Book report

Just finished reading Split Image by Robert B. Parker. Regret it’s going to be one of the last of his I will read as Mr. Parker passed on in January. Think there is one more Spenser novel in the pipeline for later this year and there are still 2 or 3 of his early ones I don’t have but it looks like finis for another of my favorite authors. Another sign you are growing old is when the authors you have enjoyed for 30-40 years start disappearing. Going to have to start looking for some new ones to follow.

Split Image was the 9th Jesse Stone novel. For those who don’t follow, Jesse Stone was an L.A. homicide cop whose ex-wife drove him to drink and he wound up as a police chief in a small coast Mass. Town. Lotta crime for such a small town. The book is enjoyable as are all of Parker’s works but it’s not one of his best. It’s not one I would recommend that a newcomer to his works start with.

Parker is not a convoluted plotter such as Agatha Christie or Dick Francis. His strength is in how his stories flow along and especially in his characterizations and in his characters interactions with each other. His most notable creations, Spenser and Hawk have some of the best patter going between them I have read. That being said I think the plot here is a bit weaker than usual. In fact there are two plots here because it seems that Parker was on the path towards combining the characters from two of his series, Stone and Sunny Randall, a Boston P.I. She had her own series of about 6 books but there hasn’t been one lately and while she has appeared in the Jesse Stone books before she takes up a large part of this one. So while the book is about the same length as the others there are two plots running and except for the interaction of the characters, they’re sleeping together, there is no real link to the stories. Basically it’s like two novellas combined to form a novel.

All that being said it’s still a good read if you like Parker and I think almost anyone would like Parker if they start somewhere else. If they start here they may think him a bit weak and just brush him off. Any of the Spenser books would be a good start or if interested in Stone the first one, Night Passage gives the basic back story. Parker reads fairly straightforward, no pausing to try and remember some small thing that happened way back in the first chapter or trying to figure out 6 degrees of relationships. I stumbled across him one day when I was bored and the store had nothing that that tickled my fancy. I took a chance on a Spenser novel of Parker’s called Potshot and I’m glad I did. Started me reading, and then collecting his books. A shame there won’t be many more too enjoy.

On that note I’ll wrap this up and thank you for listening. Keep reading

Some quickies

Just some fast and furious nuggets.

Sitting here playing some poker and looking over the blogs I’ve not been reading and notice that I’m not the only one who has taken a hiatus from writing. Either that links to those sites have been broken. Going to have to check to see if some folks actually quit or if they just upgraded their sites.

Reading about Mastodon Weekend. Shows how much I’ve aged and what the stroke took out of me. Time was I would think nothing of hopping in the car and driving through the night. Only thing to stop me would have been thoughts of work. Now there is no work to hold me back but as much as I would love to make the trip I’m not sure I want to make that drive alone. This from a guy who used to travel to Chicago by car by his lonesome a couple times a year. Not that I can’t make this trip, just the fact that I’m even thinking and rethinking it worries me. I’m getting old, no two ways about it.

Back at the limit at Cake. My hot streak seems to have ended today. The suckouts are coming fast and furious. Got guys not only calling me but raising with nothing but then catching on the river. Had one guy cap every round with a K-Q off against my set of tens and hit the gutter ball on the river. I could have done the same thing a few times but I’ve got the sense to bail when I have squat. Of course the squat turned into the nuts by river time. Looks like the bear is having a nice lunch.

I’ve got to get my library database finished. Seems I just wasted money on a book I already have. Was reading the summary and knew I hadn’t read it before so I ordered it. Got here today and I went to enter it in the database and lo and behold, it’s already listed. Purchase date on it is the week right before the stroke. Must have been in a batch of books I bought just before the stroke and never got around to reading. They were some of the first I tried to catalog a couple months back when I first started the project and then I packed them away to get them out of my bedroom. O well, only an EBay purchase for about $5-6 including shipping. Just as well too as I’m not really happy about the purchase. Book not quite up to the description Not real bad, just not something I would add to my collection unless it was a scarce commodity, which this one isn’t. More fodder for the e-store if I ever go that route.

