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"I just hate sitting and writing I had to do that in school."

Saul Kripke

Welcome to one of each new year's most pervasive challenges, a task that should bethe easiest of January's list of transitions.

Take a deep breath, slow down and start writing the date as "2022."

This should be simple, but for many, it is not. Count me in that majority.

A few daysin, and I've missed the mark several times.

It's not that I have a particular fondness for "2021." I am simply a man of habits, most of them bad.

That and I have always had underperforming penmanship and never cared to improve when I no longer had a teacher grading it.

Today I also lack patience, particularly when writing checks, and want to get the task over as quickly as possible. My hand is rushing through the motions and just at the end of that dateline, my mind is probably heading somewhere else.

The result is hastily scrawled "2021."

The good news is that this year's mistake writing a 1 instead of a 2, is pretty easy to fix. Just add a horizontal base to the 1 by drawing a small line to the right. Then put a little cap on the top of the 1, sort of like a reversed "C".

Next year will be even easier converting a tardy 2 from 2022 into a 3 for 2023. You just add the reversed "C" to the top.

Trouble returns in two years. Turning a 3 into the 4 needed for 2024 is difficult. Likewise, converting a 4 to a 5 is a stretch. It's pretty easy the following year to make a 5 a 6 in 2026. Just close the base loop. But here comes trouble 12 months later when making a 6 into a 7.

We catch a break making 7 into 8 in 2028, just use a backslash stroke and seal the bottom.

But dressing up 8 to 9 is a mess, as is 9 to 0.

On the bright side, bank checks will probably be long gone by 2029 and 2030, as more and more financial and legal transactions become digital.

I see it coming. In fact, I had to complete several legal document signings in the fall involving out-of-town family matters.

One computer service even had me type the name I used in my signature, then it asked me to pick out my "handwriting style" from several choices.

I clicked through the selections and found one that was almost a dead ringer for my written signature.

After that, all I had to do was click the signature lines, and the written signature appeared. It was pretty easy and pretty amazing.

New technology, I've noticed, arrives like a new year, showing up whether you're ready to change or not.

Bill Kirby has reported, photographed and commented on life in Augusta and Georgiafor 45 years.

Read the original:
Bill Kirby: January brings the challenge of crossing the international dateline - The Augusta Chronicle