Games we play

I imagine that most couples have games they play with each other. Although I don't remember having playful games with either of my former spouses but I think Johnnie and his former wife did somewhat. Johnnie and I have several games we play with each other. Just playful games and we're fully dressed so I'm not talking about that type of game.

The latest one is to see how far into the fall we can go without turning on the furnace. I think we're going to have to turn it on pretty soon. It was 34 degrees (F) this morning when we got up but it was still close to 60 in our bedroom. Even when the heat is on, the highest we set it is about 62 anyway. Overnight and during the day it can get down to the mid 50s in here. Fairly chilly. But great for sleeping. We have a small space heater in the office that we can turn on if we need it but with two computers, a printer, two dogs and two humans in here, we often don't need to use it. We have a gas fireplace insert that we use in the evening when we're watching television and that heats the family room extremely well. Some of that heat will drift upstairs but it is usually much cooler upstairs. So we've made it to November 10th this year so far, pretty good, we'd say.

We also play a haircut game. The trick is to get a haircut without fibbing (about where you're going and when) and then see how long it takes the other to notice the haircut. We've gone days sometimes without the other noticing a haircut. Johnnie is now keeping his hair much shorter so it's easier to tell when he has a haircut because it goes from fairly shaggy (relatively speaking) to almost buzz cut. I've always admired him because he's not sensitive about his baldness. He used to save the few strands of long hair, comb them over and anchor them down with hairspray but now they're cropped short and he looks just as great to me. The shot here with Juni was taken in early October.
It's easier for me to get away with the haircut game as my hair generally only changes by an inch or so. So it's a bit unfair although usually my hair comes back from the salon far more coiffed than I do it on a daily basis.

We also play a waving game mostly on weekdays. It has evolved over the years from a single wave (when we both left the house to go to work at the same time in the morning) to multiple waves each day. It has actually become quite useful for each of us to remind each other of what meetings or obligations we have during a day since our schedules are unpredictable. For example this morning:

Wave wave wave
Old wave, old wave, old wave
New wave, new wave, new wave
Legacy wave, legacy wave, legacy wave
Monday wave, Monday wave
Chimba (that's me) and Bridgie goin for a walk wave, Chimba and Bridgie goin for a walk wave
Mode (that's Johnnie) getting a physical today wave, Mode getting a physical today wave
Chimba priming the bathroom today wave, Chimba priming the bathroom today wave
Erin, Mike, Emily and Lucy come for dinner today wave; Erin, Mike, Emily and Lucy come for dinner today wave.

After one of us (usually Johnnie) starts the waves, the other repeats them all back and adds more waves if there are things that have been forgotten. Nonsensical, yes, but it reminds us about what the other has going on during the day since our schedules can be vastly different from day to day. I'm generally the keeper of the schedules and now with the new computer (a topic for another post) we haven't yet figured out how to share calendars. Not that that would solve the issue anyway as we've both had pcs for years and shared appointments, yet didn't necessarily remember each other's schedules.

We play word games almost constantly. We have silly names for each other, if that qualifies as a game. Mine is Chimba. Started as "I don't think so, Jim" from the old Tool Time show and morphed into Chim. When I/we finished my/our two years of agony in MBA school, I added the -mba part to Chim, hence Chimba. (I give Johnnie all the credit for getting me through MBA school since I was seriously close to losing my mind most of that time and existed in a fog of work-school-sleep - repeated endlessly. And just look how well I'm using that MBA -- glad we didn't pay the money for it, just the sweat and blood equity!) Johnnie is Mode because he always called Elton John Elton Commode. So I asked him how he'd like being called Commode since his name is John. It was shortened to Mode almost immediately.

I'll let you know when we turn the furnace on!