Digressions: My Life in 500 Words or Less

My name is Robert, and I’m a Wordle-holic.

At first I had convinced myself I was just a casual social-media-posting Wordle player. A gold block here. A green block there.

I went a day — heck, even a couple of days — without playing. I could stop anytime I wanted, I told myself.

But I didn’t.

I kept playing.

And playing.

Sometimes, I sat up in bed beside my sleeping partner, Becca, my fingers poised over the keyboard of my laptop, waiting for midnight so the new Wordle for the day would appear.

Soon, I had played every day for 11 consecutive days.

Yes. I played just before I started to write this blog. There. I said it.

In case you haven’t heard (it was less than a month ago that I did), Wordle is a daily word puzzle in which a player tries to guess a random five-letter word. A player gets six guesses filling in boxes with letters. Boxes containing letters a player guesses correctly turn colors: gold if it's included in the word but in the wrong position; green if it's included in the word and in the right position. A player makes subsequent guesses based on that information.

This game apparently popped up last October, and I had been completely unaware of it until mid-January. Now I know it oh so well.

So far I’ve correctly guessed the word every time I’ve played, even though it took me all six guesses on one occasion. My best game took me only two guesses. Several took me only three guesses. In fact, my very first attempt took me only three guesses.

Sure, it only takes five or 10 minutes each day and only one Wordle is available per day, but it is deceptively addictive. At least for a word nerd, like me.

So, yeah, I have a problem. Especially if it is true that the new owner of Wordle — The New York Times — plans to require a fee for players.

That might mean I will eventually need to go cold turkey. I wonder what the withdrawal symptoms will be like.

Will I take the edge off with a crossword puzzle? Will Jumble become my crutch?

One day at a time.

I think I'll be fine, and I don’t want to think about withdrawal.

Hey ... “think” is a five-letter word. So is “about.”

Uh, oh.