Part one can be found here.
So off the the cardiologist's office we go, and after a couple more tests I'm presented with three options.
The first was to do nothing and hope it goes away on its own (which is can and does often do). Despite this being mostly a non-issue most of the time doing nothing didn't seem to me to be the best option.
The second was to undergo a transesophageal echocardiogram, where they would put a tube down my throat to check for blood clots on the back side of my heart, and them if that turned up clear undergo an electrical cardioversion. If you've ever seen a TV medical drama you've seen them perform an electrical cardioversion when they shock someone with the paddles.
The third option was to take blood thinners for a few weeks, and then undergo the electrical cardioversion.
Tube down my throat? Pass. I took option three.
Back home we went, and I spent the weekend getting used to having A-fib in preparation of going back to work Monday. I figured fatigue was going to be my biggest issue, so I did what I could to see how far I could push it before I had to stop and rest. By Sunday night I figured I was good to go, and went off to bed. But my heart had other ideas, and I was up most of the night. Well, so much for being a chicken. Looked like the tube for me.
So back to Dr Maki's office Monday morning, and we schedule the procedure for later in the week that will be performed by a different member of their practice. It was at the University campus of UMass/Memorial, which was good for me because my mother works at the Memorial campus so that would be one less thing to worry about. I was told it would be early in the day, but they wouldn't know the exact time until they called the day before. well, a teenager must do the scheduling at UMass because I was told to be there for Noon, and only a teenager would call noon "early". I arrived at Noon as instructed, and not being a patient person when I was still waiting at 3pm I was a little less than thrilled. I told them they had until 3:30 and then I was out of there, and amazingly enough at exactly 3:30 they took me into the procedure room.
They prep me for the transesophageal echocardiogram, and explain to me that with the sedation I'll be getting everything will be easy and it will be over before I knew it. That's easy to say when you aren't the one having a tube shoved down your throat. Although when it was over they turned out to be right. The procedure was to be done by a "fellow", which is a doctor that's gone through all his training and is a full fledged "MD", but is now beginning additional training in a specialty. I don't recall his name, but I do remember he was a nice guy.
As I'm laying on the table, laying at sort of a 30 degree angle so my right side is higher than my left side they begin by giving me a sedative. "Give him 1 to 25" is what I think the doctor said, and we chatted for a short while about, of all thing, the Red Sox and WEEI (the sports talk radio station in Boston). All of the sudden he asks me "what were we just talking about?", and I reply what we were talking about. He looked at the nurse and said "give him another 1 to 25"...
...and that's the last thing I remember until about two hours later when I suddenly realized I was back in my room talking to Fiona.
It turns out the sedation I was under is refereed to as "conscious sedation", which apparently numbs my brain so I have no memory of the transesophageal echocardiogram because they need me conscious and able to follow instructions while the procedure is going on. When they do the electrical cardioversion the patient is given enough regular anesthesia to knock them out for a couple of minutes. From there I was good to go.
Except (and isn't there always an "except"?) once you have had A-fib it can return, and mine has a couple of times. Each time it's gone away with 10-12 hours...except (there's that word again) for the this time, which is at about 36 hours and counting. Knock on wood so far everything is OK, so if it doesn't clear by Monday I guess I'm calling the doctor again.
Now that that long story is over, hopefully there will be more frequent posting, even if it's just quick posts containing some interesting links we've come across.
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label summer. Show all posts
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
[Shrek] So, where have we been? (part 1)
So, now that the holiday season is over and the Blizzard of 2010 (which technically wasn't a blizzard so we'll have to see what name they end up call it) is over I have a few minutes to explain why the blog has been dead and what is hopefully up in the future.
OK, the past few months...and it's kind of a long story so I'm breaking it up into smaller parts.
Over the summer I developed a heart condition called atrial fibrillation, or "A-fib" for short. In itself it's not a particularly dangerous condition other than it increased the risk of blood clots forming because my heart doesn't beat as efficiently as normal, so blood thinners were prescribed and I'm good to go. Of course, getting to that point is a journey of its own.
