I gotcha numbah
Do you know what this is? Well of course you do! It is an odometer. But wait! It is so much more than that. This is a customary celebratory marking of a milestone!
I actually had planned to stop at 222 222 and take a picture, but I got distracted so this had to do. Then I found that so fascinating, that I stopped and took a picture of this one:
In case you can't read it, it says 222 444. The last three numbers are exactly double the first three.
I get this tradition from my Dad. For some reason, he found it fascinating to mark certain numerical occurences by pulling over to the side of the road and making everyone look. That might be a slight exaggeration. He didn't always pull over. Sometimes he kept driving and had us watch the odometer turn over. Then we'd go back to what we were doing. Very occasionally, the milestone was celebrated with an ice cream cone.
He also marked other numerical events by exclaiming over them. These included pointing out that the shape of 88 is the same upside down and backwards as it is forwards. I also remember that when I turned 15, he told me I was exactly half the age of my oldest sister and that would never happen again. [ and it hasn't]
He used number tricks to help us remember mulitplication - did you know that the answers to the 9 times tables all have numbers that add up to NINE? 1X9 - 9; 2X9=18 (which if you take the 1 and 8 and add them, that makes NINE);3X9 = 27 (2+7 = 9) etc. etc. up to 11X9 where it all breaks down.
Dad also used numbers to fake us out - as in "You can have as many candies you want, as long as you don't have over two". We would get all excited about the freedom to eat SO MANY candies, only to be brought up short by the fact that, eating two candies [or less] when you are about to embark on decorating 4 gingerbread houses is not really that many.
It's funny how these little things live on once you move out of home. I find myself pointing out number games to those around me. I took the time to figure out approximately how many miles I had travelled when I went to Australia and how many times around the world that was equal to. When my #1 son was born, I called my Dad on the way to the hospital and in the middle of my labor pains took time to say "Do you realize, that if the baby is born today, it will be born on 02/19/1992. And I was pleased as punch to note that he was born at 11:02 in the morning.
"Look here" I say to the piano student "It is the 6th of May 2007 - when you write that out, you get 05/06/07 ! Isn't that the coolest thing?"
In some ways, I find it weird that I notice these types of things, because I am completely hopeless at basic math. One year I added up my childcare costs three times ON A CALCULATOR and got three different answers.
I also got the 24-hour clock numbers all mixed up in my head which led us to miss the plane on the way to my parents' 50th anniversary. 2200 sure looked like midnight to me. We arrived in plenty of time to catch the plane, only to be told it had already left the ground. Try to explain that one to your family. "No, it wasn't a typo. Let's just say that Marni won't be in charge of the tickets anymore."
At least I no longer think that as long as I have cheques in my cheque book, I have money in the account.
