From One Addiction to Another

Posted on November 23, 2022 by Grandma's Ramblings

For those of you who have followed my blog for awhile you know how much my husband and I love to play Scrabble. I have referred to it as an addiction.

Confessions of a Scrabble Addict!

My children say when I die instead of a visitation, they will have a Scrabble tournament. Sounds great to me. Too bad I will not be able to take part in the competition.

However, Scrabble has a rival in our love of games now with a board game we recently discovered.

Ticket to Ride is a board game created by Alan R Moon. The game publisher Days of Wonder first offered this game in 2004. It has grown to be one of the most popular board games in the world selling more than eight million copies all over the world.

The original version shows a map of the USA and southern Canada. Each player has a set of plastic trains and starts out with four cards that show train cars in different colors. When it is your turn you can add more cards to your hand or claim a route on the map. In order to claim a route, you must have enough cards of the same color as the track.

Each time you claim a route you are given points – the longer the route, the more points. This continues until one player has two or less train tokens left. The player with the most points win. To add interest to it, the player with the longest continuous train gets extra points.

The original game was a map of the USA but the game has become so popular that there are multiple versions of the game. You can now play it online, on your iPad or on Xbox. Although the basic concept is the same in each game, there are variations for each game that make it each one unique and keep it interesting.

We currently have:

Original Ticket to Ride (USA and Canada)

Ticket to Ride Rails and Sails (two-sided board with the world on one side and the Great Lakes on the other.) Since we live in Michigan, we love the Great Lakes side.

Our latest addition is Ticket to Ride the Heart of Africa

While this new game does add variety to our game nights and perhaps helps to keep our old age brains working, it is doubtful that it can totally take the place of Scrabble. We have had a long-term love affair with that game. We celebrated reaching 1000 games in 2020 – and while we continue to keep a record of our scores, I doubt we will ever make it to another 1000 games (since I am 74 and my husband is 82.)

Today is His Last Chance

If you are looking for a fun board game for yourself or for a Christmas present, I can recommend one of the many different versions of this interesting game.

My Challenge for 2022

Posted on January 1, 2022 by Grandma's Ramblings

This time last year we hit the 1000 game mark in our ongoing Scrabble contest. It is doubtful that we will ever reach the 2000 game mark, but we still enjoy playing.

We Did It! Now on to 2000 Games!

This New Year’s Eve found my husband and I tied for number of games won for the year.

Sadly, I must report that he won the game yesterday – so he is the reigning champ for 2021.

But this year is going to be mine!

Happy New Year to my readers!

My Husband Gets His Revenge

Posted on December 22, 2021 by Grandma's Ramblings

Those of you who follow my blog know by now that my husband and I are Scrabble addictions.

Confessions of a Scrabble Addict!

We have kept a record of our scores since 2008. Equally matched in skill, we usually remain only one or two games ahead of the other one.

Recently, however I seemed to be on a winning streak. As I was leading with four games ahead of my husband, he began to get nervous. If I got too big a lead it would be hard to catch up with me.

So when we sat down to play this week, he informed me he was out for revenge.

Boy did he get it!

For those of you who are not Scabble fans, you get seven letter tiles to make your words. If you can use all seven of the tiles in one word you get not only the actual points of the word you made, but an extra 50 bonus points.

He began the game by using all seven tiles and starting off with 50 bonus points. No big deal I thought. That early in the game I had plenty of time to catch up. But he did not stop there. Of the first six words he made, five were made using all seven tiles. Now he had 250 bonus points.

And the rest of the game was all in his favor! He not only won the game – he beat me by over 200 points.

Still, considering he had 250 bonus points I think I did okay.

Now he only has to win the next three games to be equal with me again.

Don’t think I am going to sit idly by and let that happen.

I Must Practice What I Preach!

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Grandma's Ramblings

A few days before Thanksgiving I posted a blog from last year where I encouraged us to give thanks even in the midst of the chaos of 2020.

Can We Give Thanks in 2020…..2021?

Shortly after posting that blog my youngest daughter called to tell me she had some bad news. Our granddaughter had been sent home from school that morning, along with all her class, because they had been exposed to Covid-19 the day before. They would have to quarantine for Thanksgiving and would not be able to join us for the day as we had planned.