Not so surprisingly Fiona knows all the exact dates, but I've never been good at them so I'm going to just give a general feel of when what happened. It started in the middle of July (I do remember it was a Thursday) when I woke up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom and I could tell my heart wasn't beating "normally". I use the quotation marks because my normal heartbeat is abnormal to begin with as I have premature atrial contractions (PACs) that are controlled about 99% of the time by medication. So I didn't give it much thought and went back to bed.
The next morning I get up and it's still going on, but I'm still not concerned about it because it feels pretty close to what my normal arrhythmia feels like when it's happening, so I take my morning pills and go off to work...where it starts getting worse. After having a cup of coffee about 9am and it's still happening I begin to start worrying about it, beginning a text book stress cycle: my hearts beating irregularly so I begin to stress about it, which causes my heart to race in an irregular rhythm, which raises my stress level...and, well, you get the picture.
So to make a very long story a little shorter Fiona and I head off to the emergency room after consulting with my doctor's office. Now I'm not as huge fan of crowds so heading to an ER in the middle of the morning isn't exactly high on my list of things I want to be doing, but luckily when I got there the waiting room was empty. Of course when I mentioned to the triage nurse at the window that my heart was beating irregularly I doubt a large crowd would have been an issue for me as she immediately opened the door and had me sit down taking my blood pressure. I don't recall what it was, but as soon as she was done she told me they were going to hook me up to an EKG just to see what was going on.
What happened next was one of those moments that looking back you see stuff that was happening that you didn't notice was going on until you think about it. There were four wheelchairs in the triage room and the one the nurse put me in was the only one that had an IV poll attached to it. It meant nothing to me at the time, but looking back that is obviously the signal to the ER folks that I'm a cardiac patient. As they put me in a room and hooked me up to an EKG there were a handful of folks standing around at the desk. I hardly noticed them, of course, but looking back I now realize they were standing there in case I was having a heart attack.
I wasn't. What I was in was A-fib, and the nurse saw that right away. Suddenly the tension level dropped as she said to me it wasn't serious, gave me a 20 second run down of what was happening, and that we'd be able to fill out some forms while the cardiac staff drew some blood.
It was at this point Fiona asked if she should call my mother, who works at the hospital in the surgical wing. I gave her the "Are you f---ing nuts?" look as we both laughed knowing she would only worry, race down to the ER, and make stuff worse.
After the blood draw results came back a heart attack was totally ruled out (I had thought they'd already done that, but hey, it's nice to be sure) they decide to give me an echo-cardiogram, and Fiona and I have to wait about an hour for the tech to show up to give me one. During this time the nurse and doctor check in several times to check on me and report nothing has changed and that this isn't a serious condition that can be treated with medication the vast majority of times. Another thing that was helpful was I knew one of the guys I bowl with has A-fib and once they got his medication levels right he's virtually unaffected by it.
Once the echo-cardiogram was done the ER doctor came in and told Fiona and I that I needed to see a cardiologist, and that there were two available in the ER to see.
{SIGH}, now I have to talk to my Mom because I don't want to pick a guy with a bad reputation. My Mom, of course, took the news like any Irish Catholic Mom would--that the end of the world was upon us--and raced down to the ER. She wasn't there 2 minutes when all my numbers on the monitors I was attached to started going up. The ER doctor came in, looked at me, then the monitor, and then at my mother. And then he threw me under the bus with an ear to ear grin, telling me he'd come back later as he walked away stifling a laugh. As my luck would have it my Mom didn't know anything about either cardiologist, so I took the one that was going to be available first, Dr Maki.
Because the wait for test results and stuff was pretty long I was still in the ER when my Mom went off work, so she came back down to sit with Fiona and me. I had been moved into an observation room in the meantime because as the doctor laughingly said, the ER is for people who need urgent care, not for folks that need a nap. When my Mom came back she said all of the nurses said Dr Maki was the right choice, and that I'd really like him. After a short while he came in with test results and started talking about what was going on and how we planned to treat it. He also wanted me to spend the night in the hospital under observation, but the look on my face gave him the answer that wasn't going to happen.
After telling me to take it easy that night--like there was a chance I was planning on running a marathon--he told us to make an appointment at his office for the next day and to come right back to the ER if I experienced any pain, dizziness, etc. The ER doctor discharged me soon after, and home we went.