Speaking of libraries, I was reading in their latest newsletter that they offer different kinds of classes and training, both classes and one on one session, through volunteers. Thinking I might go down and offer my services with computers. Not the greatest teacher on a group starting from scratch basis, not really patient enough, but if someone has an idea of what they want to do I can usually explain that to them. So maybe I’ll head down and see if they can use my services. Who knows, may make some useful contacts.

Well, time to get some things done before the poker league game tonight so I guess this trip to the land of boredom is over for now. Thanks for the listen.

Poker already

The other night I started playing some .10-.20 limit on Cake poker. Not exactly enamored of the Cake interface but it’s a site that my online leagues use so I play it every now and then. Somewhere along the line I must have cashed a league freeroll because a couple of weeks ago, when signing up for a league game, I found 20 bucks sitting there. Thanks to a combination of the live play I had been doing and the funk I had been in I hadn’t played too many league games so who knows how long that money was there. Point is, it was and the other night I was bored and so decided to go looking for a place to play. Decided to check out Cake and found, to my surprise, there were actually some limit games running.

Yes, I know, all you hot shot players look down your nose at limit. It’s NL for hold em and PL for Omaha. Can’t make money at limit. Can’t bet people off their draws in limit, get too many people chasing. Yup, you’re right, got those problems with limit. Of course they are considered problems only because most players view limit poker with a no limit mentality. Limit can be a gold mine if approached the right way, at least at lower levels. The NL mentality combined with the propensity of people not only to chase but to chase bad draws can make it profitable. People think I’m lying when I’ve said I’ve cashed out $500-600 after a night of 2-4 or 3-6 limit but I’ve done it on more than one occasion. It’s not common but it’s happened. A trip to Vegas a few years back I was up $1500 my first two days playing between 2-4 and 4-8 limit and $200 to $300 is not uncommon after a night of 3-6 in AC. I’ve been asked why even play NL if I can do so well playing limit. Hey, I like all the games, except maybe Badugi, and need to keep my hand in. Besides, never said NL was unprofitable. Maybe more on my limit philosophy another time. Back to Cake.

As I said, I saw the limit games and decided, what the hell, let’s see how they are. Was going to sit at a penny table and decided, why bother, if I lose my money here it’s not a great site for me anywho so who cares and went to a .10-.20 table and realized I walked in to a limit player’s dream. There was a character there who raised almost every hand preflop, rarely folding, and who would just keep firing bullets after the flop. No one gets that many good hands which usually means they think they scare people out or they just don’t give a damn. Works for them a lot of times but it also means that you can pull some money in on decent hands and really get paid off on your monsters, which is where it’s at in limit. You need those big pots on monsters to offset those payoffs on the suckouts and these are the kind of people who make sure those big pots are there. Watched the action for awhile and noticed some really weak hands winning on fairly strong boards even though there were pre and post flop raises and very little checking. The one guy was pushing the action and one or two people had caught on to him and would call him down to the river if they caught a pair even if it wasn’t all that big. Many times it was big enough. So I jump in to the action but my luck at the beginning ain’t so hot. I catch a number of hands of the kind I like to play in limit but the flops are unkind and those preflop raises are making the bite a bit bigger than it normally would be. I finally start to catch some cards and now it’s worth playing. Another crazy has sat down and between the two of them willing to bet with nothing and the natural calling stations that gravitate to limit games I wind up over 3 times my buy in. I like this. Returned the next night and did even better since a couple of the same people were sitting at the tables. Looking things over it seems they people are also multi tabling. Considering the way they are playing and the money they are tossing around you would think they would just play a more solid game at better stakes but who am I to argue if they want to hand over their money. It ain’t a whole lot but it will keep me in league buy in games, around 3 or 5 dollars a pop, for a month or so. It was interesting to note that one of the crazies eventually wised up a bit. I started noticing some checks and folds from him, at least the hands I was in, instead of the constant firing. Sat down for a third time later that day but the crazies weren’t there and the table was considerably tighter. Dropped a few bucks there as the cards sucked and there was no one paying off the decent hands and the monsters weren’t bringing the payouts to offset the suckouts. Left fairly quickly as soon as I realized that it wasn’t the kind of table to suit my play. I’m not looking for action the way some of these folks seem to be, I’m just looking for a way to relieve the boredom while adding some funds to the bankroll. Sitting here playing some as I type this. Table not to my total liking but cards are hitting when I play and enough calling stations to keep my head above water so far. Won’t be hard to leave if things go south however. Can’t stay at it too long anyway as have to do some running around shortly.

