malvasia bianca

Miranda’s daycare occasionally goes on bowling trips, and the local bowling alley also handed out cards entitling kids to one free game a day (plus free shoe rental) over the summer, so she’s been asking me if I could take her bowling some time. Which I finally got around to doing today.

Fun. First time I’d been bowling in a while; I was in a league (and even bought my own ball) in, I think, 1999, but basically haven’t bowled since. And I’m still not entirely comfortable with a 15 pound ball; this all meant that, basically, I had no idea where the ball would go and what it would feel like the first few frames.

And I did actually slip and fall a bit releasing the ball; oops. Where the ball would go, however, proved not to be a particular problem. I still seem to be capable of sending the ball straight down the lane to within a half-pin of accuracy most of the time, and to within a pin of accuracy the rest of the time; hurray for muscle memory. Or hurray for turning my arm into a pendulum with a big weight at the end of it. Or something. Not enough to turn me into a really good bowler, but enough to produce 135 and 148 games.

After the end of which my fingers ached, I was a bit sweaty, and I imagine my play would have gone rather downhill if I’d tried a third game.

Nice to do every once in a while; I’ll be happy to go bowling as frequently as Miranda wants. On the other hand, my skill has been at a plateau of around 130 for almost two decades, and (unless my free time drastically increases somehow) I can’t see myself either taking the time to improve that or wanting to play in a league without improving that.