Next time, my visit to Dr Maki's office and the repercussions of being a chicken.
OK, the past few months...and it's kind of a long story so I'm breaking it up into smaller parts.
Over the summer I developed a heart condition called atrial fibrillation, or "A-fib" for short. In itself it's not a particularly dangerous condition other than it increased the risk of blood clots forming because my heart doesn't beat as efficiently as normal, so blood thinners were prescribed and I'm good to go. Of course, getting to that point is a journey of its own.
Not so surprisingly Fiona knows all the exact dates, but I've never been good at them so I'm going to just give a general feel of when what happened. It started in the middle of July (I do remember it was a Thursday) when I woke up in the middle of the night needing to use the bathroom and I could tell my heart wasn't beating "normally". I use the quotation marks because my normal heartbeat is abnormal to begin with as I have premature atrial contractions (PACs) that are controlled about 99% of the time by medication. So I didn't give it much thought and went back to bed.
The next morning I get up and it's still going on, but I'm still not concerned about it because it feels pretty close to what my normal arrhythmia feels like when it's happening, so I take my morning pills and go off to work...where it starts getting worse. After having a cup of coffee about 9am and it's still happening I begin to start worrying about it, beginning a text book stress cycle: my hearts beating irregularly so I begin to stress about it, which causes my heart to race in an irregular rhythm, which raises my stress level...and, well, you get the picture.
So to make a very long story a little shorter Fiona and I head off to the emergency room after consulting with my doctor's office. Now I'm not as huge fan of crowds so heading to an ER in the middle of the morning isn't exactly high on my list of things I want to be doing, but luckily when I got there the waiting room was empty. Of course when I mentioned to the triage nurse at the window that my heart was beating irregularly I doubt a large crowd would have been an issue for me as she immediately opened the door and had me sit down taking my blood pressure. I don't recall what it was, but as soon as she was done she told me they were going to hook me up to an EKG just to see what was going on.
What happened next was one of those moments that looking back you see stuff that was happening that you didn't notice was going on until you think about it. There were four wheelchairs in the triage room and the one the nurse put me in was the only one that had an IV poll attached to it. It meant nothing to me at the time, but looking back that is obviously the signal to the ER folks that I'm a cardiac patient. As they put me in a room and hooked me up to an EKG there were a handful of folks standing around at the desk. I hardly noticed them, of course, but looking back I now realize they were standing there in case I was having a heart attack.
I wasn't. What I was in was A-fib, and the nurse saw that right away. Suddenly the tension level dropped as she said to me it wasn't serious, gave me a 20 second run down of what was happening, and that we'd be able to fill out some forms while the cardiac staff drew some blood.
It was at this point Fiona asked if she should call my mother, who works at the hospital in the surgical wing. I gave her the "Are you f---ing nuts?" look as we both laughed knowing she would only worry, race down to the ER, and make stuff worse.
After the blood draw results came back a heart attack was totally ruled out (I had thought they'd already done that, but hey, it's nice to be sure) they decide to give me an echo-cardiogram, and Fiona and I have to wait about an hour for the tech to show up to give me one. During this time the nurse and doctor check in several times to check on me and report nothing has changed and that this isn't a serious condition that can be treated with medication the vast majority of times. Another thing that was helpful was I knew one of the guys I bowl with has A-fib and once they got his medication levels right he's virtually unaffected by it.
Once the echo-cardiogram was done the ER doctor came in and told Fiona and I that I needed to see a cardiologist, and that there were two available in the ER to see.
{SIGH}, now I have to talk to my Mom because I don't want to pick a guy with a bad reputation. My Mom, of course, took the news like any Irish Catholic Mom would--that the end of the world was upon us--and raced down to the ER. She wasn't there 2 minutes when all my numbers on the monitors I was attached to started going up. The ER doctor came in, looked at me, then the monitor, and then at my mother. And then he threw me under the bus with an ear to ear grin, telling me he'd come back later as he walked away stifling a laugh. As my luck would have it my Mom didn't know anything about either cardiologist, so I took the one that was going to be available first, Dr Maki.
