Darts

We have a dart board at home.  Probably everyone has had one, or still does.  It is really there as a “just in case option.”  When people come over it is one of the options.  It is particularly useful when seeing the New Year in and one has hours to kill.  Kill figuratively, not actually.  If for you it is like actual, then please stay at home.
Some people are right into the darts.  I am not one of them.  One person could tell me all about the dart’s weight and the feathers.  That same person suggested we put a carpet underneath where the board is.  That was really good advice.  I am amazed that we can throw from so close and still hit the cement wall behind the board and watch the dart plummet to the ground.   That really is no good for the dart.  It can also affect the shaft.  Some darts are just a memento of times past.  What is left of them that is.
I reckon darts is marketed really well.  On tv sometimes we watch competition darts.  It is the best of nations pitted against each other.  Those people are really good.  It is the consistency that gets me.  Sure I can get a 50, 25 or triple 20 occasionally, but these people aim for them, and often get them straight away.
On tv darts is made to look like an exciting spectator spectacle.  Crowds of people sit at tables and cheer big time.  I think there must be a big tv screen somewhere.  If I was sitting at the back, I reckon I could see the board, but I might have trouble seeing the results of the throw.  It would be very possible for me to stand and cheer really loudly when it would have been more appropriate to sit silently.  Being the only one standing and cheering would make me pretty obvious.  I don’t want that.  Some of the competitors are pretty big.
At home the throwing at the board is across a walkway.  I tend to watch what is going on pretty closely.  That way I can indicate to the people coming, to either wait or go around.  Often people are taking food from the house to the shed.  The last thing I want is to take out a delivery of food.  Of course, bringing back an empty bowl is a different story.
I do not want a person and a dart to occupy the same space at the same time.  A dart penetrating the skin is often noticed.  If it is not, then invariably down the track someone asks “what’s that sticking out of the back of your head?” and pulls it out.  The consequences are really inconvenient and could require mopping up.
I would prefer not to need to do that when there might only be four hours to go until midnight.  Besides, I do not want that to be someone’s memory of the last day of the year.  Being able to say that on the 31st of December 1984 I got a dart stuck in my head is in my mind a bit beyond the pale.  I reckon it is time they got over it and moved on.  No one I know does such things on purpose.  It would be an accident and the one who threw the dart would probably feel bad.