Bowling Is Fun When You Refine The Rules
A friend of mine who made a lot of money in the market and in an electronics business he had, invited me over once in a while just to hang out. I always enjoyed this, because he had quite a pad, with a basement that was nothing but a total game room. He had everything you could think of, from four bowling lanes, to pool tables and dart boards. And A full bar.
I had gone into the construction trade, and was often looking for work or between jobs. So our wager was only twenty bucks. But it was more about the competition than the money. We decided on a best out of three games tournament. Winner takes the twenty, and owns the title of champion of that alley. It was done in a fun and hearty spirit.
In not time, the power switches were flipped, the bowling shoes were put on, and we had picked out our favorite ball. We flipped a coin for first turn, and I began the tournament. When my second ball was about three quarters of the way down the lane, I notices it made a slight skip. I screamed foul, excused myself, and headed outside to the trunk of my car.
In just a couple of minutes, I came in carrying my dyson vacuum dc17 which I plugged in and went to work with on the lanes. I made several derogatory remarks about the dust and dirt my friend had allowed to gather on his lanes, and he laughed until he had tears in his eyes. I always could crack him up. But he still stood behind his belief that he would emerge victorious.
After another couple of bad frames, I excused myself again. Back to the car I went, this time for something all competitors must have, a good luck charm. When I re-entered the room, my friend fell out on the floor laughing. I had on my black helmet that I bought for riding my motorcycle. I had won some races with that bike, and considered this helmet to be a good luck charm because of it.
A couple of frames later, I still was losing badly. I noticed my feet were not getting good traction on the floor. I once again excused myself, and then reappeared sporting a pair of brown boots I wore when I went hunting. My friend was still very entertained and watched as I took the ball in hand, and started again.
From that frame on things began to turn around. By the end of the tournament, I shook his hand, took my twenty, and headed out to my car with a big smile. I had learned that bowling can really be fun, if you have the freedom to put all you have into it, literally.