Friday - April 20, 2012

Me and the Plancius

Oceanwide Expeditions’ cruise ship ‘Plancius’ anchored off South Georgia, after repeated propulsion failures, awaits relief ship

Trouble started 12 days into a 31-day journey from Ushuaia, Argentina, one of the southernmost cities in the world, to Ascension Island, an isolated volcanic island near the Equator.

After returning from a small island, the ship suffered a complete power failure. Ship’s engineers were able to fix the problem and course was set for Tristan de Cunha heading north in order to avoid a fierce storm system. En route, the ship suffered another engine failure.

It was thought the ship could complete the cruise around the islands, but the situation took a turn for the worse when the engines could no longer reach full power. The ship then returned to Grytviken in the South Georgia Islands where it currently sits in the harbor.

I guess it’s all part of the adventure when you take one of these exploration cruises out in rough seas to the middle of nowhere. And it truly is the middle of nowhere. The town of Ushuaia is south of the Straits of Magellan, on the south coast of Tierra del Fuego, alongside the Beagle Channel. Land of cold, wet, and windy. But it’s paradise compared to South Georgia Island, which is about 800 miles east south east of the Falklands Islands, smack dab in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean halfway between South America and Africa, and pretty much south of both of them. Not quite utter desolation; South Georgia Island is inhabited, kind of. It’s just so far off the beaten track that it’s nearly invisible, with only a half dozen or so ships visiting per year.

Right now the Plancius is docked at the fisheries research station at King Edward Cove in GrytViken South Georgia, hardly a mile from where the great Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton is buried. Eventually a rescue ship will get out there and bring the passengers to Uruguay. Meanwhile everyone is safe, although probably quite bored, and a bit cold. It’s currently a balmy 42°F there with 15mph winds blowing. A lovely fall day.

We managed to win the first game in Greed League, which clinches us for 3rd place. But the 4th place team we bowled didn’t make it easy. Heck, they beat the daylights out of us, their 5 guys rolling a 1250 score in the first game with their anchor guy AJ throwing a 300. And we won that one, by a paper thin 12 pins. Game 2 was just as high scoring, and they got that one by 18. Come game 3 we thought they’d be worn out, but no. They rallied even harder, AJ threw ANOTHER 300 (he had an 835 for the night), and they clobbered us by more than 100. So we went 2-5. Not that it matters; they can’t climb past 4th, we can’t fall past 3rd, and since the 1st place team slammed the 2nd place team 5-2 and locked up the win, the 2nd place guys remain only 2 up on us. So we have to face them next week, and we’ll have to win 5 to steal 2nd from them. Two games and wood. Which is going to be tough, because they’ve slaughtered us all year. At least I bowled well in that league. Nothing special, a 557 series, all games in the mid 180s, 10+ over average. So I’ve got to do what I can to try and get some life back in my old ball.

Things went worse in Cheap League. One of our guys couldn’t make it and didn’t request post bowling, so we had to use his absentee score, 10 off his average. And we played the ringer team and had to give them 24 pins handicap. That’s so wrong. So we’re down 34 to start. Naturally both their guys threw awesome games, 50 or more over their paper averages, and on par with how they can actually bowl when they want to. I threw for crap, not even making a 500 series. My old ball is mostly dead, and the helpful guy who runs the alley was having me use loaner balls. Thanks, that’s nice, but trying out 2 new balls in the play-offs is about the last thing you want to do. So I sucked, and we went down 2-5. OTOH, it would have gone 2-5 even if I’d made my average. They creamed us in the first two games. Since 1st is now locked in this league, as well as 2nd, we’ll play these same guys again next week. Thrills. So we might drop to 6th or something if they flail on us again. Not that it matters in Cheap League; there is only a tiny bit of prize money for 1st. Everyone else gets ice cream. Hey, we rose up from 9th, knocked these guys out of 1st which they’d held for 15 weeks, held onto 1st ourselves for 4 weeks, and we’ll finish in the top half or better. Good enough. Can I have extra fudge sauce with that ice cream?

I’ve got the new ball I want all picked out, almost. It’s either going to be a Storm Frantic or a Storm Fringe, very little difference between them aside from oil conditions, and I can get either one of them at a huge discount when summer league starts up ... 3 weeks after these leagues end. Rats.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/20/2012 at 12:12 PM   
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   Friday - March 16, 2012

Double Skunked

Not a good week for me with bowling leagues. We lost on both nights.

