So that was fun

The sweeper is over, and the lanes got weird. I had another lefty on the pair with me who was playing right up 4-5. I had scuffed up my Virtual Gravity before the sweeper started to try and get a better read on the lane early. I moved in around 16 to 7-8 and had a great shot. I had a few good breaks, a few bad breaks, then ringing 7-pin in the 10th. Skidded tight past it left into the gutter. Are you serious? I HAVE TO REMEMBER to make a mental check on my spare shots to come through the ball cleanly. So I finished with 223. Then we moved to 1-2. I went spare, split, split. Keith says, why don't you play right up 7-8? It would still keep me inside the other lefty, who was struggling on the pair, and I would be take most of the lane out of play. So I say, sure why not? So I switch balls (to the Fury), moved 17 left with my feet and 9 left with my eyes. What lefthander makes that kind of ridiculous move? That shot was dead flush. So I try it again on the right lane. Flush again. From there it became a struggle. The right lane was OK, but the left lane was hooking early. I chased it the rest of the way, had a few splits, and settled for 180. It wasn't horrible, but man, when you don't execute a good shot, you pay for it. So we move to 15-16, and the lefty in front of me throws a good shot so I decide to stick with it. Same problem--left lane is hooking early, and the right lane is losing the flip on the back end. The left lane is tough because if I tilt the ball at all it fades off the line and doesn't recover. I made a few more adjustments to try and salvage the game, but after the 6th frame there was no chance at making it big, so I threw a few different shots, one right up 12, and two others right up 3-4, just to se the reaction in those areas. Oh yeah, I finished with a 176 for a 579 series. The final game score wasn't important. I even intentionally missed one spare just to throw another ball into a strike shot line to see what it would do. Very uneventful, but I was able to play a few different lines that I will think about tonight and make a few adjustments in practice tomorrow to see if I can put all this information into some semblance of a game plan for the morning. Practice is 7:30-8:30 again. I think that I will be bowling the 10am squad, and Keith will move to the noon squad. This is like a chess game, and I just need to move my pieces into the right places to win.

Signing off for the evening, folks. I'll post tomorrow morning, probably not until after I bowl the 10am squad.

We are having a great time. The bowling so far has not been what we wanted, but it is very, very close.