Because the wait for test results and stuff was pretty long I was still in the ER when my Mom went off work, so she came back down to sit with Fiona and me. I had been moved into an observation room in the meantime because as the doctor laughingly said, the ER is for people who need urgent care, not for folks that need a nap. When my Mom came back she said all of the nurses said Dr Maki was the right choice, and that I'd really like him. After a short while he came in with test results and started talking about what was going on and how we planned to treat it. He also wanted me to spend the night in the hospital under observation, but the look on my face gave him the answer that wasn't going to happen.
After telling me to take it easy that night--like there was a chance I was planning on running a marathon--he told us to make an appointment at his office for the next day and to come right back to the ER if I experienced any pain, dizziness, etc. The ER doctor discharged me soon after, and home we went.
Next time, my visit to Dr Maki's office and the repercussions of being a chicken.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
[Shrek] Just Some Random Thoughts
While I'm sitting here as the temperature races past 90°F, I figured this is a good a time as any to post some stuff that's been ringing through my head since my last update.
I don't usually post book reviews, mostly because I read for the enjoyment of it and don't want to add the burden of keeping notes for stuff I read. I think that takes away from the pleasure I get from reading a good story. But the last two books I read are worthy of a quick mention--although for the exact opposite reasons.
The next to last book I've read was The Ezekiel Option by Joel Rosenberg. His first two fiction books were fun reads, jumping right into action sequences that kept you hooked throughout the book. Rosenberg isn't a great writer, but he was a good story teller that kept the plot moving. In The Ezekiel Option, Rosenberg again comes up with a great plot and starts the book off like his first two. But in this book it appears Rosenberg went insane at some point in the novel, and basically ruined what was the start of a great story with an ending that was, putting it as nicely as I can, pure bullshit. I've crossed him off my list of authors to pay attention to.
Luckily it didn't take long to find a replacement. The Sculptor, the debut novel by Rhode Island native Gregory Funaro, is an incredibly well written "formula" story that pits an FBI agent and a college professor against a serial killer. But unlike many authors, Funaro stretches that formula to its breaking point without having his characters turn into caricatures. I sent off a quick e-mail to Funaro (the first time I've ever sent an e-mail off to an author) mentioning how much I liked the book, and I got a nice "folksy" reply.
I give The Sculptor five stars, and I highly recommend it. Just make sure you leave a light on afterward--trust me on that. You can read more about the book on Funaro's website, gregoryfunaro.com.
Being on vacation this week I get to listen to a little more sports talk radio than I usually get to. Unfortunately Dale and Holley, who have the 10am-2pm slot on WEEI and are my favorites on the station, are on vacation this week. Fortunately, so are Dennis and Callahan, the morning show blowhards that I count myself lucky to miss most mornings. Filling in for the blowhards this week is Bob Neumeier, a former WEEI personality. Every time he's on the radio I wonder why Neumy doesn't have a regular gig in this market. He's 100% better than most of the on air talent on either of the big sports radio stations.
Every time we go past a BP gas station I wonder why anyone buys gas there. And here's the funny thing: the Gulf oil debacle plays no role in why I wonder that. No matter where we go, BP is the most expensive gas station around. Why would anyone choose to go there? It makes no sense that people would literally just throw money away by picking an expensive gas station.
Fiona's birthday was a few days ago and we decided to celebrate at our favorite restaunt, Joey's Bar & Grill on Mill St. in Worcester. Saturdays have prime rib as one of the specials, and as that's one of my favorites I didn't have to hear the rest of the specials to know that's what I wanted. Fiona also ordered it, and both of our dinners were cooked to perfection. For desert we had a slice of something called "Tuxedo cake", that was so super rich I'm glad we decided to split a piece. A couple of the girls there added a candle and sang Birthday by the Beatles to her.
We can't say enough great things about Joey's, and if you haven't been there you should check it out. You won't be disappointed. If you're a veal parmesan fan, go on Thursday. Just sayin'...
I don't usually post book reviews, mostly because I read for the enjoyment of it and don't want to add the burden of keeping notes for stuff I read. I think that takes away from the pleasure I get from reading a good story. But the last two books I read are worthy of a quick mention--although for the exact opposite reasons.