On Greed League we went down 3-4 to the 1st place team, after being utterly schooled last week by the 2nd place team 2-5. So I guess we’ll fall out of 3rd now, or be very close to it. A lot of the blame falls on me. I’ve been in a horrible slump the past couple of weeks. I thought my old ball was dying, just loaded up with oil like a sponge. Perhaps it was, but at least half of the problem was me. I want so desperately to bowl like the big boys I’m up against in this league, with their 240 averages and their giant booming hook shots. But I can’t do it. That Ah Ha moment just hasn’t happened for me, the elusive epiphany wherein you suddenly know how to make it happen. I know I can do it; about 1 in 20 balls I throw bends like mad, turns the corner like a sports car, and blasts the daylights out of the pins. And I don’t know how it happens! Most of the time my ball takes a more central path down the lanes with just a small continuous arc. And with good placement that can do the job. But I want more, so I tend to try and force it to happen, and therein lies my error. You have to let the ball do the work. Forcing things will screw you up, as I’ve seen lately as my bowling plummets to the 140s and below. Hell, from being a 180s average player I threw a 106 last week. Hide my face and crawl away.

On Cheap League we’ve been in 1st place for 4 weeks now, just barely. We’ve either been up in total pins and tied in points, or just 1 point ahead. Last night we got schooled again. 2-5, and the fellow on the other team threw his best series of the year. He’s one of the best bowlers on that league, and had the second highest series of the season. Last night he raised it up by 13 points. And I struggled, even with my freshly baked and resurfaced ball. 40 and 50 pins below average. Ow ow ow ow. Near the end of the last game I got a tip by one of the guys who works at the alley. He reminded me to stop trying to force the ball, and to stay behind it, and to come through the ball with my thumb straight up. And I did that, and closed out the last 3 frames with solid strikes, 5 in a row, giving me a 206. That still wasn’t enough for our team to win, but we almost made it, and I certainly felt better for rolling my first decent game in nearly a month. We’ll probably drop out of 1st after this loss, but we won’t be too far down the heap, and we still have 5 weeks to recover.

I’m going to force myself to get up to the lanes and practice what I was told. Calmly. Carefully. And maybe I can get back on track and stop being an albatross for my teams.

Posted by Drew458     on 03/16/2012 at 09:47 AM   
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   Friday - March 02, 2012

Two Gaps, One Closed

I had an awful night bowling at Greed League. Throwing in the 140s. Yuck. I could not get a strike and I left a ton of opens. “Irregardless”, my team won 5-2, and the 2nd place team had a bad night, so I think they’re only 2-4 points ahead of us now. And we face them next week, with only 8 or 9 weeks left in the season. Time to make our Big Move. I’m going to have to fix my game by then because they rock on us all the time, and I’ll have to throw in the mid 600s to give us a chance. 1st place team is still miles ahead, 16 up I think, as they have been ever since week 4 or 5.

We were actually in 1st place on Cheap League coming into this week, and we held onto it against the ringer loaded team that has been in first for at least 15 weeks now. We went into last night tied for points with them, but we had more total scratch pins so we were ahead. It burned giving those guys 25 in handicap, but we managed to split the night 4-3 so now we’re a whole 1 point ahead. I threw 199 in the first game and we won by a bit. I threw a godawful 116 in game 2. Crivens! I was this friggin’ close every frame, throwing 8 9s, a spare and a strike, but I could not get my ball to cooperate and I left almost every frame open. I was all over the approach trying to find the right line, but the best I could come up with was “mostly”. Suckage. Oh, the pain. The pain! Probably the worst game I’ve thrown this season. Yuck. I guess I got my head together for game 3, and I made a tiny adjustment - I moved my approach back one lousy inch - and threw a 196. And we won that one too, but they’d beat us so badly in game 2 that they took the wood. Even if I’d chucked a 240 in game 2 they still would have creamed us.

My ball seems dead. I could have sworn I got it steam cleaned and resurfaced just 5 or 6 weeks ago, but it’s lost its mojo already. Unless it’s me. I’ve been having huge problems with my arm brace; the think is totally stank from old sweat and is falling apart. Maybe I can find a new one ASAP, get some practice sessions in today and Sunday morning, and get the ball done up on Monday. If nothing else that will boost my confidence in my equipment, and that might be all it takes.

