Saturday, March 4, 2017

Precious Game Space

A four star hotel would not have the game space that is available for the clients at Agecare Seton. While grandfather was getting some help from his friend, Sunny, we took the elevator down to the main floor to see the amazing fish tank in the foyer. This fish tank is build into the wall and we could see it from the main entrance and then the same fish tank along an inner wall. This morning, at breakfast, I told the kids that the length of the fish tank was equal to the length of their kitchen nook wall, but now I think it was longer. And the fish were exquisitely beautiful.

We wandered over to the chess table and brought five chairs up to it – moving the white and black pawns, knights, kings, queens and castles into any position we wanted until they were knocked off the board – with the gentlest of pushes, after a lot of coaching.

The shuffle board table was long and sleek. Betty was too small to get her hands over the top of the rim and onto the board, but Michael and Alice were just the right size to keep those heavy round circles going up and down the board. I noticed that Richard finally began collecting them all and going to one side first and giving Michael a turn, and then bringing them all to Alice so she could take an equal number of turns. No fingers got smash, another miracle.

Next to this table was the hockey table where the pucks flew up and down the shiny surfaces, even dropping into the goal to scream of joy from Richard and me. Any reason to celebrate – especially when points are accumulated by children.

I liked the curling table, which came next, the rocks spinning in circles as they would enter the target. I had to come home and look up the jargon that is used in the game of curling, having only curled once. Lucky a person can’t loose their Canadian citizenship over such an admission.

There is a quiet room at Seton, filled with lava lamps, soft music and a pattern of stars can be set so that it operates on the ceiling.

The only downside of our trip to the games room is that there wasn’t time to try the Crokinole game. Michael has been asking all week if we can get to that game first when we go on Sunday to see Grandfather again. I was curious as to where this game originated. I would have had no idea that “the earliest known crokinole board was made by craftsman Eckhardt Wettlaufer in 1876 in Perth County, Ontario, Canada. Several other home-made boards of southwestern Ontario origin, and dating from the 1870s, have been discovered since the 1990s.” Well, there is a childhood game I know more about and which I am about to introduce to Michael tomorrow.

Arta

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