A Heep of Everything: Human Versus Cat Round 5

About Alexandra Heep:

Alexandra Heep is a longtime writer, chronic over-thinker, and recovering content mill survivor. Her work has appeared in literary journals, anthologies, and online platforms where words are still respected. She writes children’s books, health reflections, and the occasional blog post laced with humor and hard-won honesty. After years of illness, detours, and navigating the noise of modern wellness, she returned to writing with the firm belief that stories—like people—don’t have to be perfect to matter. She publishes under multiple pen names and drinks more goat milk than you’d expect.

Sunday, April 21, 2013

Human Versus Cat Round 5

Gracie made her picks for the NASCAR race in Kansas on April 18, the day of the huge flooding which came after the record-setting storms. (If you do not know what I am talking about, this explains the NASCAR kitty story). We had spent a pretty much sleepless night because of the strong storms. Of course Gracie slept as storms do not bother her. She actually watched a hurricane from a window sill before, but that is another story.

I had taken the box with numbers out on Thursday morning and set it on the bedroom floor, figuring she would deal with picking the drivers when ready. I had just settled in bed to try to catch up on some well-needed rest when Gracie started scratching in the box, mixing her numbers, and scooping some out. Yes, the pics are blurry because she was pretty vigorous about mixing them up. Regardless, she picked some of the same drivers again that she chose for prior races. How strange.

Here are Gracie's picks:

36 (JJ Yeley)
39 (Ryan Newman)
31 (Jeff Burton)
14 (Tony Stewart)
13 (Casey Mears)

And here are my picks:

18 (Kyle Busch)
56 (Martin Truex)
43 (Aric Almirola)
5 (Kasey Kahne)
15 (Clint Boyer)

Gracie's results:

Gracie scored 18, 31, 26, 23, and 10 points, respectively, for a race total of 108. Who knew that Ryan Newman would be her highest scoring driver? While he is my favorite driver, I won't ever pick him as I am a realist. Well, I picked him once and he finished a dismal 40th or so. That taught me.

Her new points total is 667 and despite the terrible captain's pick (JJ is a nice guy, I've met him, but he drives sub-par equipment), her percentage for all NASCAR of Fox players jumped to 15.6. She even improved her ranking in the sub-league (fans of Brad Keselowski) by 3 to 1045 out of 1168. It makes me wonder what humans with NASCAR knowledge choose for their picks!

As always, keep in mind that Gracie did not play the first three races, so her stats are skewed when compared to the whole season.

My results:

I picked four top ten finishers (2nd, 4th, 5th and 8th), but Kyle Busch, my team captain, ruined my points by finishing 38th. I managed a respectable total of 170 (12+41+36+42+39), clawing my way up by four spots in the Ryan Newman fan league for a rank of 229/396. My combined score for all races is 1,314, which means I also gained a little in overall percentage from all NASCAR of Fox players with a total of 48.4 percent.

Sorry, Gracie, Mom won this round.