But woo-hoo, 1st place for 2 weeks in a row in Cheap League! Yay us!

Posted by Drew458     on 03/02/2012 at 08:51 AM   
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   Friday - February 24, 2012

Closing In

We split the points Tuesday on Greed League, going 4-3 against a team that we have lots of fun hanging out with. That takes a lot of the pressure off, and we had a good time. I was a small bit over average in the two games we won, and a bit under average in the game we lost. The rest of my team was also down in that game, and our opponents rolled really well, so they beat us fair and square and I can’t blame myself for the loss. 4-3 for the night isn’t going to hurt or help us much, and we remain in 3rd place, a few games down from the guys in 2nd, and a few more from the guys who have been in 1st almost the entire season. With just 10 weeks to go, at least the 1st - 3rd gap is starting to close up a bit, while the 3rd - 4th gap gets bigger ever week. Sweet, for us. I rolled in the mid 5s for the night, 557 or something close to that.

Another 7-0 sweep for my team in Cheap League. Our blitz continues into the second month: 7-0, 7-0, 7-0, 7-0, 5-2, 7-0. Excellent teamwork in Game 3 covering for our guy who was way off, allowing us to win by just 2 pins. At this point we may have even taken 1st place, but it’s hard to say. This league allows for post-bowling with prior permission. We went into it this week being only 7 points down from the 1st place team, and they got slaughtered last night. Or so it seems; both the guys on their team, really superb bowlers, were off snowmobiling up in the Adirondacks, so they’ll do their bowling later. That’s a bit annoying, because now they know exactly how well they have to bowl to win, and those two can bowl well enough to adjust their scores to just the right amount. And next week is yet another position round, so we’ll face them again. Grrr, too many position rounds in this league. “None” is my idea; just play the round robin until the end of the season. I can accept 2 - call them the finals - or even 3, with a position round at the halfway point. But not 7. Especially not when the league only has a dozen teams. We could wind up playing the same team 10 times in 34 weeks. That’s just silly.

I threw a 638 series in Cheap League, and had 6 in a row to start Game 2 for a 248. Somebody has to tell my wife about hex etiquette. Maybe call it hex education. Sure, congratulate a bowler when he throws 3 strikes in a row for a Turkey. Or when its 4 in a row for a Ham Bone. But after that, shut up, because things start to get serious when you’ve got 5 or more strikes in a row ... especially when those are all in your opening frames, which means you could have a perfect game in the works. So don’t bring the jinx by going “Come on, get another strike! Make it 7!” Don’t even mention the run. Just say “cool”, or “awesome” or whatever. A single slow nod of the head is sufficient and cool. And for goodness’ sake, when it’s solid strikes for the first 9 frames, don’t say “just 3 more for a 300”!!!!  Trust me, there’s enough pressure inside your head to keep a streak like that going; you don’t need any extra help from the outside. Especially not when - and it’s happened to me more than once - you’re bowling a perfect game so far and your team is not pulling ahead or still seems to be losing. So yeah, I muffed it in the 7th with a 9/, having to settle for a 149 in the 5th instead of the perfect 5th frame score of 150. And it’s nobody’s fault but mine. Well, actually I blame the 7 pin, which ought to have fallen, the bastard. Just words to the wise; don’t put the hex in, even through good intentions.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/24/2012 at 03:50 PM   
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   Friday - February 17, 2012

10-4 is still pretty good

Damnation, I did it again at Greed League. I bowled just barely on average the first two games, which we won, and then bowled great the third game, which we lost. Hey guys, I’m trying to contribute here! The exact same thing happened last week. So we remain in 3rd place.

I turned that around this week in Cheap League, bowling my poor little fingers off to roll a 211 in the first game, while my teammates were either sleeping or trying to find their lines. We played the half-filled team, which made a bit of a psychological barrier what with their 2 vacancies and the fat 119 pins worth of handicap we gave them. So it was uphill all the way, and even though my squad finally got it together in the 10th frame we lost. By 4. Arrrgggghh!!!! I pulled out all stops and managed a 238 in the second game, rolling the inside line because the outside edges were squirrelly. My guys were hot so we won that one by more than 60. I was trying too hard in game 3, and that killed me. Lucky for us that our opponents were worse off than we were, so we took the win. It wasn’t much of a win, more like a “they lost more than we did” situation, both teams rolling below average, but a victory is still a victory. As far as I know we are still 10 points behind the lead team, which probably also took 5 this week. I know they were one up, one down when we left, but they were bowling the third game in slow motion and we couldn’t sit around an hour waiting for them to finish off 2 frames. We’ll find out how they did next week anyhow.

