My Bowling Tirade from League Tonight

Many people that know me know that I bowl and that I'm quite good at it. My average hangs around a 135 to 145 depending on all kind of things. My co-workers will never bowl with me again, at least I don't think they will, since the first time we went bowling I bowled a 160 something scratch and I don't remember if anyone else broke 100. That however is not the point. The point is that I know I will never be a professional bowler and that at best I'm as athletic a bowler as Homer Simpson.

Not knowing who reads this or will read it I think giving some basics will help.

• Scratch is the score before any handicap is applied.
• Handicap is the number of pins received to equalize the playing field.
• Keep your post-shot celebration (or anger) to your own lane.
• Have fun with your team, but be respectful of your opponents. 

The last two are meant for people, like me, who bowl in leagues. Yep, I bowl in a league once a week for 36 weeks just so I have an excuse to go to Las Vegas. This is yet another reason I don't think my co-workers will be bowling with me again. The league being the sticking point not my adherence to the last two points above.

League bowling is supposed to be fun. It is a time to meet with others, many who become friends over the years, and have a night out. That's for some. Others see leagues as a chance to do something, what I'm not sure, but it usually involves anger and all around jerkiness. Most people who are bowling in a league know that the USBC won't come calling them, or I, for any major tournament anytime soon. However, I think that there some people in leagues that hold out hope they will be discovered and rise to the glory of a professional bowler.

Tonight in league my team bowled another team that takes this way too serious sometimes (i.e. someone looking to be discovered). We bowl for fun and have fun doing it. We aren't there to impress anyone and at the end of it I'm either happy or a little disappointed in my scores.

There was one person on this team who never seems to have fun and stands at the ball return in a foul mood (hahaha foul) if he doesn't get a strike every time. And it isn't him, it's the lanes fault, or the oil on the lane, or the balls fault, but not human error. Hell if we all got strikes all the time we would all be professionals raking in millions of dollars. The point is this guy isn't and he has a bad attitude. Someone likes this can make the evening a little less enjoyable but doesn't steal the whole night of fun. In fact every time I got up to bowl and he was in the lane, I tried really hard to get a strike, especially if he had one pin standing. Not so nice I know but it was my personal war.

In the end it all comes down to putting yourself out there. If this dude wants to be on the professional circuit then he needs to get his butt to the professional tournaments and leave the leagues for those looking for a fun time. Now before I get comments, there are some leagues that are by invite only from management, still they aren't professional and they won't be aired anytime on television.

The dream is real and still alive, I will have a ring like this someday.

My tirade comes down to this: just have fun! If you are gunning for something special like that 200 or 300 game you can be serious but also be a little lighter. Don't get your pants in a bunch because you are five strikes in and end up with a split or something else. If you don't get it at first try again. Keep trying until you do, as of yet I have not bowled anywhere near a 300. Someday, I'll just keep trying and remember that I'm not a professional, no one will discover me as some hidden talent in the center just waiting for the chance, and I will have fun doing it.

Oh and if you are a co-worker reading this, please give me another chance on the lanes. I had so much fun the first time and I won't bring my own gear the second time.

Musings from My Commute

I have a commute in the morning and night to get to my work place. I have lots of time to think and observe the world out my windshield. Today was interesting because my brain was in a frenzy to put to words what was going on in my mind. 

I leave my house by 6:30 am to start my drive. I have to leave that early in anticipation of messy traffic but if there's not then I get to work about an hour early. Most of my commute involves a normal three to four lane freeway (highway for my east coasters). At a certain point the freeway expands to about six lanes, one of these is a carpool lane. 

Not to long ago I bought a low emissions vehicle and have special decals that allow me to use the carpool lane even though I'm single occupant vehicle. Having this helps tremendously with this long commute I have. 

Today as I merged into the carpool lane another vehicle merged in behind me. This SUV then tailgated me all the way to the carpool interchange with another freeway. Rather than taking the ramp to the other freeway as I thought was going to happen, he took the chance to go around me and almost hit a retaining wall in the process. As the brake lights reflected in front of me when he hit the backed up traffic in the carpool lane I had to chuckle. 

This is my musing now that you have the backstory. When did the carpool lanes become the equivalent of the Autobahn in Germany? There are signs everywhere about the speed limit but that doesn't seem to apply to some that use the carpool lane. People will use the lane and then proceed to speed down the road at 80 miles per hour like it's nothing. It drives me nuts. If the carpool lane was meant for impatient people of two or more than I think that's what it would have been called. I don't drive slow I'm doing between 65 and 70 miles per hour myself but for others that isn't fast enough in a lane meant for people of two or more in one vehicle. 

That was this morning. My drive home was more about the music I was listening to than crazy drivers.

My new spiffy low emissions car also has satellite radio. My preset stations in order are: Prime Country, Y2Kountry, 90s on 9, Highway, 80s on 8, and Alt Nation. With that line up it doesn't sound like there could be something that amusing but just wait. It all started because Highway started playing a song I don't really care for so I start the task of channel surfing my presets. 

The song I heard on 90s on 9 made me skip it and then go back to it. What song could have that kind of draw? How about a song that when I saw the year of 1990 my brain screamed, "What?! 1990?! I was 10 when this song was being played on the radio? What has my sister done to me?" OK maybe not that last part about my sister, although she did have an influence on my musical choices for awhile. I mean come on who doesn't want to be like their older sibling. 


So this song that made me go kind of nutty, it was by a group called Digital Underground and the song itself is called "Humpty Dance". Yes that song. I was grooving to a song about doing the humpty hump and when I was 9 or 10 probably had no frigging clue what it was actually about. I was just kind of awestruck by this realization. Then the next song came on.

I don't feel as strange about this one except for the fact that I thought it was only a theme song for a television show. I didn't know it was actually a real song by a real group. I'm sure if I tell you the show that it is the theme music for you will start singing the catchy chorus. That show is Cops. Yes "bad boys, bad boys, watcha going to do?" Of course the only part of the song I knew was the part that goes, "Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you? Bad boys, bad boys whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?" So not just a theme song for a popular television series, but a real song by a real group, for a real album. Who knew?

Just like that my trip of the 90s was over when I switched back to the Highway for my country music fix. But I was still kind of hung up on what just transpired on my radio. Shocking! No not really but it kind of felt that way.

That's it. My musings about my drive today. Tomorrow is Friday maybe some new things will assualt my brain. I can't wait to see.