Wretched Racko

This morning I was awoken, yet again, by my all-too-noisy cousin Chris singing on his way up the stairs. Good morning, world. Nine o'clock in the morning in the waning days of a summer vacation (a day with no plans except sleeping in, no less) is far too early an hour to be rudely awakened. And upon being woken up, I was harassed by several people into a game of Racko. I haven't played it in a long time, and apparently it has been a long-enough time for me to forget my intense hatred of that game.

When I was younger, I used to have to spend one weekend every few weeks at my grandmother's. She is card-obsessed and I used to have to play Racko several times a day, at least, for the entire duration of the weekend. A nine-year-old who only wants to go outside and play (which I only really wanted to do at my grandmother's, probably as a result of the card-playing alternative) is not mollified by endless games of Racko, golf, rummy, 21, Skip-Bo and Uno. The only three of those games for which I acquired a long-lasting dislike are Racko, golf and rummy.

But this morning I forgot that Racko was on that list. About forty seconds into the game, I was hit by the recollection of my deep-seated hatred of that game. My family, however, has the policy that if you start a game you have to see it through. I was stuck. I'm sure everyone knows the feeling.

The problem was compounded by the fact that everyone's patterns shared at least one card with another player's. The game went on and on, with everyone picking up cards and immediately discarding them. Everyone knew what was going on, but, true to form, no one acknowledged the ugly truth. It became a waiting game, with all four players hoping someone else would crack first and try for an entirely new pattern. Since everyone was only one or two cards from winning, though, no one was willing to try to get a whole new pattern as they knew they'd not have the time and each card thrown out from their rack risked the game for them.

The end result was that everyone got tired of the game and everyone decided to end it so that nobody won. It sounds a lot like some government plans that have been implemented, but the events are on such a different scale that it would be a superficial connection anyway.

I guess that's it for now.