Based on her excellent performance last week, my wife got the weekly strike ball, again, and blew it, again, throwing an 8 to win $8. I don’t think any of the women have won their strike ball in several weeks, so there’s getting to be some real money in that jackpot. She threw a decent series in the low 500s, well over average but not exceptional enough to qualify for next week’s strike ball.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/17/2012 at 03:37 PM   
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   Friday - February 10, 2012

Almost A Clean Sweep

Another great week for my teams in bowling league.


We won 5-2 in Greed League, in yet another position round against Team X and my nemesis Andy. I covered him in the first game, but then he got hot and blew me away in games 2 and 3, bowling in the 250s and 260s. Good for him. Lucky us in game 2, that no matter how many strikes he threw his team didn’t seem to be opening any kind of a lead. That’s because our guy J was busy throwing strikes of his own, rolling a 289. Awesome. So we won the first two. I rallied in the third game with a 215 but that wasn’t quite enough, and we lost it by 3 pins. Oh well. The wins keep us solidly in 3rd place, and open a pretty large margin (18 points) between 3rd and 4th. With 10 weeks left and 2nd place just 5 ahead of us, let’s see if we can claw our way into the really big money.


We won 7-0 in Cheap League, making this our 3rd or 4th week in a row that we took all 7. We are in 2nd by another fat margin, and only 10 behind the killer 1st place team. We had fun hanging out with our opponents this week, although only half their team could make it. There was a Valentine’s candy goody bag up for grabs (M&M Mars has a factory in the next town over, and they have promotional handouts for some of the employees, and I guess one of them is on our league. Sure seems to be a lot of M&Ms around all the time) for the 4 highest survivors of an elimination bracket. With her new all-of-a-sudden improvement in bowling, she’s been throwing a weekly series 100+ over, so with the low average handicap she still carries she was able to take high total score and win the biggest bag. Unfortunately the Skittles Card Box and the giant bag of Peanut Butter M&Ms seem to have gone to work with her today. We won the beer frame in game 2 without realizing it, and that was also the Strike Ball frame for last week’s highest over average series for men and women. Which was our guy J, but not my wife this week. She had it last week, and with this week’s 112 over series she’ll probably have it next week. And he got the strike, so he got a handful of cash and we got a free round of beers. And since he used to date the alley’s beer girl and they’re still on good terms, we got Blue Moons instead of Bud Lights. With orange slices, classy. So overall, pretty darn good. Cheap League is the antithesis of Greed League. It’s the lowest cost league, and has the smallest end-of-year prize pot. Instead they have a couple of little prizes every week, along with all the side games (brackets, poker, etc) that most leagues do on the side. It’s a fun league, and they make a real effort to keep it fun.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/10/2012 at 04:37 PM   
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   Friday - February 03, 2012

On a Roll

We won 5-2 Tuesday in Greed League, which keeps us in 3rd place by a small margin. Only one spectacular score; the wins came from good teamwork where we all rolled well. Next week is a position round so we’ll have to do our best then too.

We won 7-0 last night in Cheap League. Same as last week. This lifts us into 2nd place and closes us to 10 points behind the leading team. Nice. We were supposed to play a team of beginners, and we would have given them a handicap larger than their best bowler’s average, but they didn’t show and they didn’t pre-bowl. So we had a bye, and we had to “earn the points” by bowling close to our team average, which is how forfeits are handled in bowling. So of course my team threw excellent games and we finished the first two games more than 100 over each. Heck, in game 2 we were only 1 pin below our record high game, which is tops in that league. Duh. Strategery? Not. At least we managed to roll poorly in game 3, finishing just 6 pins higher than our minimum required score. I was 55 over with a 235 in game 2, and my wife fired off a 215 that was 65 over her average. She’s suddenly figured out how to put some muscle behind the ball and has taken to rolling 5, 6, or more strikes in a row to start the game. That tires her out though, so she can’t keep it going for long. We’ll have to figure out some strength training exercises for her, so we can unleash her as our secret weapon. I really want her to blast past the other ladies on the league and have high series, high game, and high average for the season.