Well, ran my errands. Left the table after tripling the buy in. Might have stayed longer but one of the places I had to get to closes early today and since I was getting dinner fixins couldn’t afford to get there too late. After 3 days I’ve doubled the bankroll on Cake. Now that I’ve stated that fact I’ll probably donk it all off in the next few days. In regards to donking someone left me a text about a PLO game last night with a possible NLHE table going also. Too bad my phone was on charge and I didn’t see it until I picked it up before I went out today. PLO is always good for donking off some chips and I’ve been dying for some live play. Been 2 months since I’ve hit AC and even longer since we had a local game.

Speaking of poker and Cake in particular, it seems the staff of the poker forum I frequent has voted me to the forum team that plays in the forum wars sponsored by the Gaming Forum Network. It’s a monthly series of 4 games, a freeroll and 3 small buy ins in which the members of GFN put up a team of about 15 players each. In addition to the prizes for the game there are individual prizes for cumulative best showing and the winning forum gets a freeroll for its members. Of course the March games are being played at Power Poker, where I currently have no account and no money. That’s not a big problem as I already said that I would play if I made the team and would sign up if so. The problem with the situation is that Power is part of the Cake network. Problem with networked sites is that everyone has different rules on joining sister sites and no one ever seems to put these rules where they are readily available. Some networks want you to use the same account logon but different screen names. Some do it in reverse. Others tell you to open up brand new accounts from the word go. Of course nothing usually comes of violating these rules except every so often you hear the horror stories of someone hitting big and trying to cash and then find their account locked because they violated the rules by having 2 accounts on the same network. Does make you wonder if there is a reason the network rules are not positioned front and center. They make it sound so easy to sign up and no where, at least in all those sign up instructions, is there any clue as to what to do if you already have an account on the network. Might be buried somewhere in the TOS but that ain’t exactly front and center, more like the fine print. And it is not just the Cake network, it’s most of them. So caveat emptor for those signing on to new sites, check to see if they are part of a network and then find the network rules.

Damn, look at this. Said I wasn’t going to talk as much poker and here I am doing it on my 3rd post back. Of course discussing online poker is a lot easier for me as I can type while playing rather than trying to remember my live sessions after I get back from AC. So we wind up boring you about poker once again and it ain’t really about decent money either. Oh well, Thanks for the listen anyhow.

Should I open a library

Been spending the last couple weeks cataloging the personal library. Something I’ve been wanting to do for years and occasionally actually started but never continued with. Lets face it data entry is boring as hell but with time on my hands I decided to use such time to start practice working with Access, when I thought I might still be able to reenter the IT world, and to try and get a listing of my books as I lose track of what I have at times. I also hope to use it as a stepping stone to inventorying all items of value in the house in case of disaster striking the premises. My movie collection is almost as big as my book one though not as valuable. Need to design some new tables and forms for that though,

Always been a reader and discovered the world of paperbacks in a big way in my high school years. Still have a lot of those books around, though a number of them wound up destroyed during a move back home after college. In college I discovered that hardbacks last longer and book club editions weren’t that expensive. Somewhere along the line though I started collecting and found out that book club editions or BCE as they can be termed don’t really have much value except as reading material, so I moved into acquiring American first editions of the authors I liked, mainly in sf and mystery. All this is to explain the cataloging job. One, I have a lot of books and two, I need to keep track because I don’t really need to spend money on copies of something that is already in the collection or, if I am going to buy another copy, to make sure it is an upgrade to the one I have. Hence my brand new database and my project.