The next to last book I've read was The Ezekiel Option by Joel Rosenberg. His first two fiction books were fun reads, jumping right into action sequences that kept you hooked throughout the book. Rosenberg isn't a great writer, but he was a good story teller that kept the plot moving. In The Ezekiel Option, Rosenberg again comes up with a great plot and starts the book off like his first two. But in this book it appears Rosenberg went insane at some point in the novel, and basically ruined what was the start of a great story with an ending that was, putting it as nicely as I can, pure bullshit. I've crossed him off my list of authors to pay attention to.
Luckily it didn't take long to find a replacement. The Sculptor, the debut novel by Rhode Island native Gregory Funaro, is an incredibly well written "formula" story that pits an FBI agent and a college professor against a serial killer. But unlike many authors, Funaro stretches that formula to its breaking point without having his characters turn into caricatures. I sent off a quick e-mail to Funaro (the first time I've ever sent an e-mail off to an author) mentioning how much I liked the book, and I got a nice "folksy" reply.
I give The Sculptor five stars, and I highly recommend it. Just make sure you leave a light on afterward--trust me on that. You can read more about the book on Funaro's website, gregoryfunaro.com.
Being on vacation this week I get to listen to a little more sports talk radio than I usually get to. Unfortunately Dale and Holley, who have the 10am-2pm slot on WEEI and are my favorites on the station, are on vacation this week. Fortunately, so are Dennis and Callahan, the morning show blowhards that I count myself lucky to miss most mornings. Filling in for the blowhards this week is Bob Neumeier, a former WEEI personality. Every time he's on the radio I wonder why Neumy doesn't have a regular gig in this market. He's 100% better than most of the on air talent on either of the big sports radio stations.
Every time we go past a BP gas station I wonder why anyone buys gas there. And here's the funny thing: the Gulf oil debacle plays no role in why I wonder that. No matter where we go, BP is the most expensive gas station around. Why would anyone choose to go there? It makes no sense that people would literally just throw money away by picking an expensive gas station.
Fiona's birthday was a few days ago and we decided to celebrate at our favorite restaunt, Joey's Bar & Grill on Mill St. in Worcester. Saturdays have prime rib as one of the specials, and as that's one of my favorites I didn't have to hear the rest of the specials to know that's what I wanted. Fiona also ordered it, and both of our dinners were cooked to perfection. For desert we had a slice of something called "Tuxedo cake", that was so super rich I'm glad we decided to split a piece. A couple of the girls there added a candle and sang Birthday by the Beatles to her.
We can't say enough great things about Joey's, and if you haven't been there you should check it out. You won't be disappointed. If you're a veal parmesan fan, go on Thursday. Just sayin'...
Sunday, August 23, 2009
[Shrek] Am I wrong here?
Imagine you have tickets for a concert that you've paid decent money for, and when you arrive at the venue you're told that there is a very slight chance the building could burn down because a nearby building is on fire. But because the chance is so slight they've totally discounted the possibility and they've blocked all the fire exits with more seats so they could sell more tickets. Right now you're thinking that could never happen...
...but that's almost exactly what the Worcester Tornadoes did Friday night.
With a severe thunderstorm warning and (ironically enough) a tornado watch covering our area, the Worcester Tornadoes opened their unprotected ballpark as scheduled for fans with tickets to the BBQ tent. Yep, that's right folks; with the National Weather Service issuing those watches and warning, the Tornadoes decided to allow fans to enter their unprotected ballpark and sit under a tent.
And here's some important information--the Tornadoes have no viable evacuation plan for their ballpark. Their evacuation plan is to have fans at the ballpark exit through the main gate and enter the parking garage next to the ballpark. A parking garage, I might add, that sits higher than the ballpark it serves, and certainly doesn't qualify as a "safe structure" if severe weather were to strike.
Oh, the best part? The BBQ tent is the furthest away from the garage that you can get and still be in the ballpark. And because it's at field level, you'd have to climb to the top of the seating section before you could even make your way out of the ballpark.
