Our trivia host for our Monday night music quiz games at Arbor Brewing Company in Ypsilanti has decided that he’d like to do all of the games outside during the summer months. His decision. Not the bar, not necessarily all of the players (though maybe some of them). His.

“Weather permitting.”

While that sounds good – in theory – what is not so good is that “weather permitting” for him might not mean comfortable conditions for all of his players. 🥵😡

Yes I know you can’t please everyone. But this is proving to divide our team almost as much as a heated political debate on social media!

Just last Friday, one of our regular Monday night music quiz players said flat out that she would not even bother driving out to the game if the host decides to do the game outdoors. She made this decision after looking at weather forecasts showing temperatures in the 90s.

Some of the music of the decade of the 90s was pretty good. Temperatures in the 90s? Not so much!

At our Monday, June 29 game, my teammate Kim looked as if she were going to have a heat stroke afterwards! Temps were in the upper 80s. Even the gung-ho “I love summer weather” host said that his back got sweaty during the game. He also described the game as being on the “hotter side” in his recap (also that he’d lower the outside temperature threshold for future games). Let’s hope that he actually does this!

It’s best not to wear light grey t-shirts when it’s hot!

I opted to sit inside for that game along with my husband. I still used my phone to sign into the game, and I followed along with the questions on my phone. If categories came up that I thought I might help with, I would pop outside for a minute to listen to the audio clues and talk to my three teammates who were sitting outside. One of them was borrowing my portable fan! 🤣

Two other local trivia spots have outdoor options for trivia – Original Gravity in Milan, and Eastern Market brewing in Detroit. Both hosts recently opted to move games inside on hot nights recently.

I’ve drawn my line in the sand and said that I will NOT be sitting outside for the games when it’s too warm for me. My work environment is NOT air conditioned, so when I’m not working, I don’t like to sit outside unless it’s comfortable to me or there is water nearby to cool off. Even if I do have quite the arsenal of small portable fans now!

Kim told me that after this game, the host said he’d try to be more careful about deciding to stage games outside. He said if it’s 85 degrees or warmer, they would be inside.

That’s a good start! Except an 85 degree temperature can easily feel like it’s in the 90s when you consider the humidity and heat index.

To be safe, why not do the games indoors unless it’s 75 degrees or cooler? Or do I just love morgue temps too much?.

I may love wandering into a grocery store’s “beer cave” on a hot day, but others might reach for their parkas 😂

I don’t know if he’s intentionally trying to blatantly disregard the wishes of his regular players (I really hope not). Kim actually private messaged him before the June 29 game begging him to do the game indoors. He did the game outside anyway (though he did mention during the game that it was probably too warm to have done that). Good!

Not to ignore the elephants in the beer garden, some of the music quiz players are on the older side and don’t tolerate heat and humidity very well. To be fair, I’ve NEVER handled heat well, even when I was a kid! I passed out at the King’s Island amusement park when I was 8 – when temperatures were in the 100s.

I wrote letters from summer camp in which I very colorfully described how hot it got. On one of the days, the camp nurse decreed that all of the campers would have to change into shorts if they were wearing pants. It was that hot!

I understand that he wants to look out for his bottom line, and he thinks that if he does the games outside, he’ll get more teams to sign up and make more $. That’s all fine and good, but…

How does that explain why the indoor-only Wednesday games still have just as many teams – if not more – than the music quiz games? The July 8 indoor Wednesday night game at the same place drew 21 teams.

Maybe it’s not fair to compare the Monday music quiz nights to the Wednesday pub quiz nights. Wednesday trivia nights have been going on every week since 2012, the Monday music quiz shows have only been going on for a couple of years. It can take time for trivia shows to really set down taproots and then, grow. I get that. But the trivia tree won’t grow unless you feed and water it, will it? If you just sit there and hope for the best, how much will your trivia crowds grow?

Until it gets chilly enough for all games to be indoors, every Monday game he decides to do outside will be a game day decision for me as for whether I’ll actually sit outside to play. Maybe that’s just me. I can live with being an outcast!