Of course, my first concern was that she and her parents would not get Covid-19 in spite of the exposure. But immediately I also realized what this meant for us. They would have to spend the day with just the three of them and my husband and I would be just two for Thanksgiving.

We have a large blended family but they are scattered all over the USA. We have children and grandchildren in Arizona, Texas, Georgia, North Carolina, West Virginia, Missouri and Illinois. As the grandchildren have grown up and married with families of their own, our Thanksgiving gathering has slowly gotten smaller.

Moving three years ago to Michigan we only have one daughter nearby. And yes, she is the one who had to quarantine.

As I started to feel discouraged about that, I remembered my own blog I just posted.

So I began looking at what I have to be thankful – even as my Thanksgiving feast will only have two seats at the table.

Here are just a few of the things I found I have to be thankful for:

Thankful for cell phones and FB so I can still wish loved ones Happy Thanksgiving and see pictures of them.
Thankful that none of my family have died from the Covid-19 though a few of them have had the virus.
Thankful that I have my husband – my bbf – and I will not be all alone at the table as some may be.
Thankful for my beautiful home and that my table will still be full of good food.
Thankful for health so that I can prepare the meal not only for us two but also take a meal to my daughter’s home and leave it on the porch for them to enjoy.
Thankful for being granted the privilege of being born in this country.

The more I thought about it, the more my list of things to be thankful for grew.

The best thing to thank God for is that we will soon be celebrating his coming to earth to live, to die, to rise again. That in the midst of chaos, He is there.

How did my Thanksgiving day go?

My husband worked with me fixing the turkey and all the trimmings, then quickly took some of it to our daughter’s home. We enjoyed the meal, shared a time of prayer and Bible reading, played Scrabble (we are Scrabble’s addicts), and ended the evening with a movie.

Confessions of a Scrabble Addict!

As we went to bed last night my husband said, “This has been a different Thanksgiving and I missed family, but in a way it was one of my favorites. I spent the day with my best friend doing things we loved to do. It caused me to really take a look at all the blessings God has given us and I am very grateful.”

The day ended well for me – I won the Scrabble game!!!!

My daughter sent me a picture of my granddaughter enjoying my pumpkin pie – with loads of Cool Whip.

I’m not sure if it’s my pie she loves – or all the Cool Whip!

And after almost a week – it appears my family are free of symptoms – no Covid-19.

Thank you Jesus!

Can We Make It to 1000?

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Grandma's Ramblings

Those of you who have followed my blog for awhile know that my husband and I are avid Scrabble players. We are very competitive and have kept a record of our scores since 2008. I tell my story in:

Confessions of a Scrabble Addict!

We have been known to wake up at 4 am and, not being able to go back to sleep, get up and play a game of Scrabble before heading back to bed. Since we play with a Super Scrabble board which has twice the number of tiles for a normal game and a much larger board, it can take us two to three hours to play a game It doesn’t help that we are so competitive and often take minutes to find the right word.

Currently we are at game number 928. We want to make it to 1000 games by the end of the year. Since there are only 78 days left in the year this means we can only skip six days without a game.

Since we are retired and winter is fast coming to our home in Michigan, I think we can make it.

Right now in our 928 games I have won 464, my husband has won 460 with four ties. Recently a friend said she did not think we could have that many ties or be that close in games won and suggested that one of us was letting the other win. Obviously while she is a friend she is not a close friend. Otherwise she would know how competitive we are and how we would NEVER let the other one win.

Questions:

When we reach that milestone who will be ahead in the total number of games won?

What should the winner of the most games receive as a prize?

What should the loser of the most games have to do for ending up behind?

Any ideas? I would love to have your input on these questions.

I’m Back With a Miracle Man!

Posted on May 5, 2020 by Grandma's Ramblings

March 22 was a day I will never forget! My husband had fallen a few days before that, got a lump on his head. The lump went down after a couple of hours and he felt okay. Because of the coronavirus and all the conflicting reports we heard, he decided it did not require him to call his doctor or go to the hospital. However, Sunday morning he got a terrible headache that would not go away and became nauseated.

