Bard Letsinger

Game of Life

One of the gifts that my son Braiden got for Christmas was the board game “Life” (I think you have to be 30 or older to know what a “board game” is). With todays video games and electronic gadgets to keep me busy it had been a long time since I sat down and played a board game and “Life” was one of my favorites. Milton Bradley has given the game a modern look, with updated game board, salaries, changed the cars to min-vans and updated game play.  Now you don’t just go down the college path and land on a career, if you chose that route you are immediately $100,000 in debt before you take your first turn. Also you have career cards so every player has a different profession and salary. You also get periodic raises as you move around the game board, and you can even lose your job which either forces you to go back to college or settle on a non-college carrier depending on how late in “Life” you have to make the change. Also you don’t just stop to get married; you also have to stop to buy a starter home and then your next home. One night after Christmas we sat down with Mollie's parents and brother and played a full game.

The final results:

Mollie’s mom: Went to college, got a job as an Entertainer and retired in first place with $1.615 million.
 
Mollie: Skipped college and drew the Athlete card, the highest paying non-college graduate job, ending the game making 90K per pay day and finished the game with $1.55 million.

Mollie’s brother Luke: Went to college and became an Accountant, lost that job early, hit his lucky number gambling for 500K before going back to college becoming a Lawyer. He finished third with $1.29 million.

Bard: I went to college and became the Lawyer, however lost my job early, spent some time as a Police Officer, went back to college and became a Computer Designer. Lost over $250K gambling on the wheel and finished fourth with $1.27 million.

Braiden: Went to college and became a Doctor finishing the game making $140K a payday, however finished fifth with $1.26 million because whenever anyone hit the “Win lawsuit with another player for $100K” they picked him because he had money.

Mollie’s dad: Went to college and became a Vet making $80K a payday, but for his first home had to purchase the trailer because it was the only home left, then lost his job late in “Life” and became a Auto Mechanic making $30K a payday and living in the double wide trailer as his permanent home because it was all he could afford. He kept losing money on the wheel trying to get back into the game and finished last with $585K.

Wow, sounds like real life to me. The Entertainer and Athlete make the most money and the Doctor keeps getting sued. I know there is some profound thoughts or “Life” application to be made..however I am still on vacation and my mind is not functioning along those lines. I think it is all the sugar and the fact that I am now facing the daunting task of taking down Christmas. Time to quit writing about Life and get back to it.

“My Life” a Sitcom in the Making.

I joke with Mollie that I could write an Emmy winning sitcom, all I have to do is conical our real life home life, type up our conversations and WaLa. This past week was a classic episode.

The show opens with Mollie burning up another hair dryer. She goes through hair dryers like a kid goes through clothes. Seriously, about every six months the one she has quits heating or quits blowing air, or both, two prerequisites I am told are important for drying your hair. Now most men would get frustrated with having to buy a new hair dryer two or three times a year. However, I don’t mind because I like taking the old dryer apart and playing with it. Among my many hobbies is model building. I take the old broken dryer and use the pieces to make terrain for my models. For some reason that drives Mollie nuts. She says "it is just another bit of junk to have lying around", that "I don’t build my models like I use to", yada yada yada. Ok, she is right but that is beside the point.

So Mollie’s dryer goes kaput and she purchased a new one, putting the old one in the bathroom trash. The next morning I noticed the old dryer in the trash at the time Mollie noticed me noticing it, and we both went for it at once. She got the dryer, I grabbed the cord and the standoff began. After a long debate, and a lot of laughing I relented and put it back in the trash can. Did I give up and compromise being the good husband that I am… …nooooo. My plan as always was to just pull it out main trash Sunday evening before Braiden put by the curb on Monday.

Sunday evening I changed out a flood light in the drive way and go to put the burnt out bulb in the trash, and while I am at it I can grab the hair dryer. Opening the trashcan I was greeted with this…
 












AWWWW MAN!!!! It’s on now, IT IS ON!!!

I grab the sign out of the trash and headed back inside. Mollie hid the broken dryer somewhere and all I had to do was find it. Mollie was in Kailee’s room putting her to bed so I start looking for the hidden dryer. Now there are limited number of places to hide something the size of a dryer in our home it did not take me long to go through all of Mollie’s likely hiding places. So on Monday when Mollie went to her hiding spot you know what she found… take a guess… that’s right… she found her HAIR DRYER right where she hid it!!!! I turned the house upside down and could not find it. I told Mollie what I tried to do and she just laughed at me. On one hand she could not believe I did not find it, but on the other hand she said could because in her words "I look for things like a man". Show ends with me looking puzzled still trying to figure out where she hid the dumb dryer.  

When was the last time your life played out like a sitcom? What are you doing to bring some fun into your relationship? This is not an isolated story, this is life at our home. Life together is fun, and that is the way it should be.