May 21, 2022

Yesteryear
One year ago today: xxxx 2021, sigh, no women . . .
Five years ago today: May 21, 2017, excessive bass-playing.
Nine years ago today: May 21, 2013, Sony is full of it.
Random years ago today: May 21, 2009, a shoe riddle.

           Working all morning, I got the XP computer working again. It had one memory (RAM) card and no ether internet card, but I can patch that up next trip. It seems more evident every turn of events with the crap sold as computers these days that when you want work done, it’s right back to Win XP. I even got the sound working, except it is full blast or nothing unless you set the volume in control panel. We got to work on the bass to “Tulsa Time” and it is not what it seems. It’s a good thing I’m stocked-up on coffee. This brand of work takes me back 30 years when my desk was next to the office coffee counter. Prime posting.

           We took the evening off and went to the arcade, or what passes for it these days. Out to Opry Mills for a walk in the mall, then Dave & Busters. I said many a year ago, it is a joint that conditions children that gambling is fun. By chance, a friend of Jimmy who used to live next door, is a co-owner of the operation. But, he wasn’t around so we spend (in the end) $78 playing and riding every machine. Two things I noted different than arcades of my day. One, there were no pinball machines in the entire place, just video knock-offs. Two, there were no good-looking females in the entire place, other than the Reb. Yes, I notice such things.

           Here’s the Reb near the fish tank in that aquarium restaurant. It’s out of focus, which tells you something about the millennial era. Auto-focus doesn’t work right. If it did, it could tell when it’s focused and could also tell you when it isn’t. However, at least you get a snap of the Reb. And some pretty large fish. They had a surplus of manta rays in there this visit.
           Overall, the arcade is a disappointment. The place has a central bar where the adults could slosh while the kids played, the Reb & I were the only couple there for the machines. None were worth mentioning, all evening we “won” enough points to buy a novelty flashlight, now relegated to the doggie poop night leash. The machines were all four or five variations on the same theme. I played the axe throwing game with my bad shoulder and scored several direct bull’s-eyes, but also some that hit only the side walls. We rode the motorcycles and shot a lot of aliens. The disappointment is all the action machines were badly detuned to respond slowly. We rode this roller coaster thing that was less than fun and after that avoided the 3D virtual reality.
           Not one really new machine in the joint. Mostly watered-down video versions of old pinball machines, which in all honesty were far more fun. Plus, these cartoon characters and other animation figures reflect a terrible retrograde mentality, these were graphics for kindergarten kids, not teenagers. The reality is these animations were little better than the 1G stick figures of the previous century. One of the popular units was a big screen version of Pong. We had fun because we brought fun along with us.

Picture of the day.
Brighton Pier (Amusement Park)
(For Sale)
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           Opry Mills is always a neat walk if you can avoid buying stuff. It is also in half-lockdown mode, there must be some app that the cops can stop teens and check on their phones if they have permission to be there. It works wonders for keeping the bad ones (need I say more) out of the place. They stil let too many of them inside, however. No, America is not one big free-for-all, that’s just the media zooming you. We poked in a couple of expensive shops, but we are spending the extra Taurus budget so our plan was the arcade.

           The machines are really lame and unimaginative, nothing new. Lots of ball and ring toss games. Reb got to bowling and other familiar ball toss games. But the remainder of the archade reflects how this century failed to produce a single new super-hero or super-power. The single new machine we rode was this “Hungry Hippo”, which was mechanical, not electronic. You work a set of handlebars with a plastic hippo head that gobbles balls that randomly spin in the center. Or would, if the management would level the machine.

           Rare for us is to eat late. There is a Mexican spot in the Mall, but expect New York prices. We ordered two small dishes, an appetizer and a child’s meal. They arrived in buckets, huge portions. Ever wonder why there are so many fat teens in the arcade? You should have seen these burritos, each half a plate large. This was, for me, a big night out. We were at the arcade for close to three hours. My pitching arm was not ready for all the throwing games. I’m more of a flipper man these past few eras.
           This was my longest trip in the Civic yet, it rides smooth. It’s peppy so I was surprised to learn it is only a four-cylinder. Comparable to the V-6 in my van, but remind me to get a manual and set all the things for that car. Everything is set to display dumb stuff that we don’t use. But it took five minutes just to set the clock an hour back, so I’ll made sure I leave an hour to get the temp to Fahrenheit and such. Plus, there is a setting for “analog” displays which both of us prefer because you don’t have to take your eyes off the road to “read” the dials.

Last Laugh