Sad, sad day
I interrupt your daily blog grazing to tell you sad news: The Flint Scrabble Club is now without a home.
Yes, it appears the U.S. economy, if not yet at its nadir, has reached another low. The senior center where our group plays is going dark on Monday and Tuesday nights because it can't afford to pay the building attendant. The search is on for a new playing location, but at the moment it looks like the Taco Bell on Corunna Road may be selling a few more tacos on Tuesdays from 6-9 p.m.
Yes, that's sad, but it gets worse. In the middle of my second game last night I had a rack of CCELMOO, and saw the bingo through an open (i) in the A column. Now, of course, being the 1600-rated player I am, I wasn't sure the word was good. The game was tight, and since it would have been worth 101 points it probably would have generated a challenge. So I diddled off three or four minutes debating on whether to take the leap, finally decided to play it safe, and played COM(I)C for 33. And then on the very next play I lay down HALOGEN(E)*, which is immediately booted from the board. A bad loss. And comical. And very, very sad. I also lost Game 3, and ended up 1-2 for the night.
After club I went to a coney island restaurant with Linda and Jeff and had a gyro and fries. That was sad news for my diet, as I'm supposed to be working on bringing my cholesterol level down. Comfort food, I suppose. We played a short backgammon chouette at the table while we ate. The dice gods were kind to me, at least, as I turned around a losing game by rolling three sets of double sixes in the bear-off to win 16 points.
But misery once again came calling, as I returned home only to discover that TiVo hadn't recorded American Idol. Now that, my friends, was the saddest news of all.
Yes, it appears the U.S. economy, if not yet at its nadir, has reached another low. The senior center where our group plays is going dark on Monday and Tuesday nights because it can't afford to pay the building attendant. The search is on for a new playing location, but at the moment it looks like the Taco Bell on Corunna Road may be selling a few more tacos on Tuesdays from 6-9 p.m.
Yes, that's sad, but it gets worse. In the middle of my second game last night I had a rack of CCELMOO, and saw the bingo through an open (i) in the A column. Now, of course, being the 1600-rated player I am, I wasn't sure the word was good. The game was tight, and since it would have been worth 101 points it probably would have generated a challenge. So I diddled off three or four minutes debating on whether to take the leap, finally decided to play it safe, and played COM(I)C for 33. And then on the very next play I lay down HALOGEN(E)*, which is immediately booted from the board. A bad loss. And comical. And very, very sad. I also lost Game 3, and ended up 1-2 for the night.
After club I went to a coney island restaurant with Linda and Jeff and had a gyro and fries. That was sad news for my diet, as I'm supposed to be working on bringing my cholesterol level down. Comfort food, I suppose. We played a short backgammon chouette at the table while we ate. The dice gods were kind to me, at least, as I turned around a losing game by rolling three sets of double sixes in the bear-off to win 16 points.
But misery once again came calling, as I returned home only to discover that TiVo hadn't recorded American Idol. Now that, my friends, was the saddest news of all.