Project L and Ski In Ski Stout: All the Pieces for a Good Night In
I’m not ready to reengage with the WWII air combat wargame against which I’ve dashed my brains (and my pilots) in intermittent learning sessions throughout winter. On this somnolent winter eve, I switch up the flavors.
Project L solo mode and a new-to-me Colorado stout: Ski In Ski Stout from Telluride Brewing Company
From the first sip and the first turn, I can tell I’ve made the right move: Without Joe across the table beating my ass red, I quickly digest the solo rules for Project L and find a pleasant rhythm of managing the game’s simple automa; drafting and placing puzzles; and a broader, gently forming picture of how to play the game more effectively.
Sometimes you chalk your biggest Ws by learning which games to quit, or at least set down for a while. As I age, I get better at dispelling the imaginary tribunal that lists what happens if You Don’t Stick With It. They’re not here. They never were. Why am I walking this overweight, surly dog? I drop the leash and watch it wander off. It’s not my dog. Fuck it.
When I go downtown to get some stout, I get bat-flights of anxiety, piling up other stops in town even before I’ve parked. It’s Friday night, I should see who’s around and jolt my conversational reflexes. Then I realize I don’t want to do that shit, either.
What I want is to try a new stout. So I skip over the usual Winter Warlock, Guinness and Left Hand. Ski In Ski Stout is new. Let’s do that.
Let’s sip that (it’s delicious and will be on a future Drink of the Week segment). Let’s play this (it’s a perfect ratio of brainpower demanded to pace of play and will be a future Game of the Week segment). Let’s instead ease into the moment: Nothing in the way except what I erected previously, the gelid evening squeezing out a bit more dusk light than weeks previous. The blooming aftertaste of the brew. The fleeting disappointment in a loss to the automa falling to the wildly-within-reach joy of another game.
Then another one. And another. I am candlelit. It is a good, long and slow night.