So far I’ve entered 380 books and haven’t really even started on the shelves yet. These are the ones just lying around in the den or the living room or wherever. The bedroom has yielded over 100 volumes alone. When the weather breaks and allows me to enter and sort through my shed I know there are 3-4 Rubbermaid containers out there containing paperbacks. Ever since the debacle of my return from college I no longer use cardboard to store books. Looking at some of the prices my old paperbacks from back in my high school days are fetching these days (no remarks about sheer age adding to the value either) that episode cost me a pretty penny in investment value in addition to the reading material. Not that I ever thought in terms of paperbacks becoming worth money. Just found that out as I was cataloging and decided to see what it would take to replace some missing volumes in the series I once collected. Found one sf/fantasy series I used to read in high school and college selling for $800 to $1000 for the complete 26 book set in firsts. This for a bunch of paperbacks that cost from $.75 to $2.95 when they came out. Guess what I’m sitting on? Yup, all 26 of them, first printings and most in mint condition. Problem is can I bear to part with them? Collectors just hate to sell unless it’s a duplicate copy of something.

Another reason for the cataloging is that I have been thinking of opening up an e store dealing in books. As I’m not going to be able to return to work in the foreseeable future, if ever, I’m going to need something to give me some income so it’s either enhance my poker skills tremendously or think of something else. Since books and computers are the things I know best the e store seems to be the path to investigate. Anyone with any knowledge or insights to this endeavor please feel free to comment. Any and all advice highly appreciated. We’ll see how this works out. Actually owning a bookstore always had been a dream of mine but in those days it was the B&M type. Who knows, there is still a chance. Would love to have something to pass on to my daughter as her love of books rivals mine.

Speaking of books and my daughter, I was digging around in an old magazine rack last night and came across a book whose disappearance has puzzled me for at least 10 years. It’s a copy of H. Beam Piper’s The Fuzzy Papers that I got through the Science Fiction Book Club way back in my college years. I have always enjoyed Piper’s work and I went looking for this one way back when. It interested me at the time as it works on many levels. It’s a nice, good read which is the main thing. Piper was a good story teller and his tales are good even if you don’t like material with messages in them. It can be cute enough for kids, in fact I think they have brought out an illustrated kid’s version of the story. I mean with a character called Little Fuzzy with all its connotations how can it not appeal to kids? This is the reason I went searching for it years ago. I came across the dust jacket lying in a drawer and thought that it would have been an interesting story to read to my daughter when she was younger. I went searching, figuring that book had to be somewhere but never could find it even though I would go looking every couple of months. Finally it works on the adult level of being a story involving an issue that might not be exactly black and white and that how one sees something may depend entirely on where one is standing and how shifting one’s viewpoint can help understand where the other guy is coming from and possibly reach an accord with them rather than bashing each other’s brains out. Daughter is now too old to sit in my lap and have me read to her but hopefully she’ll read and enjoy it on her own now that I’ve unearthed it. Now I just have to figure out where I put the damned dust jacket.

Well we’ve gotten wordy as usual but we have nothing but time on our hands these days so it don’t bother me and hope it doesn’t bother you either. Of course if it does you’ll probably just ignore me anyway. Enjoy or not but Thanks for the visit

What the hell

Hello folks, been awhile. Number of issues have kept me away and may do so again but some folks persuaded me to write again so I thought I might try. We’ll see what happens.

