freakboy classics: THE GAME

My dad passed away in March of 2022 and today would’ve been his birthday.  So, here is one of my old “tales from the freakboy zone” emails from 2008 all about a nice moment with my dad…

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THE GAME

 

Truth be told, I continue to be an early/mid-1980’s boy living in an Atari 2600 world.  As a matter of fact, Margaret and I occasionally dig out and dust off that antique gaming system and test our more “mature” hand-eye coordination and stamina.

 

I still leave her in the dust on Megamania.  She will almost always beat me at Video Pinball.  We level the playing field with our equal and eloquent suckiness in maneuvering Pac-Man!

 

But back then, back in those toe-tally awesome years, if someone had told me that I would one day play a video game with my father, I would have laughed the delusional fool out of the decade!

 

Flash-forward to Wednesday, January 30th, 2008, the impossible became reality.

 

After an out-of-town doctor appointment, my father and I had the opportunity to fiddle with that new-fangled contraption called Nintendo Wii.  There we were, me in my thirties, him in his seventies, playing a game of bowling, a controller replacing the ball and no shoe rentals!

 

We soon grew accustomed to swinging the controller as if we were really swinging a ball, and releasing a button at the moment we would have normally sent a physical bowling ball down the lane.  It was fun, plain and simple!

 

Together, as father and son, we were initiated into the 21st Century and its virtual playground.  For a change, technology closed the age gap instead of expanding it.

 

FYI: My dad won, 127 to 93.  Hhhmmm…maybe this gaming system reversed the age gap.

 

1/30/2008

 

John L. Harmon

freak under control 

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Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words. 

Freak Out, 

JLH 

P.S. click the pic ⤵️ for another tale about my dad…

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Bubba’s Truck is a very short story that may make you tear up a bit and is available as a very short ebook from an Amazon near you. 

Waiting for cookies...

I sit and wait.  

The sweeper sweeps up lunch debris around me.  The relative sits at a different table with cookies he purchased.  Guess he couldn't wait for the free ones he will receive when the birthday boy arrives.  He's the kind of relative who would call someone stupid for ordering cookies while waiting for free ones.  Ask me again why I avoid family gatherings.

The only reason I'm here is for the simple reason that the birthday boy is my dad.  He's taking the vision test at the Department of Motor Vehicles.  Not sure if he will pass.  Not sure if he should. Either way, he will have had over 40 more years of driving than I will experience.  (See the previous post for my last drive, which happened in December 2016 - https://freakboyzone.blogspot.com/2019/02/last-drive-half-blind-poem.html )

Earlier I ate lunch with my dad, along with 2 of 3 sisters and a couple of other relatives.  Maybe I'm weird, but I would avoid talk of the deceased on an 84 year-old's birthday.  I'm sorry that your brother died last year but could you not remind my dad of death on his birthday?  This shouldn't surprise me.  I was talking about my upcoming great niece or nephew to a relative and she had to bring up her miscarriages.  I'm sorry your babies died a couple of decades ago, but I'm trying to celebrate new life.  Thankfully, my niece lives far enough away to ever be around this relative.  I'm sure she would tell my niece all about it.  It's not like I would bring up my mom's death at a celebration of someone else's mom's birthday.  

Yeah, I will be too busy to attend the next family gathering.  I'll be washing my hair or napping or doing anything else.  Ripping out my fingernails might be less painful. 

I am still sitting and waiting.

I would be online, but the Wi-Fi is misbehaving.  Maybe that's good.  Taking a break from the virtual world.  Decompress.  Though I have my headphones on, my Mad Scientist Glasses focused and my tablet propped up to avoid interaction with physically present people.  At least I'm writing these words.  It's better than engaging in conversation with other humans.  Previous examples should illuminate my reasons.  Though perhaps I'm just anti-social.  Perhaps I'm not anti-social with people I actually want to be around.

More relatives just turned up. 

Is there something fundamentally broken in me that makes me prefer the company of online strangers over people who have known me...or think they've known me...all my life?  To be blunt, ever since my mom passed away, I've felt disconnected from a lot of her relatives.  Felt like a ghost at family functions.  I don't have anything to talk with them about.  I don't have a"real" career.  Believe me, too many moments in the past have proven that this is important to them.  I don't have kids, thank the gods!   So I can't brag endlessly about them.  Even if I did and could, I'd hear about how great their dead kids would have been or something, obviously.  

The birthday boy arrived and SHOCK OF SHOCKS!  My dad passed his test.  The DMV person even took him for a drive and he still passed!  Mind you, they put some restrictions on his license.  No driving out of town, no driving after dark, and no driving when wet.  I made up the last one. 

The cookies should arrive soon.  I suspect they will be oatmeal raisin, but if that's what dad wants, so that's what he gets.  If I have cookies on my next birthday, I'm ordering chocolate chip!

Thank you for reading or listening to my half-blind words.

Freak Out,

JLH 

P.S. For more personal words from a half-blind freak like me...

getbook.at/VBebook