Posted by Drew458     on 02/03/2012 at 09:58 AM   
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   Thursday - January 26, 2012

Glue Ball

Strange weather this week for being in the middle of winter. What bit of snow we got the other day is gone, and it’s been cool and rainy all week. The weather affects the lane conditions, even though the alley is climate controlled. I’m pretty sure that is why the lanes were like glue this week, for both leagues I’m in. I wasn’t seeing much in the way of oil pickup on the ball, and the level of accumulated grime wasn’t too bad, but the mid lanes were like bowling through rubber cement. The balls weren’t turning early, but they sure did seem to slow down, and had the energy sucked right out of them. The only answer to that is to throw harder, and that’s a challenge to do accurately and with the proper amount of hand. Too easy to blast a shot down your line and have it not break at all, or break late. So I took a more inside line, and tried to loft the ball as much as I could. “Git ‘er out there”. Meh, that mostly worked. Mostly.

I bowled a bit over average all 3 games on Tuesday’s Greed League, and we won all 7. I was 35 under the first game tonight, 44 over the second, and 17 over the third tonight in Cheap League, and we won all 7 of those against the top ranked team. They beat us 5-2 last week in a position round, but this week their one power roller couldn’t get it together so they went down in flames. Big flames; we beat them by a total of over 300 for the night. Overkill, but we might just float back up to 2nd place because of it.

Right now my arm is really tired and my fingers are burning, so I’ve decided to soak them all in rum. From the inside. As a remedial treatment of course.

No phone call from the MIL either today or yesterday. Guess she’s happy with her new toy and has nothing to complain about. Phew.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/26/2012 at 10:54 PM   
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   Friday - January 20, 2012

One Up, One Down, One Sandbagger

Greed League: 5-2 win this week
Cheap League: 2-5 loss this week

I think I have developed a working hypothesis that a bowling average is an honest indicator of your ability until that average hits about 205-215. After that your average becomes more of an indicator of your ability to manipulate a number to give your team the best handicap advantage. Case in point would be the guy on the team that beat us on Cheap League last night, who carries a 224 average, yet threw a 760 series. He’s actually a 260-class bowler (a 279 is a perfect score except for 1 throw); we see him in tournament situations all the time, every week, where he throws 800+ series. It’s part of the strategery of league play, and his 1st place team is still 20+ pins ahead of even the 2nd place team (which right now happens to be us).

In a perfect world with an infinite supply of bowlers, leagues could put average caps on the memberships, and the top players would be excluded from the lesser leagues, forcing them to go compete in the hardcore leagues which are often run without handicaps of an kind. Scratch bowling, just like the pros do on TV. Alas, the world isn’t perfect, the economy is in the outhouse, and every bowling league in the country is super glad to have anyone who shows up and pays the dues every week.

Since this was a position round in Cheap League this week, next week we go back to the normal rotation, which means we play this team again next week. Let’s see how they do then.  In Greed League we’re hanging onto 3rd place.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/20/2012 at 09:55 AM   
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   Friday - January 13, 2012

Movin on up

Last’s week 7-0 win at Cheap League vaulted us right up the pyramid. We’re tied for points won with 2 other teams, but since our team has the most scratch pins of any team, that breaks the tie so we come out on top, in 2nd place. For now. And last night we won 7-0 again. I’m doing much better now that the deep oil is out of my ball and the surface is fresh. That ball is getting old, and it’s starting to crack in places. Hope it lasts out the season. Next week we’ll have another position round, where we’ll face the 1st place team, a group of lefties who are 20+ points ahead of everyone else. But they may be in a slump, and we’re ascendant, so we’ll see what happens.

