Going Kabonkers
Wednesday - April 01, 2009
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Del.icio.usRon Nagasawa is on leave. This column was published originally in December 2003.
Although people who know me would say that I’m a pretty laid-back kind of guy, in private I’m an aggressive, “take no hostages” competitor.
Like everyone else, I hate to lose.
What you also don’t know is that my wife is 100 times the competitor that I am, and this trait has been passed on to our kids. Everyone wants to win or be the best, which can be a good thing unless the competition happens to be with each other.
The other week our 6-year-old daughter won this toy from an arcade. It’s an updated version of something we used to call “Kabonkers” or “Click-Clacks” - two golf-sized plastic balls that swivel on a stick.
By holding the stick, the object is to knock the two balls together on the down motion and the up motion. It’s way harder than it sounds, and whoever can sustain it the longest wins.
Anyway, since I used to have a similar toy “back in the day,” I picked them up and started “crankin’ ‘em.”
I immediately took up bragging rights and egged everyone on that no one would be able to touch me on this particular skill. The glove being thrown down, our daughter, our 14-year-old son and their mother immediately took up training to beat me.
I created a monster because for the next three days I had to endure the constant sound of “clacking.” I’d come home to see the three of them practicing like they were training for the Olympics. My wife actually used her morning exercise time to master the darn thing.
Finally, one night at dinner they each took turns and at a minimum, tripled my best time. My wife even did a dance while doing it and I stopped her before she started juggling or some other outrageous stunt to make me look like an amateur.
After conceding to them, I brought up the next challenge - who could give me the longest back massage. It didn’t wash. They all quickly left the room with me holding the Kabonkers.
Ron’s WEBSITE of the weekwww.hpu.edu/index.cfm
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