Snowing out there right now, it’s been that kind of winter, and the snow has just highlighted one of the reasons I’ve been gone. It just rubs my face in to the fact I fell helpless at times. Though I’ve recovered some use of my arm after the stroke it’s still weaker than I thought it would be now. Add in some lingering weakness in my leg and just some general all around lousy conditioning thanks to a couple of other problems that have kept me from the gym the last few months and I can’t do a frikkin thing about all this snow on the ground. Hell I can’t even lace up my boots properly without a struggle. While never the most ambitious of persons I never had to rely on others to do my work for me. It’s enough to drive anyone into a blue funk. We’ll see if we can keep from diving back in.

Speaking of work I finally convinced myself that I wasn’t going to make it back into the workforce in any foreseeable future. I knew I was out of back up options due to the fact I can’t really walk for more than a block at one time, and still need my cane, nor even stand up for any extended period. Always thought that I could get myself back in the IT field however, no great need for physical labor there as long as you can get someone to carry the equipment when needed. My hand however, has decided to disabuse me of those notions. When I first started getting the use of it back it came along so fast that I thought that I’d be up and running by January. Last January that is. Then I figured maybe by October that made it a year. Well, October has come and gone and I’m still typing one handed. Don’t get me wrong, it has improved, slowly, but it’s still not nimble enough to work a keyboard the way it needs to be massaged nor to work with the small bits and connectors that make up the hardware of a computer. Adding insult to injury my arthritis, a bane for over 30 years, has finally decided to start playing hell with my good hand. Basically what all this adds up to is that I finally let myself be convinced to file for disability. It’s not something I really wanted to do. Not only does the government put you through hell, or so I’m told, to qualify but it forces on you a realization that you are no longer a productive member of society. You can’t even support yourself let alone those that depend on you. You now depend on others. . Unemployment was bad enough. There’s always the feeling that you’ll get back in there on day, just need a break. Disability is permanent. It’s a scary feeling.

So, we’re back and we’ll see where it goes. Will probably be less poker discussed, though still some, as when I’m in poker playing moods I kind of forget about other things and so I can never really get to the keyboard while things are fresh in my memory. Probably be more on books, movies, my doings in the garden (right now I have two willow trees that I forgot to get in the ground last fall growing in pots in my basement) and other assorted things. I am reading at a greater rate than I had been as the arm has gotten strong enough to hold up a hardback for a decent length of time though nothing compared to my former days. Turning pages can still be a bitch though with my recalcitrant fingers. I may have to go looking for my old keyboards also for my desktop computers as the split boards I have come to love so much over the last few years just aren’t made for one handed work. Well it feels good to be back, now at least, and we’ll try and keep you informed of my trials and tribulations with good old Uncle as I wind my way through the disability tango.

Thanks for those of you who have come back to read this and Thanks to those of you who encouraged me to return.

Mini vacation

The combination of my daughter finally coming for a summer visit and the fact my brother got us a room for a few days at the Shore got my interest level a bit elevated and me back at the poker tables. My father had been telling me that the Taj had been offering him a couple of nights and reminding him he had $78 in comps and since he hadn’t been going to AC told me he would let me use them as we both have the same name but even that hadn’t been able to get my ass in gear to do anything. Getting things with my daughter’s visit straightened out and a few days at the Shore with the family got me moving however. Plans were to head down Sunday night after my brother got off work but I decided to head down in my own car earlier figuring to play a little poker before we met at the hotel. My plans were beach during the day, poker at night though things didn’t quite work out that way. Spent the drive down talking to my daughter. Driving is a great time to talk to her. Gives her a couple hours to yak without interruption. Bluetooth headphones are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

