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Comet in the center Skirmish Sept 12, 1998

Yeah, yeah... "Comet is retired" I keep saying it, but again circumstances conspired against me to prevent me from making Comet v2.0. Lemme see, I got strep throat for a week. Then because of that I got gout in my left ankle. So I got sick, then disabled. It was a real factor that I didn't know if I was even going to go to the World Record Game. But after getting a good diagnosis and some meds to kill the pain and the swelling, the World Record Game was a go. I needed a cane to walk around for the most part off the field, but I cranked down my cleats and bit my lip a lot to swallow pain. It may not have been the best thing I could have done to my body, but honestly I needed to move around. Scroll down for more...

Way back when in '96 I wanted to take Comet to the WRG, but it never materialized then. Which was good, it rained all weekend back then. But this year I was able to make it, I was very happy with this idea, because Comet is good for crowd games. "Follow the yabo."

I drove with the girlfriend to Jim Thorpe, PA for the event. THREE days of driving in all listening to NPR and the whole "Ken Starr" mess. Mary doesn't like rock music, so I indulged her on this trip to classical. We got to the site, checked in, got tanks filled, and managed to sneak into the vendors tent and buy event shirts and a pair of Raven gloves for me. (nice stuff, by the way.)

The motel... hee hee hee... We were slated to stay at the "Hickory Motel". The place is 4 miles from the Skirmish site, so I figured it would work out great. What I didn't know at the time was it had no air conditioning, but they had fans in the window (which meant we had to keep the windows open, no privacy...) Oh, the wallboards were peeling off, the tape used to hold it together was trashed... Mary stepped into the room, started to gag on the mildew and dust, and finally said to me "If we're staying here, I'm sleeping in the van." I decided we weren't about to go sleep in the van. We bugged out like a M*A*S*H unit and found a hotel 15 miles up the road for the same price with A/C. All is well.

Mary wanted to sleep in Sunday morning, so I again indulged her. I took the van and drove to the WRG alone. (sniffle) The pre-game was great... I don't even know if I'll remember everyone who went to the event. (It's tough...) I ran into SO many people that the names are hard to keep straight. At the end of this sheet is a mirror of the "Sign in sheet" that was at the "rec.sport.com" table (I didn't have the heart to tell the staff how wrong they were on that name...) Anyhow, The games themselves were very short for me, actually. The game started late by 30 minutes, and I had to leave around noon to get Mary. So I played an hour at the beginning. Working with Scott "I'm A Pump Monkey" MacDonald we made a steady roll to center field. I got lost a few times, because the map they handed to us was not accurate. I grabbed a referee and asked him "Where am I?" He couldn't help me either.

This concept scares ME! Skirmish, Sept 12, 1998

Eventually I found "PMI City", a center-field set of barricades and plastic tarps that made a flag station. Scott was long-balling the other guys, and my velocity decided to go out on me. I was shooting an Autococker, that happens. But I didn't want to leave yet, so I toughed it out. Why not? I can draw fire at the very least. Everyone loves the deer. See? Look below!

Member's of the "Comet Fan Club" Cool undermounted smoke launchers! You'll note the barrel plugs, it was safe. Photo Courtesy of "Skirmish Photos" Thanx Cleo!

Someone threw a smoke grenade AT me (silly person.) and I was taking dingers off the costume ears, but I hung on. We held the station for the time allotment, and I had to leave to get Mary. A field judge was giving me a hard time as I was walking off, saying I was dead from a splatter mark smaller than a dime. (That's it's own post on rec.sport...) and making snide remarks about me as I walked away. No problems, I let it slide because I wanted to have fun.

I went back to the hotel to get Mary, and to make a long story short I didn't get back until 3 PM or so. Oops. I missed the "Internet Photo Shoot" (Hey, Brett, can you 'edit me in'?) and I decided the Autococker wasn't going to like me that day, so I picked up the PMI-2 that has never failed me yet. (Knock on wood all you folks at home...)

White team had an insertion going as I was standing around, so I followed it. It ended up they decided to place us behind the Blue fort (which was about a mile hike, by the way...) No problems with that, actually. The problem was they announced it without giving us a chance to prepare (The blue team knew it...) And the firefight began.

I'm going to be more polite than I was that day as I type this. Doing the longball thing I managed to tag a blue player in the neck. Saw the flinch, saw the big yellow splat on his neck, then saw him wipe it off. So I shot him again, and he wiped it off again. Snarling (when have you ever seen a deer snarl?) I switched targets and shot a guy in the gun four times in 30 seconds, he never left either. Now I'm mad. So I lay into a third guy, who I manage to hit in the visor of his green JT Spectras. He flinches and never leaves.

Then I get hammered.

Saying I was mad as I walked off the field would be an understatement. I was about to (but I didn't...) walk to the three players in question, wipe the hits off of their persons and equipment, and then leave to make a point. But it would have been lost on them I think. See, with the 1839 some-odd people they got (that's the official number), they didn't have enough referees to cover that many people. In fact, the only two referees at the scene of the grime were behind the white team at the time, and weren't looking at the blue team. I zeroed a referee on the three players in question, but I knew it wouldn't matter because they weren't going to leave anyhow.

That's when I decided to call it a day. I played paintball for a grand total of 1 hour 24 minutes on the world record attempt day. Something that I could have rectified, sure. I could have stayed in longer (cheated), I could have ran back to the staging area on a bad ankle (and hurt myself, I wasn't on my meds when I played), I could have done a lot of things. I didn't. I was too disgusted.

So what did I learn or gain from the experience? Well, not a lot. No, that's not true. I got a heck of a lot. I did get engaged to my girlfriend (I'll be calling her a "Fiancee" now... Click the link for the picture!) at the post-game show that day. It was a beautiful thing, actually. All was good there. Oh, and that sticker on my goggles in these pics? It reads "Marry me Mary" It was my backup plan in case I wimped out from proposing to her on stage in front of 500+ people. I didn't wimp out, thankfully. We don't have a date for the wedding yet, so don't ask.

Predator / Prey Relationships Comet and an unnamed lion (Ron Orr) Photo Courtesy of Skirmish Photos Thanx Cleo!

As far as paintball went... I was less than impressed with Skirmish's World Record Game for 1998. Mary nailed it right when she said "Nobody here is having fun. It's too serious." And she's right. With the exception of myself and Ron, the costumes just weren't there. There were, I think 10 people in costume. Us, the bagpipers, the guy in the red cape, and one other. The whimsy was just not happening. Back in '94 there was a lot of costumes and weirdness. It wasn't there in '98.

I suppose that was the saddest part too. The death of innocence.

Wow, that was a heavy ending to that... sheesh... I may have to re-write that one...

Anyhow, the list of people who 'checked in' at the table. A "THANK YOU!!!!" to Brett for typing all this in, and letting me mirror it here.

...in no particular order...

Here's a few of the guys for a smaller group photo. Thanks to everyone on Team Internet, to who I say "What a long, strange trip it's been..." And I'll see you at the next big event!

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