Monday, January 14, 2008

One of the Y's went missing

It was that kind of a day. I waited for a ride that didn't arrive. Tried to order some of those fixed postage boxes from the USPS and had no luck with Uncle's web site. When I called the telephone company to turn off Mom's service, the voice at the other end demanded to know just who I was and I was honest (I should have lied and pretended to be my mother). After I blew up, the voice asked if I had power of attorney. Yes. Well, fax us the document. My machine receives spam faxes quite nicely, thank you -- but it won't send. More hassle -- beg a ride from a neighbor to get to the Goodwin Street Pharmacy, whose fax machine does send. Eight pages worth.

So by 6 p.m., I was ready to relax with a couple of quiet games of Scrabble with a buddy. We played two games and as we were clearing the board for number three, a tile bounced off the table top. Likely into the baseboard radiator. We moved the table, I groveled down on the floor, flashlight in hand. No tile. Maybe we didn't lose one. Checked the Scrabble paperwork & we were lucky -- it told us that there are 100 tiles in a game. Friend counted the remaining tiles. Oops. just 99 of 'em. Maybe it would help to see which letter was missing. First count all those vowels. A, E, I, O and U all present. If only it had been a missing I, we would have cheered. Next, the cheap consonants; all A-OK. Finally, the high-scoring consonants; all there until we got to the final letter. Only one Y, instead of two. We gave up! Time to move the table back. That was when I spied a little brown square in the middle of the kitchen floor. Our missing Y. Whew!

Maybe it's time to give up on the analog game and go on line. No lost tiles, tho there is that computer problem. The SIL, dotter writes, is turning into a ferocious player at Scrabulous. I suspect he way outclasses me these days.

Blog Notes: Prescott Style, in a comment, has much to say about Lowe's engineering. For a picture of late 40s & 50s Prescott, visit The One Acre Wood.

10 comments:

Lucy said...

'cheap consonants' - I'd never thought of them like that!
i'm not sure about on-line playing, somhow you need to feel those little tiles...

Anonymous said...

Lowes has got my blood boiling Granny!

Linda G. said...

We've been playing Scrabble with our renter Tigger's Mom. We call it the annual humiliation visit, although this time I tied her for one game and lost by six on the next..I had seven points left when she went out..so near and yet so far!
Thanks for the link:)

Granny J said...

lucy -- I have signed up, but Scrabulous does not like my Firefox browser and so I have dragged my feet. SIL has said he wants to "take me on," as though I am the player that his wife is! Hah!

style -- my impression is that you are speaking from a professional as well as civic point of view -- right?

brain -- friend P. & I are pretty evenly matched. I didn't start beating my mom until she was in her late 90s & my dotter walks all over me!

smilnsigh said...

Wow! What a happy ending. You found the ding-dang-pesky Y... Just waiting for you. ,-)

Mari-Nanci

Granny J said...

SnS -- yep, there it was, going nyaahh, nyaahh at us.

meggie said...

One can never afford to lose one of one's ys!!
We used to play Scrabble such a lot. I wonder why we stopped playing?

Granny J said...

meggie -- it's always curious how a game or some other regular activity disappears from one's routine! Maybe it's time to get back with it -- if you have all your Y's lined up, of course. Incidentally, I heard through my morning drowsies that the owners of Scrabble are going after the Scrabulous web site. Infringement & all that jazz.

Anonymous said...

Niece from Memphis here...at work we get lots of donations. Two, count 'em, two, old Scrabble games were donated. I did the obligatory letter count and needed to consolidate to make a full game. I took the remainders and made a Scrabbl-media collage for Other Niece from Memphis which read in Scrabble crossword style "Wi----- and Mar------- Ga-----'s Nightly Entertainment" in honor of your mom and pop. While the glue was drying, a fire inspector came into the office and looked at the board and said "Entertainment is not legal" We figured he was right, but actually, it could be done in 3 turns starting with 'enter'. Well, it is at other niece from Memphis's house and she thinks it is spiffy! (glued little racks on the front with extra tiles, and glued one on the back for hanging purposes)

Granny J said...

NFM -- You WILL of course make some such for me the next time you have two Scrabble boards donated, wontcha?

 
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