Oct
29
2013

Freecell ate My Life

IMG_1836‘I hope they don’t write that on my tombstone,,,” I muttered.

“What?” my husband asked.

“Nuthing…I’m just talkin to myself.”

“Oh. What are you doing?”

“Nuthing…”

“You’re on your computer.”

“Yeah.”

“Are you writing an article?”

“Hmmm.”

“Are you learning WordPress?”

“Hmmm.”

“Are you E-mailing the kids about nutrition?”

“Maybe later.”

“Right.”

Once upon a time, I never, ever played computer games. I confess, I felt a real sense of superiority.

No. I’d reply. I never played Pac Man. No, I never played Tetris. Well, once I played Crystal Quest, but it was only because I was helping my 4 year old. And, the sounds were really good.

My husband played games all the time and I never said anything…

“LIAR!!!”

“Shhh. This is my article.”

I felt superior. After all, I spent my time on real things. I was reading! Sure they were mysteries and sci-fi, but I didn’t waste half my life playing stupid games on the computer. I only played cards when I was forced to and I didn’t watch TV. I was productive. And serious! I mean, I read the whole Twilight Series, but only for insight into contemporary culture. I would never let a silly game eat my life.

Then it happened, my downfall, but it was for the best of reasons…

“Yeah, the road to heck is paved with….”

“Go away, this is my article.”

You see, what happened was that my aunt, who spent hours playing free-cell, was in the hospital. She was in generally good spirits, but she missed her computer. Mostly she missing being able to play free-cell.

So I had a quest. I went to toy-stores and bookstores. Surely, I thought, given the predominance of games, and game boys, and X-boxes, I should be able to find a realistically priced device that I could give my aunt to just let her play freecell in the hospital. Don’t they make games for senior citizens too? I asked myself.

“Could I suggest a deck of cards?” my husband suggested.

“What are you talking about?” I glared at him.

“She’s not going to be able to see the screen. Or figure out how to work it.”

I ignored him, I try to ignore nay-sayers. Then I found a device on Amazon.

I was excited to bring it in and present it to her, but my aunt reacted like I had dragged in a dead mouse.

“I can’t get it to work…” she frowned, shaking her head. “and I can’t see the screen.”

It can’t be that hard I thought. But honestly, it made no sense to me either.

Duh, I thought, I just need to learn how to play the game. Then I can explain how it works to her. But the road of good intensions…I couldn’t figure it out on the device either. So I took another tack, I downloaded it! One copy on my iPad, and another to my computer.

It was a very altruistic act. Really!

That was several years ago, more or less. I may have lost track of time…

“What ever happened to that device?” my husband asked in his own sweet way.

“I have it.” I replied stubbornly. “I might need it, if I ever go into the hospital.”

“So, are you planning to move from that chair?” he persisted. “Write an article? Clean the kitchen sometime this summer?”

I glared at him.

“I just need to finish one more game.”

Actually, thinking through this, my survivors can actually write anything they want on my tombstone. I won’t see it. But maybe I should just pack the device along with me…just in case…

1 comment to Freecell ate My Life

  • Lyn

    Funny, I just got hooked on playing bridge on line (Bridgebase.com) reminding me of all the wonderful Friday nights playing with your mother and aunts. What has happened to Jack and Louise’s house? Love reading your columns. Keep up the good work – and don’t forget to gather them all together into a book one of these days when you are free from “FreeCell.”

Leave a Reply

You can use these HTML tags

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

  

  

  

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.