So I get to Ballys and on a $1-3 NL table and get a call, it’s the family, they are on the road 3 hours earlier than scheduled. There goes my afternoon of poker; I now have about 90 min to 2 hours. It was an insignificant table, no really big stacks, no really notable style of play. Given some time I think I could probably have bled a few bucks out of it as it suited my style, mostly post flop play with a lot of loose calls to average sized bets post but folding to any real aggression. It was grinder’s heaven. Unfortunately time is what I didn’t have and when I left about 2 hours later I was about even, maybe down a few dollars. Not a notable afternoon. Only hand that sticks out is one I didn’t play because of a mistake. Last hand I played I was sitting OTB with a medium ace, suited, and decided that if it limped to me I was going to play it for about a 3-4xs raise. Unfortunately as it turned out a guy in mid position threw in 3 reds instead of 3 whites as if by accident and the dealer called it his bet and it had to stand. I was tempted to play because I didn’t think he was doing an acting job but decided not to because that weak ace could get me into trouble if he actually was so I folded and waited to color up as I planned to return later that weekend so easier to get chips rather than cash. As it turned out I would have hit nut flush on the flop and the accidental raiser hit top 2. Probably would have made a few bucks on that hand. As I later told him his accident probably saved him a few bucks he said it was an accident and as he played a J-9 off and given how he was playing I was inclined to believe him. Ah well, such is poker, a vast wasteland of missed opportunities. So I colored up and went to meet the family at the hotel.

Get to the hotel and the family was getting cleaned up and planning their evening. Plan was to go to the Taj and eat there using Dad’s comps up and then spend a few hours at the casino. Everyone expects me to take my own car as I’m usually out to the wee hours at the poker tables but I surprise them as I want to do some drinking plus they are talking about an early beach trip the next day and I figure some sun couldn’t hurt. So we head over to Taj and everyone stops to check their comps but me. Last time I was in Taj poker comps didn’t show up on the kiosks, you had to check in the poker room. Who knows what I have anyway as I hardly ever used them except for an occasional meal in the snack bar. Note, if anyone ever goes to the Taj the poker room snack bar has the best food in the place. It ain’t fancy but what they serve is cooked fresh and served hot, can’t beat it. So while they are checking the comps I hear Dad arguing with Mom and while me, the brother and nephew start looking for a place to eat we see the folks headed down on the escalator. WTF, don’t tell me they can’t refrain from hitting the casino before food. When they come back we find out that Dad had no comps on his card and the card center said, nope, got no record of any and Dad’s getting hot. While we decide on the place to eat, we decide on the place right next to us called Plate, my nephew chimes in that maybe the comps were mine. I never thought about it because, as a poker player, I never get mailings from the casinos. That’s for slots players, or was obviously, because I head down to the poker room and ask if there are any comps on my card. Yes I’m told, $78. Bingo! All month my father has been offering me what was rightfully mine to begin with. May have to get those names changed for the mailing list if poker players are going to get come ons. Cripes, I actually had a room offer and didn’t use it. 2 nites at that. So I head back upstairs and meet everyone at the restaurant and tell them “yup, my comps” so it looks like dinner is on me. As I said we were at a place called Plate and I had a bad feeling looking at the table settings and menus. I got the impression that trying to create an impression through fancy items and presentation was more important than the food itself. As far as I was concerned the impression was right. I ordered something called Not Quite Surf and Turf, supposedly a crab cake and a chopped steak made from Kobe beef. Not really what I was looking for that night but none of their other selections really moved me. Could have really gone for a good salad on the order of a Chef’s or something with chicken in it but the salads listed were all some variation of Caesar, had seafood in them and all were made with the fancy ass greens that remind me of weeds in my front lawn so that idea went down the drain. Ordered my chopped steak medium rare and started in on the bread they brought. That gave me some hope as it was sourdough and tasty. The drink wasn’t bad either. It only raised my hopes just to dash them totally. The meal came and it wound up worse than I feared. The crab cake was reasonably sized but covered in, and surrounded by, corn. No tartar sauce apparent. The “chopped Kobe steak” was no bigger than the crab cake, about the size and shape of one of my mother’s homemade homburgs. Overall mom’s burgers were better First; it was overcooked, well done instead of medium rare. Second I always thought Kobe beef was exceptionally fatty to make it tender. This thing was dry as dust, no juice whatsoever. Chopped Kobe steak didn’t have the flavor of a BK burger. Yes I could probably have complained about the well done but I waited long enough for that meal that I wasn’t going to wait longer while they tried to fix it. My poker night was going to be short enough since I wasn’t driving. I also tried some of the corn surrounding the crab cake and it was cold. Not cold as in it lost temp but cold as in just out of the fridge so obviously not a veggie but some sort of presentation dressing for the crab cake. It sucked and the crab cake not much better. While almost no filler it had a very fishy taste to it. I had some crab imperial the next night and it didn’t have half the strong taste that this thing did. All in all Plate is not a place I’m recommending to anyone even though I was later told, at the poker table, that they serve a pretty good breakfast. I don’t mind buying dinner but I do wish I could enjoy it when I do.

