Monthly Archives: November 2006

Texas 42

Today was a good day at 42. I made a 2 mark bid. And I was able to set a 37 point bid after bidding 36.

Its good that I can at least play 42. Of course, I would much rather play Tichu. But that seems to be life for the moment. The 42 group is actually pretty successful. They play all five days of the week. And they have an attendance of 4-9 people per day.

42 does have some problems. This is another game where the luck of the shuffle exists. Sometimes, you just get dealt bad “cards” or bones as they are called in this game. Other negatives about this game:

  • 1) The round is over quickly. Sometimes before all of the bones have been played. Either the other team has been set, or your team claims the round. This can be confusing if you are a beginner. Every one else agreed with the analysis and you are still trying to figure out what happened.
  • 2) The group uses two varients that make the play even easier. The first is the lead off variant. You can turn a weak bone into a stronger one by leading it as the opposite of what it would normally be. If you have the 2:2 and the 6:2, you can lead the 6:2 as a two (2:6). This converts the weak 6 bone into a winning 2 bone. The second is the splash/plunge variant. If your partner has 3 or more doubles, then they can call splash (with 3) or plunge (with 4 or more). It is assumed that they have the double 6. If the bid succeeds, then you get to call trump and lead. You lead your winners and then transfer control over to your partner with a 6.
  • 3) A game is only 7 marks (the number of strokes to write “ALL”). A bid can be more than one mark which only makes it over quicker.
  • 4) This group loves to play the “put away game”. This is not related to 42. They turn the act of putting the bones back into the container as a game. On your turn, if you have the lowest bone, you put it in the box. Otherwise you draw a bone from someone else. This turns into a major mind game with a lot of kingmaking thrown in. Not my type of game. They could have played another round of 42 in the time that it took them to put the game away.

Texas toll roads

Texas toll roads

They finally opened up the toll roads today! Now, I have a more direct way into work. And it is pretty fast. I can get into work in 15 minutes. But that was because that the couple mile stretch of IH-35 from Old Settlers Road to the toll road onramp was empty. It is normally stop and go for that length of road on most days. So it would be interesting to see if this is a new flow for IH-35 or those days were aberations.

Going south on IH-35, there are two exit lanes. There are three lanes for the toll roads (even for the speed-pass part). And there are three lanes when you drop off into Mopac. The only problem is the constant stream of people driving from Parmer onto Mopac. I have to weave through these people when I exit onto Duvall.

Going the other way is not so easy. It is fine until you try and exit the toll road onto IH-35. There is a hugh overpass that narrows down to one lane and merges into IH-35. IH-35 is stop and go through this section. So there is quite a backup on the toll road. They really need to fix the 620 exit. Because when that backs up, it causes a lane of 35 to be stopped. That causes gridlock for miles both behind and past the exit.

What I really don’t like about this toll road is how they screwed up IH-35 and 1325. Remember back a couple of years when they spent millions of dollars building U-turn lanes to help fix 1325 traffic flow problems? Well, they have removed an on-ramp and an off-ramp for both directions! If I want to head south to la Frontera or the big-block stores on the east side of IH-35 (Home-Depot, Walmart, OfficeMax, etc), I now have to exit at Hester’s Crossing. And go through the light! Hester’s Crossing cannot handle this load of traffic any more than 1325 could.
So now many, many, millions of dollars have been spent building roads and we still have hugh traffic problems. There was enough room for another lane where the onramp now is. They could have kept the 1325 exit!

Flawed!