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'.