In the midst of my first season, since I was a child, of league play I became frustrated with the finger type grip on my bowling ball. The grip was highly recommended by my friend and the pro shop professional at Bowlero; lanes near where I lived for a good portion of my youth. But the ball was falling off my hand.
“I’ve had it.” I told the bowling pro manager of the Cliff Barnes Pro Shop after practicing one afternoon, “I want my ball redrilled full finger. The ball keeps falling off my hand.”
You would expect most people to jump at the opportunity of providing such a service with its associated fee. But not at the Cliff Barnes Pro Shop. The manager told the counter at the Bowlero to fire up a lane for him. Then he literally gave me a free mini bowling lesson. He showed me why the ball was dropping from my hand and gave me pointers on my overall form. All this he did for free rather than meet my demands and charge me the appropriate fee.
Peering into my hidden lair, my past days of bowling glory are apparent in the background. You would be amazed at all the free bowling videos available on YouTube. Recent professional matches and instructional videos only touch the surface. Watching one promotional news reel by Brunswick, I was taken back to my days in the basement alleys of the Plankington Mansion annex of The Knights of Columbus’ old club house. As they introduced there latest and greatest ball returns and seating it was as if I could reach out and touch it. All exactly like what we had back in the day. Marquette University destroyed the historic Plankington Mansion with its attached club house to build their current student Union. No bowling alleys in the new student union but they do have an Islamic prayer room above the two chapels.
That favorite show from the early days of television, when bowling was the most popular sport in the country, hosted by Milton Berle, “Jackpot Bowling” is one of many gems of entertainment available. They hand out cigars at the end of the show. We can watch YouTube on our TV screen via our Roku. They big buzz recently has been about David Letterman retiring. I was never a big fan but maybe they should bring back “Jackpot Bowling”. He could host. I’d watch, the bowling.
My wife enjoys P-League, a women’s bowling competition show, on YouTube. The biggest reason she enjoys the show is because it is the only decent Japanese programing she has found on YouTube. Actually I found the show and I encourage her to watch hoping she will be inspired to go bowling with me. I recently bought my wife a Kindle Fire. As she watched P-League for the first time within minutes she had found each bowler’s blog and was telling me all about them. My wife told me that unlike at professional tournaments, the women are allowed to wear anything they want, which may be one of the reasons for the shows popularity. My wife enjoys their fashion sense. They certainly all bowl better than I do. Not a show to be hosted by David Letterman.
AMF Lanes, of which Bowlero is a part, offer a summer bowling pass. Three free games every day until Labor Day. It costs only $28; only good before 8pm weekdays and before 4pm on Saturday and Sundays. That works for me. I found the best time to practice was early Tuesdays. But they no longer open at 9am on Tuesdays. Not sure if it is only for the Summer or why they cut the hours, but I know they were doing good business at that time.
And I may have mentioned before that ‘Tac Up Bowling Ball cleaner’ is great for cleaning the rollers on your printer.
“Wow.” you’re saying, “Two posts in two days, what’s going on Phillip?”
Hey, don’t complain. I have driven up the jackpot for this blog. We are now officially at $100. I’ll have to double check that I didn’t miss upping the figure on any of my past posts before the next post but I’m sure we have reached triple digits. And you can possibly triple that but not without reading my books.
What? You don’t believe my reasons for posting again so soon? You say it is the end of the month and I have once again fallen behind in my word count goals in my writing? I’m just filling space? Putting down anything and everything off the top of my head to raise the word count? Me? I would do that? And why do I count blog posts towards my word count anyway?
I am shocked that you, my readers, would think me so trivial. Me, of all people. Just putting down words for my own purpose, to cover some procrastinations you, in your wild imaginations, believe me to be guilty of? Really?
Well… if that is what your really believe in your heart of hearts, your deepest soul, if that is where your, I must believe faulty, powers of deduction lead you, I can only say one thing. As long as you are entertained, it’s not about me. It’s about you. I’m here for you people. Smile, frown, scoff in taking delight in ridiculing my writing,a character you suppose to be lacking, or a tactic that may come off as vain in your eyes.
As long as you are happy, and I can free myself from the stress of writing thousands of words a day to make up for the days I only wrote a handful, as I kept telling myself I wont let myself fall behind this month, I’ll write a bunch tomorrow, then it is all good.
Wow, just over three-hundred more words to go.
We’re grilling brats this evening with the return of beautiful weather. They were on sale at Menards; the brats. The grill was on sale too. Misao hunted through the fliers and said we have to buy it. I love my gas grill, and you can grill with charcoal on it, but I don’t like the mess the charcoal makes so we bough this little charcoal grill for when it is just the two of us. The best think about the warmer months here in Wisconsin is grilling.
Lucky I checked on the grill. Those coals need some stoking.
Think what you must. I’m all good and ready to chill over some brats and baked beans.
The $100 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.
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