I lost the “bus race” game
I was walking up the hill from downtown Seattle to school yesterday. It was like most other days, and I had high hopes of winning the bus race game two days in a row.
It’s the game I play to make the routine walk a little more interesting. Here’s the premise: There are no buses that go from Kirkland anywhere near Capitol Hill. My best option is to take the 255 to downtown Seattle and find a way to get from there to school. The trouble is, the buses never seem to be in sync. If the 255 and 12 were timed better, I would make it to school in record time. As it is, by the time the 255 drops me off, I miss the 12 by a few seconds, requiring me wait 15 minutes for the next one. The faster thing seems to be simply walking 20 minutes up the hill from downtown. I say seems, because about half the time, the #12 passes me as I’m walking.
To quash my frustration, I made up a simple, little game. If I make it up the hill (to the corner of Madison & Broadway) before the 12 passes me, I win. Otherwise, I lose. Of course, there are special nuances to the game, that only a Calvinball player would understand. If, for example, the bus passes me, but I catch up to it at the corner of Madison & Broadway before the light changes, it’s a tie.
This got me to thinking about the other games I play to make routine activities more interesting.
The turtle game is one that both Nick and I play. When you’re driving on the freeway, you win if you can change lanes without running over the road turtles.
I also play the cruise control game. To play, you set your cruise control to a hair faster than the average speed of travel on the freeway and see how long you can go without slowing down. This is far more interesting, because there’s some strategy involved. You have to estimate the speed of cars in the lanes to the left and right of the one you’re traveling in and make the right choice when passing so you don’t get “boxed in.”
The other game I invented doesn’t have a name yet. I play it whenever I’m riding my bike along the Burke Gilman Trail. For every biker I pass, I get one point. For every biker that passes me, I subtract one point. The goal is to end your ride with as many points as possible. I have to confess, I’m an average rider and only ever end up with 0-3 points.
In this age of iPods, Blackberry’s and other distracting devices, I wonder how many people get bored enough to make up silly games like this. If you’ve made up a game, I’d love to hear what it is and how you play. Or perhaps you also play the turtle game or the cruise control game. Leave a comment and tell us about it!
Comments:
Turtle Game - Yep.
Cruise Control Game - Yep but with a varient ... I stay in my lane but bump the cruise control speed up or down to avoid hitting cars in front of me. Not legal to touch the accelerator or the brake.
Then there’s Glacier Bowling which I invented in the Swiss Alps above Chamonix ... make a snow ball and roll it down the snow clad mountain. Winner is the one whose snow ball rolls farthest. Illegal to create an avalanche.
The Turtle game must be a classic--I play it too.
Okay, here is a weird one. . . the shade biting game. Yes, I said biting the shade, as in with your teeth.
When driving down the road, any shade that crosses into your lane you have to bite down on. When you get past the shade you release your teeth. Lots of fun when driving up mountain passes where the trees create lots of striations.
Okay, I warned you that it was weird! Chalk it up to being a carsick pasenger for so many years. You have to do something to keep yourself from getting sick.
Dad: Nick reminded me that I play your version of the cruise control game, too.
Anne: The shade biting game doesn’t sound all that weird. It reminds me of similar car games like lifting your feet off the floor when you go over railroad tracks and holding your breath when you go through a mountain tunnel.
Dad I think you might have forgotten one and that it holding ones breath as one crosses bridges and goes through tunnels. I have really enjoyed that one since you introduced it to me oh so many years ago.
I used to play bus chase, but no more...funny that I don’t play the bus chase game now that I don’t have a car, but when I was playing I had a car…
The game that I have begun playing is the how far can I glide game or how fast do I need to go to get to the place I am heading by gliding. This is usually played with locations that are either fixed or red lights. For example when coming into our complex one needs to get to approximately 13mph to glide from the front gate to the parking spot out front of our place.
I am sure there are other strange ones that I play, but none are coming to mind right now…
Brian: Do you think Dad had ulterior motives behind encouraging us to hold our breath while we traveled over, under or through various objects. Perhaps these were the few moments in the car ride where we were both completely quiet and focused on something other than torturing each other? (Parents, take note.)
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