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Dear Steward, What Have You Done...?
Original article written by Bob Green posted 8 years 3 weeks agoDear Steward,
I want to know, what have you done to my sanity?
I’m over 40 years old (say wha? When did that happen?). A grown man. Reasonable. Rational. Responsible. Generally calm and steady. And all that stuff. Ok, so there are those who may not agree with all that, but what do they know anyway?
I’m also like an ever so excited five year old on his way to Grandma’s house for Christmas, restless and fidgety and unable to stop asking “are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet, are we there yet?” Like a young kid looking forward to a first date with an uneasy mix of anticipation and apprehension. I can’t wait for tonight, but at the same time I’m a little scared! I am an unreasonable, irrational bundle of nerves. Why all this nervous excitement? What happened to make to make me this way? To answer that, we’ll need to make a short trip down memory lane.
I’ve never exactly been a horse racing fan. I can count the number of horse races I’ve watched on one hand. Usually because I happened to be somewhere where other people had it on TV and were all excited about maybe seeing something called a Triple Crown. Whatever that meant. Back in January of 2011 I happened to stumble across a silly horse racing game on the internet while killing time. It was amusing enough but was only single player and had no options to save. Maybe there was something out there similar to it but without the whole starting over every time I wanted to play the thing? My good friend Google suggested this website called simhorseracing.com and I signed up on February 3, 2011. It appeared to be more or less what I was looking for. And the people who played it seemed friendly enough. Why not give it a shot?
Fast forward. It’s now 13 Sim years later. There's been some ups and downs. It’s now week 16, Steward’s Cup week. I’ve never been real competitive with my TB’s, but I’ve had some success with my Appy’s recently, including a few Cup wins. It’s Wednesday and I’ve got seven entries in tonight’s Cup races. I’ve been here before. It shouldn’t be such a big deal, right? No. Last night, I couldn’t sleep. I kept asking over and over, did I do things right? Will I win a couple Cups for the trophy room and enjoy the euphoria for the rest of the week? Will they all crash and burn and leave me feeling blue and in the dumps for the rest of the week?
Did I ruin this filly’s chances by starting her in a couple stakes races? Now she’s entered in the Cup as a maiden winner, that’s not so good. Was that week 14 maiden win too late to pick up her confidence? Maybe I should have skipped the Cup and tried to pick up an easier stakes win next year on week 1. Too late now.
Did I race that horse too many times as a two year old? Maybe I should have skipped one race and given him a couple more three week breaks. Will he have enough left for tonight or did the schedule I put him through take too much out of him? Why did I wait until week 16 to worry about this?
Will that three year old who only recently picked up a couple stakes wins be able to compete? He’d been such a disappointment until those two wins. Can he handle the tougher competition? Or will I merely destroy his new found confidence?
And then there’s my favorite two year old, Feigned Innocence. Sure, she lost her first race, but she’s been nothing short of amazing since then. Is she really that good? I’ve had two year olds get me all excited before only to let me down. Will she be a letdown or keep up her amazing run?
And on and on the questions went. And it’s not just the Steward’s Cup excitement that has me concerned, there’s more. What, you want an example? Ok. I really wanted to be awake and available for an auction ending at 2:00 am a couple years ago. There was a problem, our newborn quite often woke up around then for a bottle and I let the wife sleep while I took care of that feeding. I found a solution… I WOKE UP the baby at 1:15 am to make sure she was done with her bottle and back to sleep by 2:00. Yes, that happened. Don’t get me started on waiting to gallop when the year changes over… I could go on, but I won’t. I’ve clearly lost it, and the Sim seems to be the reason why.
Back to my original question, what HAVE you done to my sanity? Know what? I really don’t care. I’ve joined a lot of online games over the years, none of them held my attention more than a few months. Until the Sim. None of them were able to draw me out enough to actually post on the forums. Until the Sim. I certainly didn’t get to ‘know’ anybody on them well enough to really care about them. Until the Sim. And I most certainly never felt like part of a community on any of them. Until the Sim. If you’ve stolen my sanity you may keep it. I’d rather have the Sim. And maybe a few more Cups for the trophy room, please?