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Good morning. 🦆🦆🦆18 September 2025Yesterday I had my annual wellness check—my first, actually. I think Medicare mandates them, but I’d somehow skated by for years without one.

During the visit, a young woman asked me to remember three words: dollar, mountain, heaven. Then she handed me a blank sheet and asked me to draw a clock set to two o’clock. I asked if she wanted a digital clock, which was a subtle joke that didn’t land. Most of mine don’t. They’re more for the archive than the audience.

Later, a nurse practitioner rolled in with her laptop perched on a portable standing desk. While reviewing my chart, she asked if I remembered the three words. I said, “Dollar, mountain, heaven.” She nodded, typed something, and moved on. No fanfare. No confetti. Just quiet data entry.

Now, I could tell you she said, “That’s amazing—hardly anyone gets them right. If you get them in order, they give you extra points.” But that part I made up because I find it hilarious. The truth is, she nodded and entered something into the system, probably assigning me a cognitive score that will follow me quietly through the bureaucracy.

My wife later informed me that those little questions were a cognitive test. Of course, I knew that. Cognition is one of those things I try to keep a lid on so it doesn’t escape and start narrating everything.

Speaking of cognition—have you ever woken up after a procedure feeling wide awake but not quite there? You say things that seem perfectly reasonable at the time. Like telling a nurse who’s briefing you that she talks fast, as if it’s the most astonishing revelation. Later, you replay it and realize you were narrating the obvious, like a documentary voiceover for your own disorientation.

“In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on.” — Robert FrostBe yourself; everyone else is already taken.” — Oscar Wilde

#morning #ducks #wellness #photography #birds #nature