Friday night bowling

Friday evening I stayed at work until about 6:30 and then headed over to a bowling alley where my wife had a small event going on.

I debated even going to this event. I didn't really know anybody there and the only thing that pushed me was a chance to bowl. I hadn't bowled in over 3 years. But even that was questionable as it was leagues night and I had no idea when they would be done. It wasn't that far from work, and it was a Friday, so I figured I'd just head over and play it by ear. If I can't bowl by around 8pm I'd split home, take the dog for a walk and probably hang with the neighbors.

I had thrown my ball and shoes bag in the car that morning so I showed up, ready to bowl around 7 and had a Labatt Blue while sitting with a bunch of strangers in a meeting that I didn't really have anything in common with hoping the leagues might end early. Tick tock, a couple dozen people chatting away while I'm pretending to listen and my beer is running out. I noticed a lady who returned with a tall dark amber draft beer that looked delicious so I went and asked her what it was; "October Fest, they have it on special". Twist my arm, I'll wait awhile longer with one of those! At 8:30 I was about 1/2 way into an October Fest and the leagues all clear out, time to bowl!

I bowled two games by my self and frankly I wasn't bowling worth a crap. Everything was off, the ball came back dripping with oil, my spin was nonexistent, balance was all off... I couldn't land anything consistently. One of the people from the meeting that I kinda knew came over and had also brought their ball and wanted to bowl, so I ordered up a couple more games and another draft. I figured I'm not bowling great but hey, it's the whole reason I'm here so lets go! I got better once I got used to the oil and was throwing a fast (16mph+) ball with very little arc. We bowled a few games till about 10pm when the event finished up and most people left. My wife and a couple other people decided they wanted to bowl too. Everyone was drinking and whenever the drinks were getting low someone would offer to go get more. I had had 4 of the October Fests when I realized that they were too heavy and not agreeing with the bowling alley pizza I had, so I switched to Bud light. I had 2 of those while we bowled 3 more games.

For me it was 8 games total and I was getting tired. That and it was now close to 1am and the alley was closing up. At about a beer an hour I didn't feel drunk or impaired, just tired, so driving wasn't really a concern. About 1/2 way home on the expressway my fuzzbuster lit up with instant on radar, I immediately looked at my speed and was right at about 80mph so I let off the gas. Everyone else was doing 80+ so I didn't think much of it, but I was in the slow lane and way behind me I saw some headlights pull out on the expressway. It took a good mile before they caught up to me, they weren't racing to catch me it seemed, but then the lights came on...