Numbers In My Head

For the last two days, I have been messing around trying to get on the Duke Energy website in order to pay my electric bill.  Duke, in its wisdom, decided to change the website in order to make it "easier" to manage my account online.  What's to manage??  I log on, and I pay the bill.  Period.  But for this current "improvement", I had to change User Name and Password...plus set a PIN, and choose THREE security questions.  Huh?  Why??  There were buttons to highlight that were mostly invisible to me because they were in light blue and not mentioned in print.  I finally got it done, but gee whiz!  Again, why??

In the process of setting things up, I became aware of all of the numbers floating around in my brain.
I have a friend who is blind.  He wasn't born that way but is a victim of genetic retinitis pigmentosa.  In adjusting to his somewhat-gradual inability to see, he learned to rely on his memory for information.  I am in awe of this.  He told me one time that it is sometimes difficult for him to get rid of OLD information in his head in favor of NEW stuff.  And now I understand what he meant.  In the process of setting up this new demand from Duke Energy, I became aware that I have all kinds of old info in my head.  Most of them are numbers.  If you were to ask me what they are, I would only be able to answer if I weren't trying to recall them.  They are rote memory.

For example, I know my Social Security number by heart.  I can rattle it off quickly if no one asks what it is...but occasionally, someone official will ask me the last four numbers of it just to verify my identity, and I have to run the entire number in my head before getting to the last four.  I hope I'm not the only one who has to do this.  It's like having to run the whole alphabet in the head just to see what comes after "P"...

So what other numbers are in my brain?
My bank account number, because it used to be required to sign into their website.
Phone numbers.  Oh, my, yes!  My sister's phone number is in there, as is my home phone, and my friend Judy's.  Beyond that is the phone number for our house in Oak Park, IL, where we moved in 1958.  I remember it because the Chicago area had word-prefixes.  Oak Park was EUclid-3 or EUclid-6.  Our number was EU3-3101, which eventually changed to all numbers:  383-3101.   My grandparents' phone number, which later became my parents' number when they moved there, is still in the memory banks:  672-3883.  Unfortunately, all of these newfangled cell phone numbers change so often that I don't have my family's cell numbers in my head.  I finally managed to memorize my OWN cell number, but I don't use my cell phone for calls very often.  (Sadly, most cell phone users rely on the phones to store the numbers, since there is no phone book in which to look them up.  Take away their phones, and they are helpless to call anyone for help.) 
The prisoner number for Jean Valjean in Les Miserables: 24601.
The numbers associated with TV shows:  Hawaii 50, Beverly Hills 90210, etc.
Birthdays.  Even some birthdates for people who have passed.  January 5.  January 15.  February 2.  February 20.  March 2.  March 25.  April 6. April 23.  May 5.  May 17.  August 4.  August 6.  September 23.  October 31.  November 13.  December 7.  December 23. 
Addresses and Zip Codes.  I don't do quite so well with all of these.  I THINK I finally have my daughter's address and Zip Code from memory because I have sent many boxes of stuff their way, but I still check to make sure. 

Heck, I can't remember where I put my glasses half the time, so why do I remember the stuff that just isn't needed anymore??  My parents and grandparents have all passed.  Why do I still recall everything that I no longer need when I can't remember the stuff I WANT to remember????

So, what numbers are rolling around in YOUR head?  Rotsa ruck figuring that out!