The Octagonal Octogenarian and the Truncated Triple plus One

Written in response to: Write a story starring an octogenarian who’s more than meets the eye.... view prompt

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Adventure Coming of Age Fiction

Complete truncation?


Rectification?



We will all be waiting. A very long time for that to occur.


On the regular octagon, there are eleven distinct symmetries.


Who likes “regular” anyway.


I am old enough to remember when Rubik and his cube came on the scene and indeed did “piss” a lot of people off-with the colored sides, fine motor skill requirements and critical thinking tests too.


Me. I just threw it against the wall in a frustrated attempt to align all the colored, squares.


Rubik just wasn’t my thing. It was my aversion to organize and separate anything by and of its colors. I think my systems prefer psychedelics. A miss mosh and swish swish of colored strokes here and there and everywhere.🎨🧩🎨🧩🎨🧩


Call me crazy.

I prefer free spirited🙏🏻

Free to lift my spirit when and how I please.

Thank you.


I have been around a long time.

Not quite in the 8 “ishes” though.


Me and my soul were born, old.

Traditional.

Classical.

Vintage.


Como se’ dice’: More grown up. Than the average kid my biological age.


Sensible. Balanced. Balanced in personality. Balanced in personality and emotional behavior.


Embraced the concept of obsolete. May be even the living example of it. Always thinking more differently….pardon my lack of grammatical correctness.


Matured in thinking all neatly packaged inside the body of a toddler, then pre-pubescent being and then full fledged adult. The weird thing is the consistency with which I carried the consistency consistently.


Always annoyingly inquiring ‘why’ along the way. Pushing the boundaries of the “No.”. Prepared for what was coming……….


Ready for anything. Equipped with the good book and a prayer. Adjusted when necessary, psyched up for anything that blew its air my way.


At times, many times keenly noticing that person that sat beside the self in the frenzied often hysterical state of confusion.


When I found my heart in my mouth, I reached into my bag of jacks and tossed the little ball up in the air to see what I could grab in the moment. If proceeding on the tender-hook of the minutiae.


I,

Shook it off.

Had to get the job done.

Little jobs.

Big jobs.

All are important.

None are not unimportant.☺️


The roles are simply presented a bit, how shall we say, differently.


More head down, fingers tapping. Going on nowadays. We really oughta take more notice. In the interest of safety.


Is it any wonder why our most important safety traffic symbol to date is a


STOP sign🚦🛑🚥🛑🚸⚠️‼️❓❕…….


What is the fun of a self driving car anyway?


In this day and age, my biggest fear.

Distracted drivers.

Head in the sand drivers.

Siri guiding-my-miles-drivers.


I prefer to know where I am going, even if and when it takes me longer. And, I get lost.


Which happens.


Did you know, according to Forbes, texting and driving is one of the riskiest behaviors. Important youth take note. (Important youth include all of you.)


So listen up.


Texting and driving is a distraction in three ways: Visually, manually and cognitively.


We do not even need Rubik to teach us this🫵🏻🫤.

Nor endless cruises in the golf cart……


It is dangerous.

Please do not do it.


”You’re taking your eyes off the road to look at your phone screen, you’re taking at least one hand off the wheel to type and you’re also taking your mind off of driving, which can have disastrous results”. (forbes)


I know you are all important. I really do. But not that all important. To risk your life for instant gratification.


So. please “10 and 2” That is driver’s ed speak for keep your hands at the good old fashioned clock time of 10 o’clock and 2 o’clock.

🕙🕑.


You may just add ten twenty thirty years to your beautiful life🙂


According to the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) distracted driving has become the leading cause of vehicle crashes in the U.S.


This is frightening stuff.


Did you know.


”Studies show that using your phone to send a text while driving can have the same effect on your reaction time as drinking four beers in an hour and then driving. 🍺🍺🍺🍺.


Texting and driving=drinking four beers in an hour.

Case closed.Don’t do it.


When you take your eyes off the road to use your phone, it can take up to 27seconds for your eyes to recover and re orient to the road for the mental distraction to end.


No fancy Ray Bans in the whole wide world will be snazzy enough to help you look good if you wrap yourself and your wheels ‘round a tree.


An an octogenarian thinker for most of my existence up til now, I’ve done ok. getting from here to there and there to here without “her”.


I have nothing against her. At all.


But octogenarian thinking at such a young age coupled with the old soul to boot. Is founded on cautious cautiousness. One might counter and argue:

paranoia.


I disagree, beg to differ.

I am still alive and kicking and annoying those I love.😉


Why do I not engage with her?


I octagonally consider it an invasion of my privacy.


Really.


Why give it all away for free?

Free is not at all it is cracked up to or supposed to be.


Really.


The invisible strings are always there. At the ready, to break the ties that bind too.


We had best be kind to one another for real.For the now.Because repairing reparations will only be destined to become a mouthful of nonsense.


When you put yourself in the driver’s seat do so with the integrity and wisdom of a person who has grown. Grown in the way to know their limitations and are not destined to “prove” anything, “prove” they are not as “was” as they once were.


Some may say it is a dance.

I prefer to call it what it is: Operation of a motor vehicle.


We owe it to our fellow travelers if nothing else.

Please take your self-importance and place the phone on the floor of the car mat. Eyes ahead, ten and two, you and you.


One must assume that an octogenarian knows how to navigate the rules of the road just fine…..being that they are still here to share their stories of the rules of their road.







August 12, 2023 14:26

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