Horseshoe shoulder
27 Sep 2006 
around lunchtime 
Matt Winckler
On Sunday we went to Zillah to celebrate my granfather’s eightieth birthday with family and friends. Over the course of the afternoon, I spent a few hours playing horseshoes. I was, alas, not so impressive at the horseshoe pits. Amongst my first throws (”just warming up”) was one monstrosity that sailed through the air and landed more than ten feet to the left of the pit, coming down smack on top of a 1-inch PVC above-ground irrigation line, which promptly shattered. How embarrassing. My aim improved slightly over the course of the afternoon, but not by much. At least later on I was able to get most of them into the pit proper. (I did get two ringers, but as I explained it to the other players, it’s like a randomly-generated scatterplot - some points are bound to fall near the center.)
The thing is, not only did we play horseshoes for a few hours, but we were playing with my 80-year-old grandfather in the 80-degree heat. And he had no trouble chucking the shoes cleanly where they were supposed to go. My neck and shoulder still hurts from throwing those crazy things. He’s probably doing just fine and dandy, given that during blueberry season he also spends his days outside in the much hotter weather doing the gruelling work of picking blueberries.
If I live to be 80, that’s the way I want to do it.