Tuesday - December 28, 2010

Bowling Blahs

I had a rancid time last night. Bowled poorly, and no matter what I did, it didn’t work. Only time I got any strikes was when I did something wrong. And I got pissed. Frustrated. Grumpy. Not that I shot anyone, beat anyone up, yelled, screamed, or abused the alley’s equipment. I was just sour so I went and sat by myself. Guess that’s not allowed.

So now I’m a problem. I’m probably on double secret probation or something. I had to be talked to. After all, when I went to write down the scores and found that both the pencils provided to us had broken points, and then I had to scribble out one of the scores I wrote down because the other team wasn’t bowling in the same order as what was on the score card (that’s allowed, but decent folks will change the order of the names on the scorecard. And bowling pencils have no erasers) Arrgh. I squeezed the pointless pencil so hard that it broke in two. And then I threw them in the garbage when I went up to the front desk to get new ones. And we all know that the next step right after that is Columbine, with extra explosives.

That’s me, in need of anger management therapy. Prozac at least. Maybe the rubber room.

Yesterday I got a phone call from the wife of my team captain on the Tuesday league. Team Loser. G is really sick, and in the hospital for a week now with “ammonia” she tells me, cranial palsy, and diabetes. He’s on oxygen. That’s all she could tell me. Cranial palsies - the muscles that control the movement of your eyes go haywire - are often caused by diabetes and usually subside once the diabetes is under control. But the guy got to be in his mid 60s before the diabetes struck, so I have no idea how long it will take to stabilize him. Not to mention the pneumonia. So I don’t think he’ll be back to bowling anytime soon. Sad. Maybe we can get a sub this week, but he was out last week too; if he gets behind in his dues he gets pulled. That’s the rules, but I can’t say if they will be applied or not. If he’s out, then we have a vacancy, which puts us at an even further disadvantage.

And on the Monday league, I just made contact with our other teammate who has been absent all season. We’ve kept a slot open for her, running with a vacancy and taking a weekly beating, because she was involved in some kind of management training for her job. The idea was that she’d be back at Christmas, thereabouts. The few emails I sent her in the fall all got “very busy, can’t talk” responses, so I backed off. Now she says she’s in the middle of getting a divorce, and her mother is in, and has been in, the hospital for long term care, so she isn’t coming back. Ever. That’s so sad. But a divorce doesn’t happen overnight, nor does long term care. We all know “Mom”; she bakes stuff and brings it to league while her daughter bowls. I know these kind of life events take absolute priority, but am I bad for thinking she could have spared us just one thought a few months ago and made a call or sent a text message? Especially since she’s Vice President of the league? We could have found another bowler ages ago.

And ya wonder why I get frustrated?  Well, aside from this mess, and the typical laziness of all the other bowlers on the other teams - who have been in the league for 10-20 years and yet have no idea how to enter scores, write them down, make score corrections or anything like that, but why haven’t I put their guy’s absentee score in YET?? - I get frustrated because it’s a competitive activity, and I am a very competitive person. I don’t mind losing too much, but I hate when a) we lose because I’m screwing up and b) they win because suddenly their 200+ average bowler, who has been plodding along the whole game, suddenly can manage 5 or 6 strikes in a row at the end of the game to pull them ahead. I hate being played with. Bowl your best and beat us, fine. But being on the dirty end of “tactical” bowling really chaps my ass. And I see this kind of “strategery” all the time. I bowl my best every time I hit the lanes. Sometimes my best sucks chunks, sometimes I’m covered in roses. But it’s always the best I can do. I don’t shave points and then pull off just enough “miracle” to save the day.

Sometimes it’s no fun at all.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/28/2010 at 01:30 PM   
Filed Under: • Bowling Blogging •  
• Comments (3) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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