Monday - November 23, 2009

A night full of surprises

Bowling hasn’t been going so great for me this season. I found my average dropping every week, and my ability to get the ball to do what I wanted getting worse and worse. Cleaning the balls, going over them with a scrubby pad, soaking them in warm water and detergent ... none of that made a difference.

I finally threw in the towel and had the pro shop guy at the alley give them a bake and a resurfacing. Baking is the name of the process where the ball spends an hour or so in a machine called a Rejuvinator, where a small area on the ball is hit with a hot air jet, and then the ball is rotated over an oil absorbing pad from 3M. Modern balls absorb quite a lot of oil, and heat is about the only way you can get the oil out. But it’s a very precise kind of heating; just dipping the ball into boiling water or putting in your own oven is a sure-fire way to make it crack in half. Been there, killed 2 balls already. Not going there again.

Resurfacing is just that. The pro shop has a machine, much like a potter’s wheel, that has the torque to spin the ball around real quick while someone bears down on it with a sanding block. A good resurfacer can sand down a ball in a couple minutes, then sand it back to whatever finish you want, from dull to ultra-shiny.

So a bake and resurface pretty much brings the ball back to like-new condition, and it’s usually good for about a third to half a season of play. Both my balls were turning into duds, so I had it done.

And it works.

I started this season with a 173 book average, and after 12 weeks I’m down to a 162. I threw pretty well the first 2 weeks, which spiked my numbers up to the 195 range. Then the whole thing turned to poop. [ book averages are good only for the first week in this league. Good idea or bad, that’s how it is. ] Tonight I threw a 650 series, almost. 644 or something like that. 203, 248, 193 I think it was. And we won all 7 points handily. Or maybe it was as one of the semi-pro guys on the league said, that the oil pattern was much better tonight. He surmised that the alley had cleaned out their lane cleaning machine. Ok, my team noticed that the back ends were pretty snappy, but there was significant oil out past the 10 board. It seemed to go all the way out to the 5 or 4 board about halfway down the lane. That’s not what I’d call “much better”, especially if you’re an Out & Back kind of roller ( vs a Down & In kind ). No, for once I think our team was operating on at least 3 1/2 cylinders, instead of our usual 1 1/2. So we had a great night, and had a lot of fun with the folks on the other team. That’s what we’re there for anyway. Sure, it was great doing a bit of ass kicking, especially against a team where the match up was just about scratch. 2 pins handicap. And they weren’t bowling poorly tonight either. We were just bowling better. That’s a nice thing to experience. I just hope we can do it again next week.

You know what sucks about throwing an ‘almost 650’? Realizing that doing that means ... with a bit more practice, a lot of control, and a little bit of luck ... maybe I can throw a 700 series. I’ve never done that. Never. Not yet.

Hope springs eternal!

So that was my nice surprise for the night. The two posts under this one were my not so nice surprise. I’ve got to think about this a bit, but I’m liking it less by the minute.

Posted by Drew458     on 11/23/2009 at 11:36 PM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner