…and I’m tired of darts today. I guess that makes me re-tired of darts. But hopefully, I’ll never grow tired of bad puns!
Anyhoo, I am officially on a darts hiatus. I don’t know when or if I’ll recapture the desire to play the game, but there is no point in going through the motions until then. I did intend to go out with a bang and play one last tourney yesterday, but the start got postponed, and I didn’t feel like waiting around. I probably wouldn’t even have gone at all, except I had four beers left on my Alley Cats beer card (it’s a buy five, get one free deal). None of my fellow darters appeared to give a shit when I announced I was taking a break. Well, truthfully, I can’t say that I would either if I heard that from someone. Still, a “good luck” or “see you around” would have been warmer than a shrug of the shoulders and “so what” look. Yeah, I can be oversensitive sometimes, I suppose.
Heh, I came across this old post from June 2005 documenting the day my darting “career” began.
In my personal life, I am just filling time these days. Last night my Air Force buddy Jeff called and interrupted a game of CIV so we could meet a Caroline’s for a couple of beers. We wound up playing darts. I can’t remember the last time I’ve tried to hit a dart board, but it has probably been over 20 years ago. I assumed my darts would be worse than my pool, but surprisingly I played pretty well. Not well enough to win (Jeff is really good), but most of the time, it came down to who got the last bullseye first. I really enjoyed myself, and I’m thinking with some practice, I might actually be a decent player. Although practice has not done much for my pool game yet, and league play starts again next month.
Well, seventeen years of darting was a pretty nice ride. I’ve earned a break, I reckon.
So, after leaving Alley Cats and my dart life behind, I wandered up the road to It Doesn’t Matter. Agnes, my regular waitress, gave me a hug and a warm greeting, making me feel a little better. A few beers (and lady drinks, of course) later, I moved on to Cheap Charlies. Once again, I was treated poorly by the staff, this time Jicel. By that, I mean she walked away from her half-finished lady drink without a word. I’m done. Well, I might be back to Cheap Charlies, but I won’t be buying drinks for the likes of her in the future.
The day began better than it ended; the Friday group hike took us out to Subic town for a walkabout. We never left the pavement, but my tired old lungs appreciated not having any serious hill climbing to do. Even out here on unfamiliar streets, we encountered two people I’m acquainted with–a bargirl named Sally from The Green Room and Julica, a former Hasher I crushed on briefly a few years ago (until I took her to Angeles, and she dumped me for what she considered a better prospect. Lucky me!).
A pleasant walk and always nice to change things up a bit.
[man, using past and passed can be so confusing. I’ve used one of each and think I’ve got it right, but if not, I’m sure I’ll hear about it in the comments.]
And that was how our Friday hike went down.
I’m going to do my Saturday night at that new place in Calapadayan, Poseidon. Look for a full report on that event here tomorrow.
re: past/passed
The word “past” has several functions.
noun: That’s in the past. Don’t worry about it anymore.
preposition: Julio’s place is just past the church.
adjective: (1) God forgives us our past sins. (2) the past tense
adverb: I waved, but she ignored me and flounced past.
The word “passed” has one main function: as the past-tense form of “to pass.”
I’ve passed my limit on beers tonight.
Charles passed by the cemetery every day.
Quentin passed his test yesterday!
We’ve passed the point of no return.
A car passed me on the freeway.
My grandson passed gas in church yet again.
See if you can fill in the blanks with the correct word, past/passed:
In the (1)_____ , we used to visit Janine’s bar quite often. That was before the nasty fight broke out, and Janine told us the bar was henceforth off limits to me and my crew. Years (2)_____ , and one day, Janine saw me on the street and wondered why I never visited anymore. “You told us to scram, remember?” I said. “Oh, all that (3)_____ nonsense has long been forgotten. Come by anytime,” Janine laughed. I was still feeling bitter, though, and I (4)_____ by her bar quite a few times before I finally decided to come in. Janine was behind the bar when I (5)_____ through the front door. She saw me and cried in an unearthly voice, “What’s (6)_____ is (7)_____ !” And that’s when she and the other bar patrons suddenly all shed their skins and revealed themselves to be Scorpines, horrible beings from another planet who had begun visiting us… right around the time I’d first met Janine years ago. “At last! Our long famine is (8)_____ ! Willing human flesh!” they cried as they descended upon me, hungry for the taste of my nipples and large intestine. I (9)_____ out before their eager fangs sank into me.
So, based on all of the above, do you think you used “passed” correctly in your post?
Here goes: 1. past, 2. passed, 3. past, 4. passed, 5. passed, 6. past, 7. past, 8. over (passed), 9. passed.
Scary story! I’m glad reading it is now in the past. I hope I passed your test, though.
I’ve never really thought about “past” and “passed,” and using the correct version always seemed to come naturally. I didn’t really have any trouble with your test either. I guess I just don’t trust my brain anymore, but when I wrote: “Sally from The Green Room called out to us as we hiked past her house.” and then later, “We called out to Julica as we passed by her place.” it seemed I was saying the same thing two different ways. I actually did look it up and got the definitions you gave, but I was still unsure, hence the editor’s note I left. So, I’m going to say that both my examples are correct, but I can’t tell you why.
Do you still play CIV? I recently got a discounted CIV VI (I think because they have later versions out there) and just started to play. Wow – a steep learning curve. First time I have played the franchise. Looks like fun, but could be a major time suck to learn the ins and outs of the game.
Everything’s good except #8, which should be “past.” You needed a predicate adjective right at that moment, just like #6 and #7. A predicate adjective is located in the predicate but modifies the subject:
My dog is big.
In the above sentence, “big” comes after the verb “is,” so you can easily see it’s in the predicate (the verb part of the sentence). And “big” obviously modifies “dog,” which is the subject of the sentence.
Being able to identify what part of speech a word is (noun, verb, adverb, etc.) is a good skill to have when trying to figure out which word to use.
In “…we hiked past her house,” the word “past” is a preposition. How do you know? Because prepositions often have objects, which are nouns or noun phrases.
in bed
on the branch
before dinner
past her house
For “…we passed by her house,” the word “passed” is a verb (action). The “we” right before it is the subject. We did what? We passed by.
If you just see “past” right after a verb, then you’re probably looking at an adverb modifying that verb:
A bird flew past.
And there we go.
“What is past (pred. adj.) is prologue.”
So the synonym for “over” is “past.”
Yeah, I should have seen that when over sounded better to me. Thanks for the lesson (and the headache I have now).
Brian, I haven’t played CIV for years now. I think the last version I had was CIV IV. Back in those days, I played off a CD in the disc drive. My laptop doesn’t even have one of those. I guess the new versions are downloaded.
Anyway, I was a fanatic and really enjoyed the nuances involved in successfully building a civilization. Have fun!
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