Short Walk, Long Time

[kevin_standlee]

I went for a short walk from the hotel after dinner. I know this area pretty well -- when I look out the back window of my hotel room, I'm looking at the Atrium Gardens Apartments where I lived for a year. Looping around the block, I was waylaid by a Lord of the Rings pinball machine at the bowling lanes. $2 and 2 1/2 hours later, I was finally on my way back to the hotel. If the machine hadn't been partially broken (several of the machine's pinballs are trapped in a broken section of the playfield; worse, the trapped balls can trap the remaining balls in the machine, and when that happens, all you can do is slam-tilt it in order to free one or two of the four of the balls), I might still be there.

Comments

[buddykat.livejournal.com]

Have you mentioned to the bowling alley that the pinball machine needs servicing, and if it worked better, you'd probably spend more money on it? You could even mention that if you *were* able to spend more time and/or money on the pinball machine, you may possibly get drinks or snacks from them - even if you really won't, it helps to lay it on a bit thick to encourage them to get it fixed.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I have given up on that sort of thing. Most places contract out the machines to an external service, and as far as I can tell, the staff doesn't give a hoot for them and won't/can't do anything about them.

One of the reasons I was happy about going to the Pinball Museum in Las Vegas was that they obviously care about pinball machines, and have a full-time mechanic there who seemed genuinely interested when I reported some defects I noticed.