Cribbage. It requires thought, a bit of skill, a bit of strategy, and a fair bit of luck. It’s a great game.

My great uncle Leo, may he R.I.P. was a POW in WW II. He learned the game from the Brits he was with in the concentration camp. He taught me how to play when I was kid.

Back when I was doing a lot of deep river diving, it required wearing a computer to keep up with your down time/depth/and nitrogen saturation. You spend much time down there and you have to decompress. When you time it right you can decompress sitting in the boat. But if you spend too much time down there, then you have to decompress hanging off your line in 10 feet of water, until the computer tells you you can go to the boat. I tried to not to get to that point, but there were a few times I had to be punished hanging from my line at 10′ for 20-30 minutes.

I hired a couple boat tenders over the years. They had to pull the bags in, sort the shells, and prep gear for the next dive. They also had to learn how to play cribbage. My decompression downtime in the boat, was hot and boring as hell. So, I started bringing a cribbage board and a deck of cards to pass the time. By the time I’d have lunch, and play a few games of cribbage, the computer would let me make another dive. I don’t do the deeper river diving anymore, I work the lake these days. No worries of decompression in water less than 32 feet. The deeper river shells are poorer quality, and the buyers prefer the lake shell, and I don’t miss the river digging. So, I’m fine with that. I haven’t got to go diving yet this year dammit. I came down with a retracted eardrum in the spring, and can’t get in the water till it recovers. Yeah, I’d never heard of it either!

I still get my cribbage fix though. There’s a site called Cribbage JD. It’s the best cribbage game I’ve found online. I’ve got it on my phone, so anytime I’m waiting for the wife in the store, or at the Dr. office, or have a few minutes of time, I’m playing cribbage.

Anybody that wants their butt kicked at cribbage, let me know 😉

One of my old boat tender guys, went on to become a math teacher. He used cribbage to teach kids how to do quick math in your head. Sadly he passed away a couple years back. There a moment one day, when he said to me, “have you ever noticed the beauty in the numbers with this game?” I kind of looked at him funny, and replied “no, not really.” I was more strategy focused, and didn’t see what he meant. It was maybe a year ago, it hit me. I finally saw what he meant. I wish I could tell him that…