I have not written in a few weeks as I've been busy. I had an up and down month of December.

Tuesday December 9- was inconsistent in shooting a 3 game 671 - left 6 frames open.

Wednesday December 10 - a series of peaks and valley with 3 decent games and one season low game of 144 for a season low 4-game 791. First time all year I shot a series less than 800 for a 4-game series.

Tuesday December 16 - started slow and had strong finish with 256 to finish with 649.

Wednesday Deccember 17 - Didn't bowl bad. Just didn't get the pin carry in shooting a still-below average 4-game 825.

Tuesday December 23 - I wanted to enter the Christmas break on a high note. In years past, I've always entered the Christmas break on a down note and this year was starting to be more of the same.

So I went in relaxed and focused.

Right off the bat, I got hot. Shot 233, 278, 268 for a 779. I was that close to an 800. The frame that would be most responsible for me missing the 800 would be the 3rd frame in game 1. I got two strikes and left a solid 10-pin in frame 3. I missed it and then ran off 4 more strikes in a row.

If that solid 10 pin was a strike, that would have been my 800 right there.

But I was very happy to shoot a career high series and it was also the second time this year that I had two games over 265 in the same series.

My first 800 is getting closer. I can smell it.

I now average 217 in both leagues and now am on a break for the holidays. I don't bowl again til January 7.

Happy Holidays.

I had a good week this week.

Tuesday, I started off bad and had a 151 game. I realized that I was not hitting the line hard and that I was not being aggressive in my delivery.

So I made the adjustment to be more aggressive. The result?

Game 2: 8 strikes in a row followed by a high ball in frame 9 that left the 4 pin. I covered it and went Strike-Spare in 10th frame for a 269.

Game 3: 9 strikes in a row followed by another high ball and left a 6-10 which I covered. I was a bit pissed and threw a half assed ball that left a 3-6-10 for a 275 game.

Two opportunities at a 300 in back to back games. Back to back 300's has been done only twice in my local association and I could have been the third. If I didn't have that bad first game, who knows, I could have had an 800. Final series:695

Wednesday, I shot decent in games of 224, 247, 225, 193 for a 4-game 890 series. The first 3 games was a series of 697. So I was one open frame away in both series from shooting back to back 700's.

On Tuesday, the shot was awesome. I really didn't have to make any major adjustments other than to just throw more aggressively. I basically shot the same line all 3 games using my Thunderstruck.

But on Wednesday, even though it was oiled the same, it still was different. I had a bit of a time trying to get the ball to hook into the pocket. Even though I was as aggressive as the night before, the ball just didn't hit the pocket hard as it did the night before. I was lucky to come away with the 224, 247, and 225 games. I moved one board to the right to start game 2..it worked for a while, but it broke down again in game 4 and I only had 75 in an open 5th frame. Finally, I brought out the Terminator and moved back to the left and threw it outside as it had oil on the inside.

I made the run to come back from the 75 in the 5th frame to finish with the 193 game. I should have started with the Terminator in the first place.

But all in all, it was a good week and could have been a great week if I didn't make the mistakes that I did.

I also took over the lead for the average title on the Wednesday league. Before last night, I think I was like 25 pins behind the leader with a 221 average. But the leader had a bad day with a 775 series and with my 890 series, that put me in the lead by slightly over 100 pins with 16 weeks to go in the season. 16 weeks. 64 games. 221 average. Plenty of bowling to do yet, but I still feel good about my chances to win my first ever average title. I just gotta stay consistent and not get into a slump.

We don't bowl on my Wednesday league for two weeks. We didn't bowl last Wednesday and we don't bowl tomorrow due to the guys on the league deer hunting as it's an afternoon league.

But I did sub tonight for the Tuesday 5 man league. After last week's debacle, I just decided to go out and have fun.

Well, I shot a clean 237 (no-tapped it), a 223 with one open and then had problems with my Thunderstruck as well as my spare shooting (left 4 opens) before making a ball change to the Terminator for the 10th frame to strike it out for a 162 game. I should have changed balls sooner.

The team won all three games and we as a team all shot well, shooting over 1000 scratch in each game, which is a good accomplishment as the low average guy carried a 185 average. So shooting a 1000 scratch meant everyone had to bowl over their average.

We dominated the first two games, but game 3 was close due to my 4 open frames. But we caught a break as I led off the 10th frame with those 3 strikes and the other team's lead off bowler missed a single pin for the open frame and just like that, we made up 21 pins right there. The game remained close and our anchor bowler doubled in the 10th and their anchor bowler didn't double, allowing us to escape with a close victory and a series sweep. I'll take a team victory over a bad game any day. Me striking out that 10th frame was key to the sweep.

Next Wednesday (Dec 3rd), I'm back on the regular Wednesday league. Looking forward to going back to that league again.

Used the Thunderstruck today.

Shot 236, 201, 205 for a 642. First game, I left a stone 10 in 10th frame and just missed picking it up by a hair. It should have been a 247. Last two games, I bowled good, just didn't have the pin carry. Left too many stone pins to count. Just one open frame in the last two games. Guess I should not complain as I did pick up my spares and threw the ball good. Also shot over average.

Cumulative overall average in all my leagues : 44342 pins / 211 games = 210.15 average.

Tuesday, I didn't pick up my Thunderstruck from the shop. I was too lazy to drive over there to get it. Big mistake. Not having an aggressive ball finally caught up to me.

The Hot Rod would not do anything for me and I ended up with a horrible 577 series, my second straight sub-600 series for the Tuesday League.

So off to the shop I went. Picked up the Thunderstruck and came home.

Today for the Thursday League, after an adjustment period in which I had two open frames, I found my line with strikes on my last four balls to save a 203 game.

I picked up from where I left off from game one by firing a 237 and a 247 in games two and three and ended up with a 687 series.

With a freshly resurfaced Thunderstruck, I'm back in action now. Look out!