Back in the Spring of 1959, before many of you were probably born, I contracted a case of German measles, or Rubella. It is not the kind of illness that a 12 year old wants to have when one is looking forward to great weather arriving.
At the time, our neighbor was pregnant and my illness was not welcome news for her either. She had to drive to the County Health Dept. to pick up gamma globulin for her doctor to inject to protect her unborn child.
Anyway, because my case was atypical, a fever that did not subside, my doctor was concerned that I may have rheumatic fever, the etiology not being clearly defined then or now. So, I was told to spend my summer vacation in 'idle' mode.
I had a friend who was frail and rather sickly, so we spent a lot of time together playing canasta. And Scrabble. While I still play Scrabble, I have no idea what the rules of canasta are anymore.
When I did not have someone to socialize with, I played Solitaire. But a game that can be won only about 1% of the time gets boring rather fast. So I got out my mother's card rules book (Hoyle's) and learned how to play Freecell, though I don't remember it being called that back then.
When I got a computer that had the game installed, I thought it was great. And I played it a lot. When I had to replace the computer, I was sorry to see my game total and winning string disappear.
But, shortly after getting my new computer five years ago, I discovered that a change had been made to the game. Instead of making a bad move and being completely shut out (sorry, you lose), you could now back-track and fix your mistake.
As of this moment, I have played 25,741 games. I have won 25,521 games. My longest string is only 16,863 games though. Lesson learned: do not walk away in the middle of the game, forget about it and then shut down your computer. ARRGGHH!
I love the challenge of seeing the cards laid out and figuring out the moves to be made to make the four stacks necessary to finish the game. I find the game relaxing at the same time. When I turn the computer on in the morning, playing a game is the first thing I do before going on the net to check my mail.
I guess if I have to be addicted to something, this at least will not mess with my mind or make me fat. I guess you could call it 'Government approved'.
I play solitaire games a lot - including Free Cell. I used to play Canasta many years ago too but doubt I could remember the rules either. Matt loves to play Bookworm - a word game.
ReplyDeleteSounds like bloggers are also card players. Never heard of Bookworm, but will look it up.
DeleteI play free cell to jump start the day. If I have had a bad client or a stressful day I also play it just to calm the mind down...lucky I can do that for a couple of minutes. Bummer you had these measles. Gene Tierney volunteered and the Hollywood canteen during the war and she was pregnant. When she gave birth it was found her child was severely retarded-sorry I am so tired that I forgot the politically correct term. A few years later a fan came up to her and this lady said she was ill with the German Measles but since gene was her favourite actress she just had to go see her and so she did at the Hollywood Canteen. This actress met the woman who gave her the measles which resulted in her daughter's mental state
ReplyDeleteOur neighbor's daughter was wild and crazy. Always wondered if a touch of the measles did it. It is unfortunate that more and more parents will not vaccinate their children.
DeleteCards on the computer can be a lot of fun and played faster. Think about how long it takes to shuffle and lay the real cards out. But sometimes I want a deck in my hand. There's a therapeutic quality to shuffling and sorting.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if I remember when my cards are. I do know I have some. I played a lot of Pinochle as a teenager with cousins my age. Don't remember the rules of that either.
DeleteGood to know that someone as sharp as you can get hooked on this stuff. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the compliment.
DeleteMy mom was talking about playing solitaire again just the other day, but I'm not sure if it's already on my computer. I used to love to play that, and spider solitaire!
ReplyDeleteI play spider solitaire two, but at level two with two suits. Love it. I was told that they put Solitaire on computers so that folks could learn to use the mouse. I mastered that for sure, lol.
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