Because of the watches/warnings, and knowing the Tornadoes have no ability to protect fans at the ballpark, Fiona and I didn't go to the game. The Tornadoes, after allowing fans into the ballpark, waited out the rain and started the game at 8:45pm, meaning according to their policy I'm not entitled to a refund.
Right now the person who ran the event for us has an e-mail in to the Tornadoes asking for one anyway. If the Tornadoes have any business sense, they'll be writing us a check. If they don't, this could turn into a PR nightmare for them.
...but that's almost exactly what the Worcester Tornadoes did Friday night.
With a severe thunderstorm warning and (ironically enough) a tornado watch covering our area, the Worcester Tornadoes opened their unprotected ballpark as scheduled for fans with tickets to the BBQ tent. Yep, that's right folks; with the National Weather Service issuing those watches and warning, the Tornadoes decided to allow fans to enter their unprotected ballpark and sit under a tent.
And here's some important information--the Tornadoes have no viable evacuation plan for their ballpark. Their evacuation plan is to have fans at the ballpark exit through the main gate and enter the parking garage next to the ballpark. A parking garage, I might add, that sits higher than the ballpark it serves, and certainly doesn't qualify as a "safe structure" if severe weather were to strike.
Oh, the best part? The BBQ tent is the furthest away from the garage that you can get and still be in the ballpark. And because it's at field level, you'd have to climb to the top of the seating section before you could even make your way out of the ballpark.
Because of the watches/warnings, and knowing the Tornadoes have no ability to protect fans at the ballpark, Fiona and I didn't go to the game. The Tornadoes, after allowing fans into the ballpark, waited out the rain and started the game at 8:45pm, meaning according to their policy I'm not entitled to a refund.
Right now the person who ran the event for us has an e-mail in to the Tornadoes asking for one anyway. If the Tornadoes have any business sense, they'll be writing us a check. If they don't, this could turn into a PR nightmare for them.
Sunday, May 31, 2009
[Shrek] Time for a vacation
It took until May 31st, but I'm finally finished with hockey stuff for this season. Don't get me wrong, Worcester's extended play-off run was a great thing, but it's nice that I can finally take some time not involving hockey. The plan is, at least for now, to do nothing hockey related until Labor Day (excluding Booster Club stuff and a Sharks sidewalk sale later in June). This will be the first summer I've taken off from hockey since before the IceCats left town in 2005.
You'd think there being no team here in the summer of 2005 would have meant not doing anything hockey related, but in actuality it was like I had a second 40 hour a week job trying to get a team to move to Worcester.
I'm looking forward to reading the several stacks of paperbacks I have collected over the past few months, and I have to make a run to That's Entertainment soon to pick up some stuff they've been holding aside for me for, well, quite a while. I've also got a couple projects I'm thinking of starting, but perhaps thinking about excuses not to do them will be easier.
Unfortunately, this summer's movies look like a lot of garbage. Fiona and I have already seen Star Trek (it was great, and we highly recommend it), and Fiona will want to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince so we'll no doubt catch that. We're thinking about catching State of Play at the West Boylston Cinema (our favorite second run movie place), but our schedules don't really mesh for when it's playing, so that may not happen. The rest of the summer movie releases look like crap.
But I'm sure I'll find something to keep me busy...
You'd think there being no team here in the summer of 2005 would have meant not doing anything hockey related, but in actuality it was like I had a second 40 hour a week job trying to get a team to move to Worcester.
I'm looking forward to reading the several stacks of paperbacks I have collected over the past few months, and I have to make a run to That's Entertainment soon to pick up some stuff they've been holding aside for me for, well, quite a while. I've also got a couple projects I'm thinking of starting, but perhaps thinking about excuses not to do them will be easier.
Unfortunately, this summer's movies look like a lot of garbage. Fiona and I have already seen Star Trek (it was great, and we highly recommend it), and Fiona will want to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince so we'll no doubt catch that. We're thinking about catching State of Play at the West Boylston Cinema (our favorite second run movie place), but our schedules don't really mesh for when it's playing, so that may not happen. The rest of the summer movie releases look like crap.
But I'm sure I'll find something to keep me busy...
