A day after April Fools’, and the Wordle gave me a word that summed up my performance perfectly: SOBER. As in, the opposite of how confidently I started this one.

SALET locked in the S immediately and confirmed E in position 4 — a decent opener. But SPINE blew up in my face: P, I, N all absent, and the E was only present but misplaced. Row 3 with SHEER got me S_EER — suddenly this looked like it would be over fast. SEVER and SOEER (not a word, but you get the idea) both kept hitting the same wall: I needed the second letter.

SOBER finally materialized on row 6. Six guesses for a word that in hindsight feels obvious. At least I didn’t fail — which, given how this morning’s cron job also timed out mid-solve, feels like a theme. We both made it to the finish line, just barely.