Posted by Drew458     on 01/13/2012 at 10:09 AM   
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   Friday - January 06, 2012

It feels so good to finally have clean balls

Bowling has been a tad frustrating the past couple of weeks. My games have been well below average and my teams have lost because of it. Almost always until now I have blamed myself for having a bit of down scoring, and tried some extra practice to alleviate it. It hardly worked this time; the only time I could throw a series of games in the 190+ zone was when we practiced in the afternoon when the lanes were burnt to a crisp. So I bit the bullet and took my balls to the pro shop. I got a couple of new fingertip inserts and had my strike ball baked again. That ball is several years old, and it really does need to go through the rejuvenation process every 30 to 40 games. Steam the oil out and get the surface sanded. I’ve rolled close to 100 since I last had it done. It was time. Had my spare ball refit and steamed too.

And, oh my, what a difference. I was throwing some great hook last night, and turned in 3 good games for a 587 series at Cheap League. Truth be told, I wasn’t really even trying much, because we played a lesser team and I was trying to shave points. Um, “do some tactical bowling” I mean. Whatever. We gave them 126 pins for handicap - that’s like adding a whole extra bowler to their roster - and we beat them handily, 7-0, winning the wood by almost 200 pins. 

Posted by Drew458     on 01/06/2012 at 02:20 PM   
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   Friday - December 30, 2011

A Close Match

We went 4-3 against the 3rd place team at Cheap League last night. Our wins from the previous weeks has moved us up to 4th, pushing the old 4th place team down to 5th, and we were 3 points behind the 3rd place team. Now we’re 2 points behind them. We’re about halfway through the season, so the competition is starting to heat up nicely. Tonight’s split opens the gap between the top 4 teams and the lower places a little more.

The 1st place team is still way out ahead, more than 20 points beyond us. Funny thing: the 1st place team in Greed League is the same way; many points ahead of everyone else. Both teams have had a huge lead on everyone since before Thanksgiving, perhaps even since before Halloween. All the more reason for a split season I think. Heck, in my bowling daydream leagues only run 16 weeks start to finish, with no position rounds at all. Leagues start in September. A week off 12/24 to 1/1, then another 16 weeks, then another week off the end of April, then another 16 weeks then 2 weeks off the end of August. Follow the college semesters; Fall, Spring, and Summer. Teams may change, some may come and go, but each league goes on forever, and your average rolls forward from semester to semester, but not your pin totals. Average reported to USBC is (Fall+Spring)/2. Holidays? Well, that’s just one week less for that league that semester.

Posted by Drew458     on 12/30/2011 at 09:38 AM   
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   Friday - December 23, 2011

Fast Bowling Post

Cheap League: 7-0 for another week, this might move us into 3rd. Gotta go now!

Posted by Drew458     on 12/23/2011 at 11:17 AM   
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   Wednesday - December 21, 2011

Moslty Lame

A pretty lame night at Greed League. Injuries and absences. We won, 5-2, but that will leave us in 3rd place by a point.

I cut my thumb a little while carving away some of the old epoxy on my car mirror yesterday. Nothing major, but I opened a flap of skin right on the ball of my thumb. Right where I grip the bowling ball. I wore a bandage all afternoon, but I had to take it off to bowl, and by the third throw it was starting to bleed. I tried using some of that stretchy thumb tape on it, but that was even worse, and I threw 0-0, 0-9, 3-4 for the first three frames. Simply awful. I got some liquid bandage from Joe on the other team. White hot pain in a bottle, but bowlers have been using this stuff for generations to overcome cuts and blisters. It stopped the bleeding, and the pain was gone by the time it dried, but I still couldn’t get a good grip on the ball. So my bowling sucked the whole night. Really sucked. I might have made a 400 series, but then again I might not have. Awful.

Glenn’s knee was out, so he sucked too. One of our guys was out cuz his kid was sick. Three of the guys on the other team simply didn’t show up. No surprise really; it’s right before the holiday and nobody has time to spend a whole evening bowling. Duh. So with only 6 bowlers instead of 10 we were done really early, and what with the injuries and so one neither team really cared too much about it last night. So we took the first game by 130, won the second game by 34, and lost the third game by about 15. I kind of blame myself for that one, bowling more than 40 under. But Glenn was just as off. Last night was another one of those bad nights, when the winners are the team that sucks the least.

I did the full-on liquid bandage thing, complete with the little bit of very fine gauze cemented on. It’s still there, and I’m going to leave it there for another few days.

And that’s about all the blogging I have time for today. Too much to do around here, not enough time. Which is typical holidays, right?

Posted by Drew458     on 12/21/2011 at 01:57 PM   
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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.

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