I drove him to the local emergency room in our small town and they told me to go home while they checked him and they would then call me. About an hour later the doctor called and told me a CT scan had shown a brain bleed (a subdural hematoma). They were rushing him by ambulance to the larger hospital in the capital (about 20 miles away) and they had a neurosurgeon standing by to examine him.

What a day that was. I posted all the details of that day in my post:

‘Til the Storm Passes Over

What a week that was. By the end of the week it was clear he was going to live but the diagnosis for just how he would live was not clear. Because of the uncertainty of the future – and all the things they warned me could be, I posted what I thought would be my last post and prepared myself to take care of my husband.

I Am Not Alone

But God had other plans!

It was amazing to me all the people around the country who began to pray for my husband. I will always be grateful for all the calls, texts and encouragement I received, including many from my family here at WordPress.

Things they warned me to prepare for:

Possible difficulty in speaking or understanding others.
Possible difficulty in being able to read.
Possible loss of memory.
Possible seizures (he was put on seizure medicine as a precaustion).
Weakened right side with need of a walker to get around.
Possible inability to take care of his own personal needs.

On Wednesday after his surgery on Sunday a case manager called me to discuss transferring him to a nursing home or a rehab center.

But God had other plans!

Within 24 hours of that call (on Thursday) they called back and said they were going to transfer him from ICU to a step-down unit for a few days and then would send him to the rehab center in the hospital. I should anticipate at least seven to ten days of rehab therapy before any consideration could be given to bringing him home.

But God had other plans!

Within 24 hours of that call they informed me they were sending him directly to the in-hospital rehab center that day (Friday). They still were not sure how long he would have to be there.

On Tuesday the next week I got a wonderful call! I could bring my husband home on Wednesday – after only four days of rehab.

He came home looking very weak, very tired and clearly needed a walker to get around. The next week he could not stand bright lights, loud noises and complained of a constant headache. He was speaking but very slow and often had to stop to search for a word. It was a good thing for me to be able to give him my complete attention that week.

But God had other plans!

Every day he grew stronger. We went for followup therapy after a week. He had meetings with a speech therapist, an occupational therapist and a physical therapist.

Their verdict after 45 minutes to an hour with him.

Speech therapist – he needs no further therapy.

Occupational therapist – he needs no further therapy.

Physical therapist – he needs no further therapy.

They said to go home and just keep doing what he was doing.

Now – six weeks later:

He has absolutely no difficulty in speaking or understanding others.
He is reading the Bible with me each morning again in our devotions with no difficulty in being able to read.
His memory is good – absolutely no loss of memory and no sign of not being able to remember now.
No seizures and he is off the seizure medicine.
He walks without a walker.
He has been able to take care of his own personal needs from the very beginning with me just standing by when he showered for the first week.\
What is really amazing – absolutely no weakness in his right side. This week he bought plants for our yard and planted them all without any problems even using his right leg to push the shovel into the ground.

I worried that he would never be able to go down to his art studio that he had worked all winter to create. He had painted a beautiful mural on the wall of the Rainbow Row in Charleston, South Carolina. We had enjoyed several weeks there a few years ago and we loved the whole area. He was just putting the finishing touches on it when he fell. Would he be able to do the stairs? Would he be able to paint again?

So thankful he is back in his studio and this was his first painting when he began again.

Being Scrabble addicts we have kept our scores since 2008 and are very competitive. Would he be able to still compete?

Confessions of a Scrabble Addict!

Yes! He is back and we are enjoying our competition.

What can I say? To God be the glory! Great things he has done!

Each day is truly a gift from God. We start each morning saying “Thank you God for another day!”

So – I’m back. Thank you to all you have followed me in the past and I hope you will continue to enjoy the “ramblings” of this Grandma as I continue!

He May Regret the Rule He Made

Posted on January 15, 2020 by Grandma's Ramblings

Those of you who follow my blog know that my husband and I are Scrabble addicts. We are very competitive and our final scores are often very close.

Recently I beat my husband by just 15 points. He decided he wanted to add the scores again to make sure no mistake had been made. While I was more than glad to do this, I said to be fair if we were going to check the scores of this game, we would need to check those games where I lost by just 15 points.

So I agreed with his new rule. Going forward any game where there was a difference of 20 points or less, we would add up the scores again.

