Solitaire

This morning I was ready and waiting to go to work, but I had somehow managed to wake up and was ready with about fifteen minutes to spare. What to do? What to do? I fell back on my standard time waster, Spider Solitaire. I pulled out the iPad and had a game or to until it was time to head for work. I have played one version of Solitare or another ever since I picked up my first computer. The game comes loaded with Windows along with some others that I have never really been interested in.

 

Long before I owned a computer, I played Solitaire. I would play it on my bed (mind out of the gutter folks), I played it on the floor, I played it at the cottage, I played it driving up to the cottage, I played it on the kitchen table and I played it at school. You might think that I was a pretty lonely guy. That may be true, but I don’t think I was lonelier than anyone else; I just had stretches of time that needed filling every now and then. Solitaire managed to fill those empty spaces in my life quite nicely.

The only time that solitaire wasn’t fun was when someone would look over your shoulder and “help” you. “Hey, the nine of clubs goes on the ten of hearts!”

“Yeah, I saw it.” Even though you hadn’t actually seen that move, you didn’t appreciate the help. It is amazing how many people just can’t seem to understand that “solitaire” is French for “lonely”, “recluse”, “solitary”, and “loner”. They mean well I guess. However, by helping you play the game they are really saying “Well aren’t you stupid! Even a moron can tell that the red ten goes on the black jack.” They mean well…I guess, but when you have someone looking over your shoulder it is pretty hard to cheat. No, it isn’t pathetic to cheat when you are playing solitaire. It is just a way to learn from your mistakes and hone your card playing skills. Yeah…it is pretty pathetic.

There are over 1000 different solitaire games. http://www.solitaireinnovations.com/ ;

http://boardgames.about.com/od/solitaire/tp/best_solitaire_card_games.htm Not all would be entertaining to all, but some where thee is someone that is bored enough to want to play even the worst of these games. When I was trying to look into card solitaire, I found very little information. Most of the information was about the different games you can play on the computer. I guess this is another way the computer has changed and continues to change the world. The youth of today won’t know what to do with themselves when confronted with a blackout and a deck of cards. I can see Hurricane asking “Hey Poppa, is there a “hint” button on the cards?” I imagine that a good portion of those thousand solitaire games will be forgotten except in some dusty old tome or in the dusty old mind of someone’s grandfather.

Someone will play the Statler Brothers “Flowers on the Wall” and wonder what they are talking about having a deck of 51. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKZjja37_sw&feature=related

I’m just about finished and it looks like I may have some time before I need to go to bed. I think I will forego the TV and play some solitaire…with cards!