Remember that post last week about hide-and-go-seek tag? Yeah, this one.

Well I want to tell you more, because I didn’t get to finish my story, and I promised I would explain the rules of Manhunt. Okay that’s not entirely true, I decided not to finish the story because as you know, I like cliffhangers. That and I needed a break to invent a jazzy name for my Thursday edition posts and I finally came up with one – TIMELY THURSDAYS.

It’s clever, trust me.

Fine, you don’t believe me? Want me to spell it out? Maybe give you a definition for starters?

time·ly

ˈtīmlē/

adjective

1. done or occurring at a favorable or useful time; opportune.

   “a timely warning”

   synonyms:

   opportune, well timed, at the right time, convenient, appropriate,expedient, seasonable, felicitous “his refresher course on giving CPR proved to be very timely when a colleague collapsed at work”

It’s timely because the event notice will conveniently get posted in advance of the weekend OR will *gasp* be about a recurring event in Edmonton which you may or not already know about. Now, I apologize in advance to my global readership, because this means you likely can’t participate when I post timely things.

But no fear dear readers, you know I wouldn’t leave you hanging if I can help it, and I’m intentionally telling you global folks about my local cultural events to inspire you to check out events in your own home towns.

Now let’s review Manhunt some more and I’ll start by explaining the rules for you.

The rules are fairly simple.

1. bring a visible armband, so that fellow manhunters can distinguish you from the general public
2. there is one manhunter at the start, determined by playing several rounds of bubble gum, effectively whittling players down until the 2 person round wherein they play rock, paper, scissors to determine who is IT
3. whoever is IT has to give other players 120 seconds to run and/or hide, after that, play begins
4. the game lasts for approximately one hour, during this time other players can become tagged and join the hunt for free players
5. play only happens within the boundaries designated at the start of the game, anything is fair play space within the boundaries as long as it is open to minors. you run the risk of getting kicked out of private property though, so make your own decisions there.
6. if you exit the boundaries for whatever reason, you are now tagged
7. once the game is over, all manhunters will call out “OWL SWOOPING” in unison. if this happens and you have not been tagged, YOU WIN!

The game makes a lot more sense now, yes? It’s pretty much hide-and-go-seek tag for adults. And an excellent way to spend an hour or so of Wednesday night.

But that’s not entirely why you’re reading this post.

I promised I would tell you more of my exploits from last week, and I don’t want to disappoint. Now where did we leave off? I had just won the first game of the championship two-parter. And it turns out I had earned enough points to jump in front of the season pack leader by almost 10 points.

It was effectively ON.

But what would my next game play like, you ask? Well, we decided to play game 2 on slightly different boundaries. We played between Grierson Hill and Jasper Avenue and also between 100 St and the corner of 95a st that Grierson Hill Starts at.

Look! A map for reference!

So what did I decide to do? What any sane person would do with a huge lead and who wanted to keep it that way. I hid in the bushes on Grierson Hill, just east of the Shaw Conference Centre.

In hindsight it probably wasn’t that safe of a move, because lots of homeless people sleep there, and I had definitely seen my share of patted down shrubs on my trek for a hiding spot. But that’s not the point of the story. The point is I hid. I hid for a good 50 minutes.

It gave me lots of time to take pictures of the sky, the embankment, catch up on my texting, think about my life and what I was doing with it, and also nap for a bit.

But then time was up.

So I went back to the start of the map. And guess what I learned? Everyone else hid too!

Well dear readers, that meant that because only three players were tagged, that everyone who didn’t get tagged earned about 3 points. Which also meant that I won. That’s right, the other gentleman who was in the running also hid, and because I was already ahead of him, our scores in the second game washed each other out, so I was still up by 3 points.

Damn it felt good to be a champion. As an elder owl who had taken a 7 season hiatus, I was humbled by the endurance of this sport, and my ability to participate in it still.

This was probably one of my top 10 moments of the year. And that ain’t no theory.

Tim!