He may regret making that rule.

This week we played a game and when it ended he was ahead of me by just five points. I insisted he check the scores again.

To his great disappointment he found that he had made an addiction mistake in his score giving him ten more points than he should have.

By subtracting those ten points, I now won the game by just five points.

So be careful what you want to change – it may turn against you.

(And I’m still laughing at this!)

I Am the Champion!

Posted on January 1, 2020 by Grandma's Ramblings

Well I did it! I won the last Scrabble game of 2019 – making me the champion!

My last post told the tale of my husband’s effort to catch me.

Today is His Last Chance

My husband did his best – but couldn’t catch me. He tells me he is now depressed. (A joke only – he’s fine.)

But guess what his New Year’s Resolution is? You got it!

To beat me in 2020.

Happy New Year to all my readers!

Today is His Last Chance

Posted on December 31, 2019 by Grandma's Ramblings

Those of you who have followed my posts for awhile know that my husband and I are Scrabble addicts. We play with a super scrabble board. It has more spaces for words than a regular Scrabble board and 200 tiles instead of 100.

We have kept a record of our scores since 2008 and are very competitive.

As we come to the last day of 2019 I am one game ahead of my husband. He is determined to end this year with a tie between us as we did last year.

So this evening we will play our last game of the year.

If he wins and we end in a tie – all is well.

I did it!

But if I win – I will end the year two games ahead.

Champion!!!!

Of course, you know I’m rooting to win and be the champion for 2019. However, if the last two games are any indication of how it will go – I’m nervous. Most of the time our scores are very close but the last two games he has not only won but beat me by over 150 points. NO!

In our game last night he had three seven-letter words. For those of you who don’t play Scrabble playing all of your letters in one turn adds 50 extra points to your score. NO!

The game tonight will be our 829th game since we started keeping scores. This year we played 136 games. My husband has figured out that if we play 171 games in 2020 we will reach 1000 games.

So – while I am sure I will at some point today or tomorrow be more serious about goals for 2020 – for now that seems like a worthy goal.

Think we can make it to 1000 games in the coming year?

Think I can win the game tonight and be the champion?

We still see.

For all my readers, Happy New Year! May the coming year bring you God’s peace and joy!

800 Games and Still Counting

Posted on November 9, 2019 by Grandma's Ramblings

If you follow my blog you know my husband and I are avid Scrabble players. Very competitive, we started keeping a record of the scores of our games in 2008. We laugh that we are actually addicted to the game.

My Addiction has Returned

Thankfully we are evenly matched. It would be no fun if one of us was much better than the other. We go back and forth on winning the games. Usually we are never more than one or two games apart. A few years ago my husband actually pushed way ahead of me with a seven game lead. I was so discouraged as I did not know how I would ever catch up with him again. (Do you think losing too many games of Scrabble to your husband would be good grounds for a divorce?)

Some of our kids bought us a Super Scrabble board a few years ago. The board has more squares to play on and twice the number of letter tiles as the regular Scrabble game. We have used it so much that it is falling apart. We have it taped together but have agreed for our Christmas gift we will purchase a new one next month. We also need a good Scrabble dictionary as our present one is falling apart.

This week we played our 800th game. After eleven years that is roughly 73 games a year or 6 games a month. Since I did not retire until 2013 we are actually playing more games each month now. Winter finds us playing more games as we hate going out in the snow and cold. Summer finds us making road trips so the games take a back seat for a few weeks.

When we played that 800th game I was two games ahead of my husband and he was really hoping to win the game. I beat him and that put me three games ahead for the eleven years we have kept score.

He threatened to never play again. But he was only joking as I often whine when I get behind more than two games that I do not want to play any more.

In the 800 games played we have actually tied three games. When I told one friend of how close our games are she felt one of us was just being nice and letting the other one win to keep our scores close. However, she clearly does not know us. We are very competitive and would never willingly let the other one win.

I am thankful that my husband and I share this common love. Along with giving us hours of enjoyment, we figure at our age (71 and 79) it may very well help keep our minds sharp. When we get to 1000 games we are going to have a party! (If we continue at this pace, that means we will be 74 and 82. Who wants to bet me we will still be going strong in three years?)