O P I N I O N

BOOMER LIFE

by Annette Kurman

Is your mind overwhelmed with so many numbers, passwords, and other minutiae that if someone asks for your license plate number, you come up blank? If you give me a minute or two, I can visualize the last four numbers. 

This happens often to me, especially in regard to the aforementioned license plate number. Regularly not purposefully remembering where I park in a lot, when I return to my car, I am faced with dozens of  small black SUVs, along with all the white SUVs and the occasional silver car added in. If I really don’t remember where I park, I’ll trudge up and down rows seeking the one with the doggy day care magnet on the back. (I know, I can click the horn, but how embarrassing!) 

And the other numbers I don’t use on a regular basis, but when I need them, I need them! Professional license numbers (after 40 years, you’d think I’d be able to pull my R.N. license number out of my brain immediately), our TSA pre-check numbers, etc.

I don’t know if it will work for you or you may even think it’s a silly idea, but when I do know where my phone is (see prior story), I go to contacts and click on me (you should be at the top) and in the contact information I list all the things that would be helpful to have handy should I need them.

Under “notes” I have my various work ID numbers, what store/location numbers I work at, my license plate number, my VIN number, my car insurance information, the number for the copy machine, my SiriusXM information (it went out on me recently and you need to know the password, the radio ID number, the email it’s listed under, and then the 100-digit account number [JK, it’s only 12 digits]) to have the magic link mystically sent to your car while you’re in it and it is on so that SiriusXM can reset itself, within 15 minutes), and any other information I don’t want to spend an hour looking for in my desk or especially if I’m nowhere near my desk.

Another option is to take pictures of everything and keep them in that special password-protected folder only you can access if you remember the password. I have photos of my license plate, my Covid card, my insurance card, my health insurance card, pictures of my diplomas so I remember what year I graduated from which college, pictures of my Rx bottles, my birth certificate, my marriage license, my Medicare card, my eye glass prescriptions, my immunizations, my blood type from the Red Cross, my passport. You know, all the things a hacker would pay oodles of money for should they find and then break into my phone. My life would be over.

Maybe this second option is something NOT to do. 

Anyway, that’s my two cents for the day. Have a good one!

You can reach Annette Kurman at annette.kurman@gmail.com