PINs, passwords & access codes -- gone walkabout.

My PIN for my ATM card went out of my head yesterday when I was buying some groceries and getting some cash out.  It just left.  I felt it go actually.  I could remember the first 2 digits and after than it all went wobbly.  I nervously tried four numbers and stared at the terminal, expectant.  I was wrong.  I tried another combination - same number but in a different order.  No luck.  I decided not to try again.  Perhaps I'd remember in the middle of the night.

So today, I tried again, with completely different numbers, feeling so certain they were correct.  This time I did exceed my allowed number of attempts.

I rang the bank.  Because it's linked to my business trust account, resetting the PIN over the phone is not possible.  I have to have a new one sent out in the mail.  I am pretty sure I know what it is now and apparently I can try again after midnight because the card resets.  I hope I've remembered it and am not just falling victim to a dose of wishful thinking.

I wonder what makes something like a PIN just walk out of your brain?  It's not like this is a new number.  It's been sitting in there since 2008.  Embedded is what I thought it was.  Just goes to show you can't relax about things like this.  I think I'll need to devise a drill where I run through all of my PIN numbers and passwords on a regular basis.  How regular though?  I can't afford the time to do it daily!  There are so many access codes these days.  I added a new password during the week and it obviously pushed the PIN out.

Do the gates of heaven - or hell, for that matter - have a PIN or passcode? I imagine it turns up in the mail 7 to 10 business days before it will be required in one of those anonymous business envelopes.  They send them like that for security purposes, but everyone knows that envelopes like that have the access code for some kind of money or information in them.

I imagine that one might arrive at the gates of the afterlife in a somewhat flustered state, with a lot riding on your ability to punch the code in correctly.  How many attempts do you get? What happens if you're still wrong on the third attempt?  Or is this the modern definition of purgatory - spending eternity trying to remember the perfect combination of numbers to allow the door to be unlocked?  Imagine never being able to remember but being condemned to trying for ever! Two days of trying has been more than enough for me.

One day we'll just be embedded with a barcode or something.  I think I might get one.