Saturday, the day of state championships, we slept in. We figured to avoid the rush for bathrooms among the estimated 46 people staying with us, all of whom qualified. We slept on much later than that. Well, I did anyway: I'm still getting used to the 7 am alarm for work. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger had time to discover the house had a gloriously ancient first-aid kit, one from the early 80s at the latest. How does she know this? Besides the kit included smelling salts, with an expiration date in the early 80s. She was so delighted by the existence of this cartoon-world attraction she took photographs and texted friends back at the tournament not to faint until we got there.
In all we missed much of the first round of state finals. We had a bunch of friends, some with excellent seeds, going in, including MWS who had a coveted first-round bye. (Eight of the 24 players had such.) But we couldn't do much besides root them on; for one, it's not like we know any games better than they do. For another, it's not like we could touch a pinball machine, not in all the large main room. No one could except for tournament play. We, and people who wanted to warm up or fill time between matches, could play a handful of tables in the front room. This was a nice enough lineup of games that weren't suitable for tournament play, mostly because they weren't quite reliably working enough. Like, Breakshot, a 90s pool-themed game, had a tendency to crash and reboot midway through games. The Data East Star Wars, an early-90s take on the game, had a wobbly flipper. Really fascinating me was Jacks To Open, a Gottleib table made in the mid-80s that was a solid-state re-creation of Jacks Open, a fun electromechanical game. I've only played Jacks Open in simulation --- The Pinball Arcade has it --- but love it; it's one of the tables I play when I just want to have a nice easy relaxing time. This mid-80s version was a bit odd to make since it was old-fashioned for the era, but, all right. Most of what was done to liven it up was to add a never-ending bit of eight-bit music in the background. On the actual table I managed to put up the high score and a score bigger than I've ever done in simulation where, must be said, the shots are easier. I suspect the scoring changed between the electromechanical and the solid-state versions.
As I say we were rooting for people, mostly our friends, including ones we don't see enough anymore like CST. Lansing Pinball League could make a reasonable claim on like five or six of the players, a great proportion until you consider that almost nobody plays in just the one league. In any case I hope you will not think worse of us if I admit we were also rooting against someone. And, a kid. SPM, the ... uh ... I don't know? 11? 7? 9? I can't tell kids' ages. Pre-teenager, anyway ... son of that guy who picked the Facebook fight with bunnyhugger was there. That's not a problem. The problem is his father was there and we did not want to have to deal with him. The father was walking around, slightly kiasu, watching over his son, and holding a small dog the whole time. I didn't know what he looked like so Friday and early Saturday when I just noticed, oh, guy walking around with a dog, I thought that was neat. When I tumbled on to who he was that all got to be less fun.
Thing is, SPM is really good. Like, he's currently about the 500th-highest-ranked player in the world. MWS is at 350th and he's been playing seriously longer than SPM has been alive. Maybe. I guess. Conscious, at any rate. SPM is maybe a bit much to take but you can absolutely understand that: he's got an amazing talent and he should be exited by it all. If he occasionally gets to be obnoxious, well, he's ... young ... and who wasn't like that at that age?
But, also, he's got the handicap of his father being a Stage Mom, not just congratulating his (considerable) accomplishments but also making sure everybody knows about them as soon as they happen and several times after that. And hovering over every event making sure his son doesn't get a single bad call or unlucky bounce. It's stressful just to watch, and I'd hate having to referee his trying-to-claim-every-edge, even as his son smashes opposition using the only edge anyone needs.
It would be a long day watching all these forces clash.
And now I close out my pictures of Crossroads Village. You know what you haven't seen enough of yet? You're going to see it!
Kettle corn stand with, inevitably, its reflection beneath.
Over on the right is the opera house, with the gift shop, and the cafe, and other stuff .
Looking down the street at the light-wrapped tree.
And her's a slightly different angle on the tree; couldn't decide which picture was slightly better than the other.
Now we're talking: that light-wrapped tre plus its reflection showing you all the times the shuttle had been around today.
A look at the Christmas train, done with its last run for the night.
Trivia: The space shuttle Columbia launched on its last mission the 16th of January, 2003, 25 years to the day after the announcement of NASA's eighth group of astronauts, the one including Sally Ride (who would serve on the Accident Investigation Board) and Ellison Onizuka, Judith Resnick, and Francis Scobee, who died in the Challenger accident. Source: NASA's First Space Shuttle Astronaut Selection: Redefining the Right Stuff, David J Shayler, Colin Burgess.
Currently Reading: A History of The World's Airlines, R E G Davies.
