(no subject)
Sep. 2nd, 2007 08:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI didn't get any horse time in yesterday, but I did make some progress on the woodpile. The grass remains uncut, big surprise there, I know. In the afternoon, I played Modified Rules Team 8-ball with Duncan and Christian (kids) and Larry and Sue (adults).
Modified Rules Team 8-ball starts with real 8-ball. It's kind of a more inclusive, participatory 8-ball. For Modified Rules Team 8-ball, people who are not old enough to use a cue (you have to be about 8 to do that) but who CAN see over the edge of the table (persons who are about 4 can do this) are allowed to roll the cue ball at their choice of target. People who are pool novices (in the 8-12 range) get non-partisan help with selecting shots, lining up shots, and using the bridge. Grown-ups, of course, have to play for themselves whether they suck or not. Do-overs are allowed for shots that didn't hit anything at all (for rolling players) or went less than six inches and didn't hit anything (for novice players). Grown ups do not get do-overs. We play slop rather than called shots because this is not a particularly cutthroat undertaking. The kids had a blast.
Lest anyone accuse me of dragging the children out to a bar or something, the reason we were playing pool is that there's a pool table, a big one with a ball return and everything, at the lodge. (I do not understand why ANYONE would want a pool table without a ball return.) My grandfather bought it at a sale (this is a suprisingly common explanation for why we have any given item) for fifty dollars back when dad was a kid. It's lived in several houses but has, for my lifetime, stood in the lodge where there is enough room all the way around it to shoot without hitting anything (like walls) with the back of the cue. In my world, the pool table at the lodge has made me look (in public) better at pool than I really am because bar pool tables are way smaller than our pool table. On bar-sized tables, I look pretty good. At home, I suck.
Modified Rules Team 8-ball starts with real 8-ball. It's kind of a more inclusive, participatory 8-ball. For Modified Rules Team 8-ball, people who are not old enough to use a cue (you have to be about 8 to do that) but who CAN see over the edge of the table (persons who are about 4 can do this) are allowed to roll the cue ball at their choice of target. People who are pool novices (in the 8-12 range) get non-partisan help with selecting shots, lining up shots, and using the bridge. Grown-ups, of course, have to play for themselves whether they suck or not. Do-overs are allowed for shots that didn't hit anything at all (for rolling players) or went less than six inches and didn't hit anything (for novice players). Grown ups do not get do-overs. We play slop rather than called shots because this is not a particularly cutthroat undertaking. The kids had a blast.
Lest anyone accuse me of dragging the children out to a bar or something, the reason we were playing pool is that there's a pool table, a big one with a ball return and everything, at the lodge. (I do not understand why ANYONE would want a pool table without a ball return.) My grandfather bought it at a sale (this is a suprisingly common explanation for why we have any given item) for fifty dollars back when dad was a kid. It's lived in several houses but has, for my lifetime, stood in the lodge where there is enough room all the way around it to shoot without hitting anything (like walls) with the back of the cue. In my world, the pool table at the lodge has made me look (in public) better at pool than I really am because bar pool tables are way smaller than our pool table. On bar-sized tables, I look pretty good. At home, I suck.