So dinners over and I head to the poker table and they have a seat at a 3-6 open so I head there. Bally’s rarely has 3-6, just 2-4 or 1-3 NL. 3-6 and 4-8 are my comfort zones. I’m a better limit than NL player and the play at those games is a bit better than that at 2-4 tables. Right away I realize what I’ve been missing. The players here are here to play poker, not kill time and hope to hit the bad beat. The words raise and reraise are not strangers to them. Betting rounds are getting capped, something I have seen rarely in limit at Ballys. Don’t get me wrong, there re your share of donkeys at the table but you don’t have 8 to the flop, increasing the chances of suckouts on the good players plus the donkeys are calling the 3 and 4 bets which means that your monsters are getting paid off. You can make up in a good hand all those flops you might miss with A-K or all those turn flushes that crack your straight or pp aces. When people do know more than call your raise when they have a strong hand the pots never get strong enough when you do get that nut flush or full boat to make up for all the bad beats. But when people are willing to reraise you figuring their flush is good even with the paired board then your night can be worthwhile. Sorry to say mine really wasn’t as there was one guy who had my number, and everyone else’s. That deck just up and smacked him in the chops. He’s an ATM when he’s off, he sees 90% of flops and chases down 8 hi flushes but when it’s favorable to him, as that night, there is no stopping him. Once I thought I was going to get paid off when I flopped trip Ks and turned quads and he was calling me down and the river put the potential flush out there but he was straight chasing instead and folded on the river. Ah well. As it was I wound up playing 3-4 hours and won $6. I was down about $100 early thanks to him but after he left I was able to come back and might have actually turned a bit of profit if the ride home wasn’t ready to pull out. But it was and I had to leave just as things were getting good. On a bad note when I got back to the hotel I found all the walking around had torn the skin off my toe on my left foot. It’s happened before and I actually have a kit I’ve prepared to take care of it but of course it’s been awhile since I did it so I didn’t pack the kit this trip. Wound up making my day at the beach screwed up but that’s for later.

Thank you for your time and attention. More later, I hope

Alive, maybe, sort of, hopefully

Haven’t been too many entries lately, in fact none for over a month. It’s kind of hard to write when you feel everything is useless anyway. You lose interest when you can’t even tell what day is which without really thinking about it and no matter what you do things never seem to improve and the ground just keeps crumbling beneath your feet. You start to lose interest in everything and when you don’t even feel like playing poker you know you have hit rock bottom and writing is the last thing on your mind. If this sounds like the makings of a pity party with yours truly as the guest of honor you can fucking forget it. Just an explanation as to why there haven’t been any words of wisdom from this direction lately. No idle ramblings or useless verbiage either so you probably consider yourself blessed. I also apologize because while my writing has been scarce so has my reading and so I have no idea how things are going with the rest of you out there, have som catching up to do. Hope everyone is well and won lots of money during the WSOP.

