calculators and math every day. A sit-down job in other words. In the last eight years I spent almost five years catching sheets and cleaning ink at a screen print job and almost three years putting wiring harnesses together. The printing job was not demanding, but the harness job took a lot of mental energy, at least it did for me. Still does, since I am still working.

The thing about 70 as opposed to 62 is that I am less sharp, less caring, nothing matters as much as it used to. Of course I don’t know how many years I have left to live. I could live a long time. I would rather not but I really don’t know. Life and death have no guarantees. Part of me is angry at my situation. I do not want to give up. I do not want to be a lesser person than I used to be. I resent the heck out of aging. I want to deny it. I want to be that same person I was at 55. Nice round number, 55. I know better of course. I also know I have some control over my fate. I can either consent to being old, or deny it. There is a limit to the denial but I’m not sure what it is. I know being more physically active would be a good thing. I spend too many hours right here at the kitchen table at my computer. I could and should be doing more. I know that. But somehow I just let that fact slip.

Anyway the test was harder than I thought it would be. I finished the reading part before the time limit. But the math and information finding parts did not seem to give me enough time. There were parts I guessed at. Too many parts I guessed at. I did not feel my concentration was very good. I did not feel my mind was just very clear or very good at what it was I was trying to make it do. I also wondered if I was trying hard enough. I had in the back, front and middle of my mind the conviction that it didn’t matter much how well I did in the test. Part of me gave me me credit for taking the damn thing in the first place.

So there.

I did get to sit down for three hours. It took a pretty big chunk out of my work day. All was not lost. I will try to report the results to you when I get them. I hope I’m up for them, whatever they are.

Meanwhile -
- We have been having a lot of rain still.
- Jim and HS friend Kent went to the Spencer County Fair yesterday and had a good time. Kent has a new pickup and they tried it out.
- I saved my giant coleus by cutting it back drastically and repotting the main plant and various children. Pic below is of it before the process.

• I hope you enjoy the photo because I just had to pay Photobucket $29.99 to put it up. Here for that kind of money have another one. It’s the hot air balloon that came by about a month ago and upset Gracie and Hans.

Bye everyone, have a good week ahead.

Last updated September 11, 2016