Day 104: Let’s go Bowling

My Project: 365 Creative Writing Prompts

Day 104: Let’s go Bowling

Those of you who know Dieter and me know that we are dedicated bowlers. There was a time that we bowled three times a week: league on Thursdays, practice on Saturday mornings and more practice on Sunday nights. Whether it rained buckets, blew a gale force wind or froze the balls off a brass monkey, we walked to the bowling alley.

A serious illness forced me to drop out of the league and after a painful back injury, I couldn't even practice anymore. For five months I didn’t see the inside of a bowling alley.

Now I’m back though and to commemorate my return Dieter bought two T-shirts, a blue one, and a red one.

  

The blue T-shirt is typically me … bowling, cursing when I leave the 7 pin, 10 pin, or worse a split, then praying for a spare and doing the whole thing over again. My highest game ever … 257.

The red T-shirt suits Dieter as he makes a lot of strikes. In my opinion, it’s only a matter of time before he makes a 300. That is if he can keep his eye on the ball (so to speak). Whenever he has a good run, with five, six or even seven strikes in a row, he makes a mistake. He then comes off the lane, looking like a thundercloud, moaning ... “I forgot to lift” or “I went too wide”. When I asked him why he forgot to lift or why he went too wide, he merely shrugs.

I often wonder what Dieter thinks about when he stands on the approach. When a bowler gets ready to throw the ball, he/she is supposed to gather his/her thoughts about what he/she is about to accomplish. But what does Dieter think about … lunch, dinner, what to watch on TV, how much money he has in his account … who knows. Still, I’m confident that he will get it right someday. His highest game … 289.

It seems like yesterday when we started bowling. A new bowling center opened in Dalcrest, South Africa and since we knew the city planner, we were invited to the grand opening. I’d never bowled before and the idea of standing on the approach, being watched by everyone terrified me. So, I chickened out.

One year later I got the same invitation to attend the first anniversary of Dalcrest Bowl and this time I did go. I threw my first ball in the gutter, my second ball followed suit. The third ball rolled quite promising, but near the end, he veered to the left and once again ended up in the gutter. I adjusted my standing and throwing position, threw the ball and once again it looked good, only this time, near the end of the lane, my ball veered to the right and … you guessed it, fell in the gutter. I thought it was the most frustrating game I’d ever played.

When a lady approached me and asked if I wanted to join a league, I thought she was joking. In my first game, I hit … oh I don’t know, 25 or 30 pins, in my second I managed to knock down maybe 50, and in the third game, my score was rather similar. What would a klutz like me do playing with seasoned bowlers?

She convinced me though, I joined a league, started working with a coach, and … well, the rest is history. A few years later I was invited to represent Eastern Transvaal in the Interprovincials three years in a row.

Not only did the team do well, but together with Lorraine, I won first prize ladies doubles.

And so now on Saturday, I'm bowling in a fundraiser for the Toronto Cat Rescue. Donations are needed for medical care: spay/neuter and general health of the cats and kittens.

https://www.canadahelps.org/en/pages/toronto-cat-rescue-bowl-a-thon-9/

A bit of this and a bit of that

Those of you who have been reading this blog from the beginning might remember that some three and a half months ago I was bitching and whining about the heat.
The air-conditioning in our condo building had giving up and in a temperature of between 38 and 45 degrees C (100 - 113 degrees F), we were boiling in our units.

I remember sitting in front of a fan, my feet in a bucket of cold water, with a wet towel draped around my neck. All in an attempt to stay cool. The only time and place where it was sort of bearable was at night on the balcony, which is where I wrote some of these blog entries.

Now it’s a different story. Toronto got its first touch of frost last night and this morning it was bitterly cold. It warmed up a little during the day, but not much, the temperature was maybe 5 degrees C (41 degrees F). In the sun it was kind of nice, but the wind ruined every chance of warmth.

I don’t know which is worse, the heat or the cold. I suppose the heat. At least to protect oneself against the cold one can put on multiple layers of clothing, while with the heat there is only so much one can take off.

Still, I’m not looking forward to winter. From now until the end of March we’re gonna have to bundle up in sweaters and coats, scarves and gloves and shiver until our teeth rattle.

While it’s dry it’s not so bad, but oh dear, soon we might get ice and snow and that’s gonna make everything even worse. I like falling snow as much as the next person, and the white blanket does make everything look beautiful, but unfortunately that kind of beauty is fleeting. Soon the white snow turns into a gray mess, starts melting and creates ice patches. Uuuh, I can’t even think about it without shivering.

On a different subject ... as of October 29th we’re home owners. Yep, we bought the condo we’ve been living in for the past six years. During the whole of September we went condo shopping but didn’t see anything we liked. It was basically a case of, what we liked we couldn’t afford and what we could afford we didn’t like. So we decided to stay where we are.

On a different note still ... last weekend Dieter and I played in a ten-pin bowling tournament. We weren’t going to play at first, seeing the entry fee was $50 per person, but in the end we couldn’t stop ourselves. I noticed how much Dieter wanted to play, wanted to test his skills against other bowlers and truth be told I like a bit of competition too. So we entered.

Two squads were to play, the first squad at 12:00 and the second at 2:00 p.m. We played in the 2:00 p.m. time slot. We played four games qualifying and at the end of that round we were in first place.
Next came the finals which were three games round robin.
And we nailed it. We beat our opponents one after another and with only two teams remaining (we and another team) it was time for the slaughter.
Dieter played an amazing game and scored 246, beating the pants off the competition. I didn’t do too bad either and so together we took first place!
Prize money ... (drum roll) $800.
We floated home on Cloud 9.

Is this the beginning of good times to come?