Part of the reason I have felt in a blue funk is that I have not seen my daughter since Easter and and my anticipation in seeing her for the summer got dashed due to a combination of circumstances and miscommunications. It was just the cherry on top of a pile of circumstances that were acting as the hammer with me as nail. For those interested the stroke recovery seems to still be progressing albeit very slowly. Another obstacle seems to have arisen however. For some reason my right leg has decided it does not wish to work according to the manual. Walking more than 50 feet brings shooting pains down the leg from butt to ankle. Part of it probably due to the excess weight I’m carrying around, more excess than the usual excess I have but only partly. Again the problem is, like the stroke, they can’t figure out the problem. One doctor thinks it might be circulatory while another says that, while possible, she’s getting strong pulses in my ankles and feet which makes that unlikely. Her opinion is that it’s nerve related and could be a spreading of my arthritis to my lower back. Anyway they want me to schedule a whole new series of tests and x-rays to try and get an idea of what is going on. I’m beginning to feel like one of those cheap, off brand devices where you can’t find a manual and no one knows what is wrong when it doesn’t work let alone how to fix it.

It’s funny. One of the reasons I’m coming out of my funk is that I finally get to see my daughter. I say funny because, while giving me a lift and making me start take some interest again, her visit is going to kill any poker playing until after Labor Day. Great, I get an interest in the game again and now can’t indulge. Un-freaking-real. No matter, the Scoot is finally getting down here and I anticipate a lot of pool time. She’s a water rat and social butterfly and loves going to Y to swim and play with the other kids. May even be able to get some gym time in before the pool opens. My leg and general malaise has kept me from the gym over the last month or two. Docs are bitching at me but didn’t really give a damn. You know, I never thought I would want to get back to work but right now it’s killing me that I’m not at a desk somewhere. Hell, I could even get back into loading trucks again though that ain’t going to happen anytime soon. Right now though the forced unemployment works out as it gives me time with my daughter. Only problem is that I have to make a 5-6 hour trip to go pick her up in upstate NY because she really, really, really wants me to see her in her play. Practices of which are one of the reasons she hasn’t made it down until now. The drive isn’t the problem even though the only motel in the area is a fleabag. The problem is the play is Peter Pan and I hate Peter Pan. Ahh, the things I do for my daughter. The only other problem is that it looks like no Shore trip this year. While my daughter is a bigger fan of chlorine rather than salt, another trait she shares with her father, she does enjoy a trip to the beach and a day on the boardwalk. Trying to find a way to get a couple of days down there but it ain’t looking good. My cousin has a house for a week and told us we were welcome but that week happens to be the week of Peter Pan. Damn that green clad rugrat, another reason to dislike that play. Oh well, with the impending visit of my daughter my attitude is brightening and hopefully I can keep it out of the gutter after she leaves. Some work, even something part time for awhile wouldn’t hurt. So would a fix on this damned leg. We’ll see. Anyway my daughter has already paid dividends for both her and me. Me because of my renewed interest in doing things. Her because, in addition to her new game for her Wii that I promised her after my nice day at Ballys a month or so ago, my renewed interest in poker led me down to AC yesterday and I spent the 2 hour drive talking to her. She loves those drives as she can talk my ear off and knows she has all that time and somewhere along the way she got a commitment to a new Webkinz if Dad had a good day. Well it wasn’t a great day, and looked like it was going to be miserable one when I got coolered for most of my buy in within 5 min at the table, nut flush against straight flush but we came back enough to be able to put a Webkinz or two on the shopping list. Who knows, I may even get a poker trip in while my daughter is down. She informed me on that drive that she found a place in an AC casino that sold all kinds of Webkinsz. She wondered why a casino would have Webkinz. Kind of makes the birds and the bees seem easy.

OK, if anyone out there actually found this after so long a break and if they are still awake after all the rambling I appreciate your attention for a few minutes. Thank You and hopefully I can keep my attention span on life focused for awhile and I’ll see you later.