Day 29: Bowled over!

Being able to anticipate potential difficulties in an untried situation by applying previous experience is one of the advantages of being human.  Unfortunately, being human, we sometimes forget to even try anticipating difficulties. Well, maybe not all of us forget, but I do.

Yesterday was Fathers Day, a day I believe fathers should spend with their offspring of whatever age since often fathers are too busy to spend time with those offspring.  (In our neighborhood, this is definitely not true, at least from what I can observe through our windows as I age-appropriately monitor the street noise.  Fathers on our block are often out playing rousing games of street hockey in the actual street even though the park is twenty paces away.)  In our stage of life, this busyness is reversed and our boys (now young men) are now too busy to spend much time with us.  For this reason, we arranged to have dinner with them at The Market Barbecue on the edge of downtown Minneapolis--just about midway between where they now live.  Even though Fathers Day was my Day 28 with Gracie, she had yet to meet my younger son who lives near the University of Minnesota and cooks at the Big 10 on the edge of the campus.  

I had brought Gracie's dog blanket, but it wasn't needed. The Market Barbecue has nice, relatively new carpeting and big booths with plenty of room underneath for a Hearing Dog to settle.  Gracie marched in confidently ignoring the oohs we are beginning to accept due to her size and cuteness.  She went right where she was supposed to go and did an admirable job of being quiet and calm while the four of us ate barbecued ribs.  After dinner, our older son who had come on his bike from his apartment in the Uptown area, left.  Our younger son Zach came home with us.  Having heard that I had earned stars on my Wii bowling ball that one gets when deemed "expert" thanks to a session where I rolled mostly strikes--particularly amazing because in real bowling, I'm lucky to roll 60--he was eager to take me on. Both Zach and Bruce, unlike me, are very good bowlers on a "real" bowling alley, and I think it irks them to think that I apparently rule in the virtual world.  In fact, once I earned my stars, Bruce refused to Wii bowl with me anymore and accused me of smugness.  One night before Gracie joined us, I tried Wii bowling alone (just to see again all those stars). But Wii bowling alone is a lonely activity I do not recommend; in addition, I actually came very close to losing my coveted stars in the process.  As I discovered, when a Wii bowler's cumulative score (calculated by some mathematical formula that is not part of "real" bowling) drops below 1000, the stars are rescinded. 

Needless to say, I was a bit nervous as we set up to play, my thoughts on getting back in the multiple strike mode of my glory game and not on how Gracie would like being in a room full of Wii bowlers. Had I thought about Gracie more, I might have saved my stars while avoiding...

THE ACCIDENT!!

Does Dick Van Dyke Wii bowl?

To Wii bowl, some furniture needs to be moved.  The game needs to be turned on.  The little avatars--ours are humorous representations of us concocted by our older son and his girlfriend (who tellingly refused to have one made in her likeness)--need to be selected in the order in which the bowling will take place.  All of this activity, especially after sitting so long at the restaurant, was very exciting to Gracie.  If I had been thinking straight, I might have calmly and pleasantly put her in her crate along with the requisite dog biscuit.  I wasn't thinking straight, though, and I didn't. Instead, after Bruce went first (for Fathers Day), I accepted the controller from Bruce, stood up, got in position behind the comical representation of myself holding the red ball covered with stars, stepped forward, and promptly did a Dick Van Dyke-style fall over Gracie who had gotten up as she has been trained to do to go with me wherever I happen to go. 

I am no limber dancer-type like Dick Van Dyke, so my fall was awkward but not, unfortunately, Graceless.  Gracie's reaction was very similar to the carbonated water incident at our first Twins Game together--she seemed ready to dump me as her person and tried to attach herself to Zach.  Fortunately, she appeared to be unhurt.  I was fortunate too, suffering only a stubbed toe and loss of dignity.  I think I fell around her and not on her, however.  Still she was scared, and she was giving me a wary look that indicated that I had violated her trust.  That was clear.  Putting her in her crate now was and idea that occured to me but which I quickly dismissed.  I needed to win her back.  Lucky for me, Gracie is a dog that loves to be petted and cuddled.  The road to winning her back was clear.

We kept bowling.  Between turns, I did my best to pet and reassure Gracie that the whole incident was entirely my fault (as if she had any doubts--hah!).  My Wii bowling was abysmal. I lost my stars but by then no longer cared.  Meanwhile, Bruce earned his.  Happy Fathers Day, Bruce.  We played again.  This time Gracie, being the smart little dog she is, stayed on the sidelines.