For those following the Retro Resurrection thread the last five weeks, the streak had to end somewhere, and last night was somewhere.

To begin with, we were bowling during a tornado warning. (g) No kidding. Storms actually tore up a bunch of stuff around here but left the bowling center alone. As an aside, a bowling alley has to be the worst place to be during a tornado -- you, a bunch of flying wood, and several tons of bowling balls that are designed to destroy stuff.

Even though it was Feb. 13, it was 70+ degrees with 90% humidity at the start of the set. I don't slide much, which is a good thing because all long sliders were having a lot of trouble with the approaches. To make matters worse, as the storm passed through, temps dropped about 20 degrees and this morning, it was SNOWING. Welcome to Alabama.

My first two games, I scored well, but I had to grind out. After two games, though, I was just -1 against my average. In the process, I hadn't struck much, but I had made 3-of-5 splits (made the 5-10, the 2-7-8 and the 3-10; missed the 6-7 and 4-6-7).

The problem was my look with the Retro was terrible. The breakpoint was about halfway up the lane, and you couldn't go around it on the right (no recovery), on the left (flat 10 or crossover split) or through it (weak 10). The lanes were also vastly different from each other (we were on the pair next to the outside wall). I don't think I stood in the same place twice the whole night -- on top of not being able to get comfortable due to the humidity, thumb swelling, and the little matter of a tornado overhead.

Still, I was okay until game three, and the wheels came off. I started split (4-6, missed it), washout (1-2-4-10, made it) and split (3-6-7-10, made it) and finally changed balls to an AMF Velocity that was much stronger, moved way in and played a deep inside shot for the rest of the game. I went dutch from there (spare-strike-spare-strike), but then chopped the 3-6 and left a split (4-6-7) in the ninth for 159, putting me -24 for the night.

In summary, though, it still needs to be said that in five weeks, I increased my average 23 pins with the Retro, and I know things will be better next week.

Unless there's another tornado.

Jess