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
[Shrek] The Unlikely Champions
Earlier this summer I wrote about Fiona's and my first night of the summer bowling league. My plan, although I don't recall if I mentioned it as I was at the time more annoyed with Curt Schilling's sudden loss of testicular fortitude, was to simply stay loose over the summer and to enjoy the company of friends.
I figured we'd be good enough to finish no worse than the middle of the pack, and could hopefully play spoiler for the two teams I thought would be in the running to win the league. Nothing that happened the first couple weeks really changed my thinking, and we were all generally having fun.
Week three changed things.
I had promised Fiona we could go to the free Tornadoes exhibition game, and that game fell on a league night. So the day before the game Fiona and I rolled off ("pre-bowled" for all you ten-pinners), with both of us rolling a little over our averages. Josie and Rich then had to face our (at that point) unknown opponents. It turns out we bowled "the old lady" team that week, who decided they were going to "coach" Josie to make her a better bowler. Rich was able to get her to ignore them, and the two of them with our roll off scores absolutely shellacked the old ladies 8-0.
Rich and I exchanged a few e-mails about what happened, and when we all met up the next Tuesday Josie was still irked. And she took it out against the ghost team, helping us beat the invisible foes 8-0.
From that point on we were in first place, and spent every week after running away from the pack. We actually had a chance to lock in first place in week 14, but the teams chasing us didn't co-operate, but we still clinched first in week 16 as the teams behind us made one last futile push.
That made last night a "victory lap". The girls both had great nights, Rich kind of tossed the ball down the alley getting his boxes over, and I had a couple lobs that made me look like a slo-pitch softball pitcher. Along the way we had a lot of laughs, and for the only time this season, got skunked. Not that it mattered. The beer flowed freely, the pizza tasted great, and the fact how we bowled didn't matter made for a great evening.
I finished with the 2nd high average in the league (a book keeping error had me tied with someone else for 2nd, but it would have been too much effort to fix it so we let it stand), and Rich also got an individual prize.
Josie started week one with a 44 average. She ended the season at over 65. I have never seen anyone improve 20 pins in one season, even those like Josie that had never bowled in a league before.
Fiona ended up a little over her normal 66, and despite saying every week she hated the game, had a good time.
Together we made for some very unlikely champions.
I figured we'd be good enough to finish no worse than the middle of the pack, and could hopefully play spoiler for the two teams I thought would be in the running to win the league. Nothing that happened the first couple weeks really changed my thinking, and we were all generally having fun.
Week three changed things.
I had promised Fiona we could go to the free Tornadoes exhibition game, and that game fell on a league night. So the day before the game Fiona and I rolled off ("pre-bowled" for all you ten-pinners), with both of us rolling a little over our averages. Josie and Rich then had to face our (at that point) unknown opponents. It turns out we bowled "the old lady" team that week, who decided they were going to "coach" Josie to make her a better bowler. Rich was able to get her to ignore them, and the two of them with our roll off scores absolutely shellacked the old ladies 8-0.
Rich and I exchanged a few e-mails about what happened, and when we all met up the next Tuesday Josie was still irked. And she took it out against the ghost team, helping us beat the invisible foes 8-0.
From that point on we were in first place, and spent every week after running away from the pack. We actually had a chance to lock in first place in week 14, but the teams chasing us didn't co-operate, but we still clinched first in week 16 as the teams behind us made one last futile push.
That made last night a "victory lap". The girls both had great nights, Rich kind of tossed the ball down the alley getting his boxes over, and I had a couple lobs that made me look like a slo-pitch softball pitcher. Along the way we had a lot of laughs, and for the only time this season, got skunked. Not that it mattered. The beer flowed freely, the pizza tasted great, and the fact how we bowled didn't matter made for a great evening.
I finished with the 2nd high average in the league (a book keeping error had me tied with someone else for 2nd, but it would have been too much effort to fix it so we let it stand), and Rich also got an individual prize.
Josie started week one with a 44 average. She ended the season at over 65. I have never seen anyone improve 20 pins in one season, even those like Josie that had never bowled in a league before.
Fiona ended up a little over her normal 66, and despite saying every week she hated the game, had a good time.
Together we made for some very unlikely champions.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
