Remembering the game of checkers
I use to think I was pretty good at checkers, but I always lost the game to my granddad and my dad. There was always someone who was better at playing checkers than me. Even my sister's former next door neighbor Skag use to beat me at checkers. I didn't enjoy loosing. I enjoyed winning. It felt so good to emerge on top as the winner. I liked the strategy of the game. The chance to plot out my moves against the other guy. I strive to get my man crowned king before the other guy. It was thrilling for me to capture the other guy in a double or triple jump. I would end up with two or three of the opponent's men. Now, I don't hardly play the game. The games I play are on the Internet. If I try checkers, it is against a beginner who half the time wants to talk and not play the game. I try to concentrate on the game and they quit on me. I play Holiday Express on Hipsoft. com. This game involves loading presents into a freight car and being timed in the process. I keep aiming for the next level where the time changes and the presents get more difficult to place. I see the snow storms up North and I am grateful to be in Florida. Our family friend Joe is in Minnesota where it is 19 below. I use to think a temperature that cold could only be in Alaska. I see why the snowbirds flock South for the Winter. I imagine the melting snow would be one slushy mess when the temperature finally does warm up. I covered my little keylime tree last night. I know it didn't reach freezing yet, but later in the week may be different.
posted by seaside @ 1:39 AM
1 Comments:
At 6:47 AM,
Lew said…
I remember playing checkers when I was young. I can’t remember whether I won or lost most of the time. Checkers is from a time when life was at a slower pace than now. People would spend hours watching a slow moving baseball game. But then people had a lot of time on their hands. It is good that you won most of the time because you could enjoy the sweet taste of victory. Now, myself on the other hand had a game that I loved but always seemed to experience the “agony of defeat” as they say on the sports show. The game was monopoly. I would have a bunch of my friends come over to my house to play and I lost every time. I even tried abandoning my own strategies for the game. I would watch the others to see how they played the game and I would try their tactics in future games, but to no avail. I always ended up a pauper by losing all of my money and all of my property. In monopoly, it just doesn’t get much worse than that. In frustration from having lost a game, I would strap on my machete and go for a hike in the woods to soothe the nerves because it was always peaceful. I always took my machete. I had a military web utility belt and a fabric case for the machete that would attach to the belt. The machete was essentially for protection since it was woods with wild critters. One weekend my cousin Albert came to visit with his parents. After getting talked out I asked him if he would like to go exploring in the woods. I told him of a small cave that I had recently discovered. Albert was a city boy having spent his entire life in Schenectady, New York in a row house. A row house is like the houses that you see at the beginning of the TV series All in the Family with Archie Bunker. All of the homes on the street are identical. My cousin Albert was enthusiastic and I went and got my machete and strapped it on. His mother was absolutely horrified. The expression on her face was indescribable. She was just amazed that my mother would let me go out like that with this great big “knife”. I assured her that everything would be alright and she grudgingly agreed to let Albert go with me. My dog Buttons wanted to go too. She was a small Border collie and loved going with me when I went hiking in the woods. She would get excited when she saw me strap on the machete because she knew that meant that I was going hiking. So off we went, me, Albert, and my dog Buttons. We went deep into the woods to the cave that I had discovered the week before. We arrived and there was an opening that was easy to walk through if you bent over just a little bit. Albert went a short ways as far as the light shone in. I wanted to explore further back into the cave into the darkness. He wouldn’t have any of that and so he decided to retreat back to the outside world and wait for me. I cautiously made my way back deeper into the cave feeling my way along the wall. Then I heard a noise deeper into the cave where it was totally dark and I couldn’t see what it was. It must be my dog. I wanted to leave but wanted my dog to come with me. I could hear her moving around back there. I couldn’t see her but I could hear her. I started calling her name. “buttons” I called. “come on girl.” Nope, she just wouldn’t come. My cousin Albert yelled into the entrance of the cave asking me what was taking so long. I yelled back that I was trying to get Buttons. He yelled back that Buttons was with him. Oh, my gosh. What was back in the dark cave with me if it wasn’t the dog. I beat a hasty retreat back to the cave entrance and sure enough there was Buttons with Albert. What an adventure that was. And here I am still talking about it many years later. And that is why I took a machete with me on my hikes into the woods. Have a nice day and enjoy the coolness. Mary and I are going to the Golden Corral for supper tonight. Last night Mary made barbecue ribs and baked potatoes for supper. I always use extra barbeque sauce. Today is vet day for the kitten. She gets some immunizations shots today. Her legs seems to have healed really good because she runs through the house “faster than a locomotive” and can leap up onto chairs “in a single bound”. Sounds like the lines from the beginning of the Superman television series. Perhaps she should be called superkitten. She spends her days with continuous play. She lays in my arms each morning as I have my coffee and work at the table with my laptop. She just seems to have boundless energy. A good kitten and we are very happy with her. In fact we will be leaving pretty soon for the vet. She has an early morning appointment. Take care, Lew
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