Rack ‘em up!
It has been noticed before that the same skills (hand and eye coordination), are necessary for both horseshoes and pocket pool play. It seems pool players like tossing the horseshoes too, and vice versa. We have been developing a trio of horseshoe pits for tournaments along with pool tables to play tournaments in tandem. This will be an outdoor activity andmay only be semienjoyed all year long.
No, I don’t think pool playing will be as much fun as shoe tossing if it is raining. But why anyone would want to throw the darn things back and forth is beyond me anyway. OK, it is true enough that when it is raining, the shoe tossers can still toss. Pool players would need a room or an easyup to protect them and the felt fromwater accumulating. But considering all of the circumstances around becoming ill, maybe outdoor activities is the only way to go forward with having any competition.
They do make outdoor tables for playing pool nowadays. I don’t know how they wick water off the flat surface of a pool table but they must have a way to do it or it would be pretty slow for rolling balls on a pool table in the rain.
Chatty Matty and Captain Sean to the rescue! Well, kind of — they did make it possible to move a small pool table from Kevin’s home to big Ed’s. The table with six men ahold wasn’t nearly as heavy as when four men off-loaded it from Gilbert’s trailer. It was a 1950’s 3.5-foot by 7-foot
table. Simple, right?
No way! This thing weighed as much as a whale andwas unruly as could be for moving. Kevin, Randy, and Mike, all way past their prime, were gimping around after the move and worried they were never going to be the same. While young guys Sean andMatty were ready to go, looking for something else to do. Apparently not feeling, and definitely not showing, any adverse effects from wrestling that heavy table around. I wish I felt the same.
The Sunday afternoon tournament in the woods has been getting better each week with more entrants. This past week the format changed to a best of three format. It wasn’t bad but I think it needs to be fine-tuned. The 9-ball games started after the tournament, but some of the players went to the horseshoe pit and began tossing themback and forth again.
Guys, make up your mind once and for all, decide where you want the horseshoes, and then leave them there. I mean, throwing them to one place, and then throwing them back does not make much sense tome. Decidewhere it is that you want them and then leave them for a while to see if you like them there. Just picking them up and throwing themback immediately doesn’t give youmuch time to enjoy where you just threw them.
This activity can go on for a long time, sometimes until the early morning hours, it must be an addictive thing because many people do it, over and over again. They hoot, they holler, they celebrate being ahead, or complain about something, and then they pick the darn things up and do it again. Rackinrandy has added lights and a drone for instant playback. Whew, isn’t that a bit odd? He claims to be able to see the arc more clearly and make any necessary adjustments. Why bother if you are just going to pick them up and throw‘emback to where they started from? I just knowI must be missing something.
Gilbert Dutra has a local landscaping business and has beenmowing, trimming and hauling for years. He also has a nice landscaping trailer that works really well if you are moving a fully assembled pool table. He doesn’t helpmove pool tables butwill give you free advice on just about anything else.
CUETIP » If you buy a secondhand pool table, be sure you dismantle it or get six young guys to move it. You should plan to have it professionally re-felted with new bumpers put on all around unless it is nearly new. Otherwise, you may be disappointed in the results after the effort itwill take just to move it. There is nothing much worse than a table with bad bumpers and felt. Contact me at mcbohanon@gmail.com.