Tales from Pidgeon Forge

 We got back yesterday from our trip to Pidgeon Forge.  It was a fun time without too much stress or drama.  Note, there's always a little bit of that, especially when you are spending extended time with friends in confined quarters.  

You see their daily habits and as they likely differ from yours, you cannot help but wonder, how do they live like this?  At the same time, they are thinking the same thing about you.  J and I had a secret "cold war" over the thermostat setting.  Admittedly, I'd set it too low and he would crank it back up, not realizing that the cold setting doesn't act like heat so all it does is effectively turn off the air.  It also irked me that he would leave empty bottles on the counter instead of putting it in the garbage (there was no recycling here: everything had to go in Bear-proof containers).

I've known the entity known as K&J for twenty years now, give or take.  I've also technically known Katniss since high school although we weren't close back then and there was the decade between college and re-acquaintance when we weren't connected.  Katness doesn't let J drink alcohol anymore, which while likely a good thing in the long run, is affecting his short-term dopamine intake.  Like many of us, he has ADHD tendencies and he now only has smoking to get his fix.  

In any event, I'd say we all had a good time (except for J) and the kids enjoyed it, which was the point.  The key was we had very lazy morning and didn't try to cram too much into each day.  The kids also took turns being sick from some sort of virus, which Nightingale and I went through when we got home.  That meant among other things that we couldn't go back to The Island for a second day of rides.

The cabin actually had a vintage video game machine with at least 60 different retro games from the 80s and 90s.  I was reminded quickly how frustrating those games could be.  For one thing, the device is analog so moving your ship, character, or whatever would sometimes not work the way you want it to or might be used to with today's video games.  A lot of video games from that area couldn't handle your ship and an enemy ship or bullet was too close on the screen so it registered a kill even though you could see space between the two entities.  

Let's not forget that often people would get frustrated and hit the controls too hard, which I'm sure adds to them not working optimally.  

I spent the bulk of my video game experience playing Burger Time and Time Pilot.