Pinball wizard
I got up early this morning and I really meant to post here before noon but it was such a beautiful sunny morning. The air was cool and the sun felt so good on my little deck that I sat in it and basked like a cat instead of blogging. Then of course I got caught up in politics. I've been blogging up a storm at the other four blogs. And I'm still unpacking and settling in so I lost the afternoon on chores.

I think I've done a thousand loads of laundry by now. I've had to wash every single thing I own. I don't even own that many clothes anymore but of course I make new laundry all the time as well so it never ends. I've been going to the laundramat nearby because I have so much and it's faster there. The place has been taken over by a lovely Oriental couple who appear not to speak much English but it's clean now and well maintained. More importantly, they have a working pinball machine.

I run errands between the wash and dry cycles but I come back ten minutes early to pick up the clothes so I can play the machine. It doesn't work well by any means. The flippers are weak and the ball always gets stuck when the bonus ramp and the extra ball features activate but it doesn't matter. It's really easy to roll over. I haven't put more than fifty cents into it yet.

It's called Capt Hook racing baseball or something. I haven't been able to figure out what the theme is supposed to be. It's definitely the good Captain on the cabinet but it seems to have nothing to with Peter Pan. It has road scenes on the digital graphics but it has a lot of baseball sound effects. It keeps asking me to break a window and ride the ramps.

I haven't been able to figure out where the windows are. In fact I haven't bothered to figure out most of the gates. Like I said, it's so easy to roll over that all you have to is keep the ball in play and I only have ten minutes to spend. I've been exploring them though in my many trips to the place and I almost got a multiball today although I don't know how I did it. I'll have to pay more attention next time. I love multiball. I'm good at it.

In the meantime, I'm just going for the score. I left a respectably high number and a free game behind when I left today. I have a feeling the owner is going to play it before he leaves. He was pretending to play Pacman but he was definitely scoping out my game. As he should.

I'm not great, but I'm a really good pinball player. It's a dying art but just damn, I love the game. I've played it all over the world. My very favorite was the machine I played in Sevilla, Spain. There was a bar down the block from our hotel and it had Fish Tales. I know that machine like the back of my hand. I was the only woman in the place when I walked in and man, the boys were giving me the evil eye when I started playing but when I rolled that puppy -- they were standing around with respect.

Pinball. It's not as good as being a great pool player -- which I'm not -- but it's a still a skill that will win you friends in foreign lands.

[graphic via]