This morning I was just sitting casually on the porch and writing on another thread when I had to stop what I was doing to “play” pac-man with a tick. The tick was an underfed tick and about mid sized to the degree that it fit perfectly between the keys on my keyboard. Somehow wandering onto the board without being noticed, it started going about it’s business probably trying to reach my hand which is when I noticed it. (I am a touch typist so looking at the board is a rarity whilst typing) Upon discovering the unwanted bug, my first instinct was to pounce on it with my hand but then thought that I might damage the workings so I reverted to trying to chase it around with a pencil. I moved the keyboard to the edge of the table so I could chase the thing off the board and make it fall on the floor where I could dispatch my own justice upon it with as much force as my shoe clad foot can muster. Good thought, lousy thinking. The keyboard has about 80 keys so that means that there are 320 or so pathways in which the bug can find running space. I, with pencil in hand, tried to direct the tick in the direction I wished it to go by flicking it and running after it with the tip of the pencil only to find that it (the tick) had other thoughts on the subject and would run this way and that through the pathways the keys created. After a bit, I found myself totally engrossed in the project as though it were a game of pac-man complete with the crunchy-crunchy sounds of the game going on in my head. It was an evasive little blood letter and quickly trekked through the maze in it’s entirety it seems until I finally got it to the edge of the board and then....it took a nose dive under the board. “That’s not fair! There is no refuge under the board! It’s in the rules”. thought I. Darned bug broke the rules! It’s either on the board so I can chase you or on the floor where I can squash you! One or the other and no in betweens! Needless to say, whilst thinking the worse, I did close the iPad and flip the board over and behold, the tick did give up the ghost but not until after we had a small scuffle to determine who the superior being was. I......had won! But, why do I now keep looking down at the keyboard to find yet another friend to play keyboard PAC-man with? Perhaps if I had made better friends with the tick, it might have liked to play more but it’s gone, never to play again. I am now thinking that I am sure that I will never have such fun as the tick and I had, running and chasing around the keys. Oh why did I release him from life and why did I not treat him (or maybe her) better so we could renew our relationship with yet another game? Maybe because it’s a flippin’ tick, that’s why!
Yes indeed...and those ticks carry that nasty Lime disease. Glad you got rid of that one Bobby. Enjoyed reading about the game you played with him first though.
@Bobby Cole I hope through your life you were able to make some money on your fine story telling skills!
No, not enough to call it money. Spare change perhaps, but not money. Oh to have the astounding ability for story telling like one of my literary hero’s, Samuel Clements! Now He could tell a story! I in comparison might have made a good shoe shine boy. Edit: And thank you (and others) for such wonderful compliments!