Stuff, games, and electric bill

[helwen]

Much pruning of the backyard neighbor's hemlocks has occurred, so that they are not leaning over into our yard. More yard waste has gone to the city compost site (they make mulch that anyone from the city can use in their gardens, plus the city uses it too). fitzw was able to make a few garden stakes from the branches before that.... GW picked up chives, green onions, and some lettuce - he and Jane are sharing gardening space with their neighbors, lady_jade_01 and family. A bit more weaving has happened, and some cleaning as well.

Then off to the farm so fitzw could continue to help out with some stuff, like clearing the rest of the branches from the tree by the barn he cut down last visit, setting new pole for one of the fences, helping to get the chain onto the manure spreader, moving hay and lumber, etc. I helped out with the brush clearing (lots of branches), then played cribbage with Marian.

A pretty easy afternoon for me, except that I kept winning.... she managed to win one game out of probably a dozen games. I kept getting double runs, or things like the king with 2 fives and then cutting the deck to another five... we both had some good challenges on pegging for points, and I understand how runs work during game play a little better. I'm slower than her at counting combinations, and I hope it doesn't annoy her too much that the person who doesn't do arithmetic quickly does so well at games like this... Although usually, we take turns winning games. Today was truly odd. But I'm reminded of when we played mancala a few times, which is mostly skill not chance, and I consistently won even though I wasn't counting beyond 4 for pieces per bowl. It was all a matter of how full the bowls _looked_. That was a fun game. I like learning to play games like Go, too. It's the sort of puzzle I can work through, unlike chess. Chess I play by different rules - because I don't excel at it, my goal is to draw, not win. My father and my brothers played more competitively, and I know it drove one of them crazy that I wouldn't play to win. As for me, I play games in a way that will be fun for me, otherwise why play the game? Those multi-player strategy games are generally terribly boring and yet stressful for me, so I avoid them as much as possible - some of them are interesting to watch, for a while.

But one time I was talked into taking over someone's place when he had to go to work or something, in a game of Civilization. As this type of game goes, this is one of the more interesting ones. Of course I didn't have a prayer of winning, but I could entertain myself trying to become more "civilized", and the game could continue because all the players were accounted for. One fellow was making some threatening moves toward my territory. I suggested that perhaps we could discuss a treaty that might be of benefit to us both, since I was mostly interesting in slowly building up my territory. He said he was already engaged in aggressive maneuvers with my country, to which I replied that yes, but a new person is in charge. He said, how was he to know that there was a new leader? I said, because I just told you. How stupid is it that a person can only receive messages of threats but not of peace? That isn't how real strategy works. So when he insisted on his view, I told him that if he attacked me I would not stop attacking him until he was destroyed. For some reason he didn't believe I would do that -- he figured I would stop if it were to the detriment of my position in the game. So he attacked, and I destroyed him. And of course my territory went as well. Afterward he explained his reasoning, and I said that his reasoning was flawed and that he should have believed me. Interesting when incompatible thought processes clash, isn't it?

***
So, last month I washed lots of linen and use the dryer to pre-shrink it. Feeling somewhat guilty about having used it so much, I cut back on my time on the computer to try to make up for it, hoping that the bill wouldn't be too much over previous months. Apparently I overcompensated, because the bill was $4 less than the previous month.... $29.26. Oy.

We'll have to enjoy it while we can; if it gets as hot as predicted, the AC will be turned on...

Comments

[joyeuse60.livejournal.com]

Chuckle... OK should we ever have a chance to play I will remember to believe you always.