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Strike 2

It’s bowling night.

I’m about to bowl seriously (that may not be the right term) for the first time.

I’m about to bowl and keep score for the first time in maybe a dozen years.

My expectations are low.

I’ve been writing about, thinking about, and asking questions about strikes for days.

And I’m wondering if the Warren County Education Association will call more strikes this week than I will.

If I had to bet, I’d bet, not heavily, on myself. Three games to get two strikes seems manageable.

I plan to throw the ball down the lane, hopefully into some pins.

My research indicates an ideal velocity of 16 miles per hour. I don’t know exactly what that looks like, but I plan to throw fairly hard.

I’ve been reading up and understand the theory of how to throw with hook. I don’t expect to do that tonight because I strongly suspect it takes well over three or four warm-up throws to get a clue.

(Hours later… right after bowling.)

I just finished trying to bowl seriously.

My right hand hurts.

My back hurts.

I had more than one strike. I had to leave right after I finished my last frame to get back to work, so I didn’t take a long look at the scorecard.

For a while, I thought I was a decent rookie bowler. I had a 159 in my first game. I was concerned my handicap would be low.

Fear no more.

I’m not a big believer in beginner’s luck. I’ll blame fatigue on my sub-100 second game.

Maybe my third game is closest to the truth. I cleared 100, but not by much.

In those last two games, I followed strikes with, I believe, frames of two, three, and six.

So, I’m not so consistent.

I’m sore, sweaty, and smell funny. I lost my head-to-head matchup. My team lost. And I had to come back to work.

Maybe over the next several months I’ll get better, or at least lose some of the sore, sweaty, and smelly outcomes.

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