Friday, August 25, 2017

IT'S NOT THE NINE OF CLUBS

In a continuation of the game blog from the other day, I need to admit something a little shameful.  Here it goes.  Get ready.  Hold on, let me change out my glasses...

I can't really see clearly anymore.

I need reading glasses for driving now, and I need the strongest reading glasses available at the local discount store just to see large print.  In other words, I'm going to have to get the real deal glasses this winter.

I still passed my eye test last fall to get by without them while driving, but I use the low-level ones now to be safe.  I can still see very well, but I cannot see as sharply as I used to.  If you're wearing sneakers, I can still tell.  Whether or not your sneakers are single or double knotted, that's the part that's starting to get fuzzy.

Yes, I am one of those people who switches out glasses for glasses.  Sometimes I'll try to put another pair on while I still have the first pair resting on the top of my head.  I can't keep holding papers and books at arm's length anymore because my arms need to stretch a few feet more.

I'm still kind of proud but mostly lazy and cheap, so I'm still working on pooh-poohing the eye doctor in November, but I may want to rethink that strategy.  You see, my sister and I are playing cards, a heated match of Rummy, which is normally an easy game of straightforward rules.

But, wait.  There's more!

The deck of cards I grab is mostly fine: not a Pinochle deck or anything like that.  The deck is decorated with Looney Tunes characters but no numerical symbols on the cards to explain how many.  For example, the nine of clubs doesn't have nine clubs on it, but it does have one Pepe LePew.  Excellent to see this because I have already put down the other three nines, and this fourth one will be a nice five-point addition.

I throw down my nine of clubs and discard a different card, all the while being stared down by my sister.  I am slightly annoyed; it's only five lousy points.  She starts laughing, so I change out my glasses to a stronger pair and am embarrassed to see that the nine of clubs I throw down is not a nine at all but rather the Queen of clubs, worth (at this point, anyway) zero points.

I don't win the Rummy hand, but I will win in November when I pick out new frames.  I'm just saying.