We bought tickets at the race track. Danny and Nicole picked three rides each. Both wanted to do bumper cars and the big race track. Nicole wanted to do the bungee-tramp and Danny wanted to do the kiddie race track.
Kelly and I watched Nicole ride in one bumper car and Danny and Kathy ride in another.
As I watched, I thought that bumper cars revealed the personality of each driver. Nicole probably traveled a greater distance than any other driver. She looked for gaps and open spaces trying to avoid hitting anyone. That’s Nicole. Trying to avoid conflict even in bumper cars. I could almost hear her apologizing as she nudged her way through the pack of cars. However, as soon as she spotted Danny, she rammed him full speed again and again, laughing loud and hard. She repeated her attacks, driving Danny crazy because he was busy trying to get on with his own plans. That’s Nicole, too, beating a dead horse. But she was having fun.
Danny didn’t travel much distance at all. He was too busy trying to bump in to every car around him. The name of the game was bumper cars, and he was bound and determined to do his best bumping. You’ll never know Danny is having fun by looking at his face. He wears the same face whether he is up at bat, running with a football, or driving a bumper car. He sticks his jaw out and furrows his brow with a very serious expression. But he was having fun, too.
Now Kathy is competitive by nature. And being a more intelligent driver than Danny or Nicole, she understands that you’ve got to work somewhere between Danny’s maximum bpm (bumps per minute) approach and Nicole’s fast and bump-free approach. You’ve got to get up speed in order to get in hard bumps. Hard bumps are the key, and the best are when you can strike someone unaware. So Kathy couldn’t resist grabbing the wheel a few times and getting Danny out of a spinning cluster and aim the car for some unsuspecting driver. I had to yell at her once and say “They’re Danny’s tickets!” That’s Kathy, getting caught having too much fun.
Kelly sat on the side rail in awe of all the motion, lights, music, and the sizzling sparks on the ceiling where the electricity passed from the wire mesh to the poles on the cars. The smell of ozone was strong. She had fun watching.
And of course, I had fun analyzing the whole thing. That’s me.