And the Winner is?

And the Winner Is?

By Allan Olson

                This is a two part story. The first is the battle against Mother Nature. I admit it – I’ve finally lost to Mother Nature! The two new rakes I bought will see little use this season. The grass is already green and getting too long to rake effectively.

                I’m not sure what I did to make her mad at me. All I asked for was a little warmer temperatures, and no more rain or dreadful snow this spring so I could do some basic yard clean-up. I wanted to rake up the dead leaves left over from last fall, although I’m not sure why, because raking hurts when you’re not in shape. And I’m not.

                I managed to get a couple hours of raking in one evening over a month ago, prior to a snowfall, and doing so I managed only to get about half of my front ditch raked. It appears now that it was a waste of time. That was the last weekend that it didn’t rain or snow when I was home to do any work.

                This weekend I was gone all day Saturday – the only nice day of the weekend. Sunday, in the early afternoon hours, I honestly did attempt to finish where I left off on that warm spring evening a month ago. I grabbed the rake, hoping I could pick up some garbage left by the previous occupants and do some raking. Of course, I was aided by several eager sets of hands. That was partially my fault, since I wouldn’t let them turn the television or the computer on, much to their dismay.

                Just as we set out to accomplish our task, the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up. Go figure, I thought. Soon the little hands were dragging the other rakes out of the garage, wanting to help.

                I did not have enough rakes for everyone, so I assigned Marcus the task of picking up garbage. He was okay with that, at least for a few minutes. It wasn’t long, though, and I was pointing at the stuff he needed to pick up. I knew that I wasn’t going to get any work done; I would have to do that, too. So we both picked up the garbage in one area, before I headed back to my raking, trying to accomplish what I could with so many eager, willing hands to assist me.

                Then the rains came. I admit it only took a few drops when I initially said, “I give up.” The kids looked at me with confusion, asking why I was giving up. I just said, “Put the rakes away and let’s go in...” and I re-instated their television and computer rights.

                Now for the second part. Since the weather outside was frightful, Nikolai was bugging Mom and I to play Monopoly. I really didn’t want to, but I conceded. I won Free Parking more than I ever have, but I also spent more time in Jail than in any other game that I can remember.

                Nikolai became a property mongrel, grabbing up virtually anything he could, but he was also choosy about the properties he wanted, all the while winding down his stash of cash. Except that whenever he got low, the Free Parking station was always high and he filled his coffers up again.

                Mom and I were more conservative, picking the properties that we knew we wanted and racing to get the key properties.

                About halfway through the battle, it was fairly even across the playing field. The three of us had similar piles of cash, and at one point I was quite flush. Until the tides turned, Nikolai had one goal in mind: To collect all the properties of the same color so he could get hotels.

                Through most of the game, I avoided his and my wife’s properties with fairly good success. Nikolai captured all the red properties and he put a house on it. That wasn’t good enough. Nobody was landing on them. Patience. Mom encouraged no hotels until the houses pay for themselves. I was the first sucker. That pretty green house on Atlantic Avenue was calling my name. 

                After that, there was no stopping him. He couldn’t wait for hotels any longer. He had the cash and he was going to do it. For me that was the big turning point. Three visits to his bright shiny hotel at $11,000 each time took a big dent out of my stash.       Soon I was bankrupt and done. Mom wasn’t far behind after spending a couple nights there herself.

                Nikolai was declared the winner.

                Now if we could just get him to apply the determination he showed in that game to his chores – that would be wonderful!

                Thanks for reading! Remember, we appreciate your feedback so feel free to drop us a line at cltimes1@arvig.net. For more of my columns please visit my blog at: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com/.