Time Moves Slow Sometimes

I’m sitting in the Albuquerque Airport waiting for my delayed flight. I actually got here on time last night but I can’t say the same for two others who were going to meet us here. The had to make an emergency landing in Lubbock Texas because an engine was over heating. One of the guys fell asleep during the flight and woke up to flashing lights and emergency vehicles. Not the way I would like to be woken up.

Tonight I’ll try to play some poker by playing a MTT or two. It is also Mookie night so maybe I’ll play put with flying to the LA area and the time delay it will be hard to do.

That’s about it for today. Have a great day.

I'm So on Tilt it Sucks

I’ve had two mantras that have influenced my work/home life. Do not live for my house and do not live for my job. I will do the necessary things around the house like mowing the lawn and any mechanical thing that I am able to do but I don’t want every last dollar to go into the house payment. I’ve known many people who have this wonderful house that they can’t put furniture in because they are flat broke. I also don’t want a job that runs my life and causes me to work on the weekends or put in 70 hours work weeks. I enjoy the time I have with my family and together we have to much going on for me to take on a job that requires much more than 45 hours of my time.

At 2:30 PM ON Friday I got a call from one of our customers. Actually, this was a huge customer and was the main reason I was hired. So their purchasing manager asks me a few questions about the product he is looking for and I tell him the truth…I know we made some stuff for him but I don’t know what we made. My job is to make sure it passes all specs, but I’m not the scheduler. I transferred him to his customer service person and went to find out if we made the product he was looking for. I found the supervisor and he says we made zero.

Now this isn’t the answer I was hoping for and I knew he was ready to chew my ass even though it isn’t truly my responsibility. So I hurried to the customer service area and the agent said he wanted to talk to me. I told her to forward the call to the production manager and headed to his office.

A week before we had a conference call with this customer and agreed to have 25 parts made by the last Friday. Apparently, the production manager didn’t know this because he was surprised when I brought it up just before his phone rang. I don’t understand why because customer service should have relayed the information to him. Anyway, when we got on the phone he had no response for the customer. Thinking fast I responded that we’ll get the product to him on Monday morning so that we don’t shut them down. Our customer was very upset but they needed product and the production manager didn’t want to make a commitment.

Together the production manager and I devise a plan that involved mandatory maintenance done on Saturday followed by an early work day on Sunday. I hate to work weekends but it was absolutely necessary with the extreme screw up so I was ready to do my share.

Saturday I’m on the phone all day long as we work through the maintenance issue and I finally take my last phone call at around 7 pm. The funny part of all this is that the production manager is in charge of maintenance but left at 10:30 am because he had plans to go to Chicago. I have nothing to do with maintenance but yet I stayed involved all day long.

Sunday morning came and we had a brief meeting at 7 am to set up the days work. We all had our jobs and we progressed through the day. At 1:30 he left with 30% of the product done while 4 of stayed and finished the job. Well, I did leave for home around 7 pm just before everything was finished but that only involved loading things into the bosses SUV so he could catch a flight to New Mexico to drop the stuff off.

“What we have here is a failure to communicate”($5 to the person who IM’s the name of the movie with that line by 10am Monday morning). The customer service agent didn’t forward the info to the manager and the manager didn’t bother to ask what the priorities were. The worst part is that if we lose this customer there is no longer a need for me. I was hired because they required things I have to offer in the quality management field. They also don’t need a production manager because there wont be enough work to justify the position. A supervisor could do the job. The company would continue on as a distributor but the production part of the company would slowly fade away into oblivion.

I’m so on job tilt right now. The kicker is that I was going to this customer’s plant on Wednesday this week. I’m expecting to get my ass chewed out and will probably have to take my kneepads because I’ll have to suck the whole place off to get back in their good graces. So as I protected my job, I didn’t hang the production manager out to dry but I did have a long discussion about the lack of communication between production and customer service. This incident was avoidable but necessary to improve the company as a whole. Hopefully we can learn from the mistake and grow.

I Need to Chill

The frustrations of life are beginning to wear me down. The repeating cycle of bad beats has a tendency to change a person perspective and influence what they are really all about. I fit squarely into the middle of this obvious cycle of life.

How many times can you be beat down before you have to come up fighting?

I just have to remember that this is the first day of the rest of my life and quit being so up tight.

Confucius Says.

Confucius Says.


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Virginity like bubble, one prick, all gone.

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Man who run in front of car get tired.

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Man who run behind car get exhausted.

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Man with hand in pocket feel cocky all day.

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Foolish man give wife grand piano, wise man give wife upright organ.

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Man who walk through airport turnstile sideways going to Bangkok .

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Man with one chopstick go hungry.

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Man who scratch ass should not bite fingernails.

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Man who eat many prunes get good run for money.

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Baseball is wrong: man with four balls cannot walk.

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Panties not best thing on earth! But next to best thing on earth.

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War does not determine who is right, war determine who is left.

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Wife who put husband in doghouse soon find him in cat house.

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Man who fight with wife all day get no piece at night.

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It take many nails to build crib, but one screw to fill it.

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Man who drive like hell, bound to get there.

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Man who stand on toilet is high on pot.

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Man who live in glass house should change clothes in basement.

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Man who fish in other man's well often catch crabs.

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Crowded elevator smell different to midget.

Playing Online

As an American poker player that plays online, any place that gives me information on places to play and ways to deposit gets my attention. US Poker Online is just that type of site.

One of the things I like about this site is the link for US Poker Rooms. They list many of the site that allow US players, though Ultimate Bet isn’t listed. There are also links to reviews so you can find the site that is best for you. And if bonus hunting is what you like to do the check out the list for sign up bonuses so you can chase to your hearts content. They also list the deposit options for each site so you can compare and pick the best one for you.

In this age of poker Pay Pal has been no existent for the most part but check out their link for Paypal Poker. The list is small with only 5 listed but it shows there is an alternative. The only real draw back is that it doesn’t work for US players. So for me it isn’t an option but for many others it works fine.

And finally, for those Mac users out there, there is a list of Mac compatible sites to choose from.

So, as you can see, there are many useful things for you on US Poker Online. Give them a try for your online poker needs.

This was a paid review.

Well

Not much to post today. It was an uneventful evening other then having three games going on. A funny story with one game was when the coach from the other team asked how many inning our pitcher had thrown. The league says 3 innings per game and this question and it was during her 3rd inning. Our response was 3 and she said ”We’ll she’s throwing really hard and the girls from our team are scarred.” Good you douche bag. She is one of those coaches that has to have her kids play with her best friends kids. Of course those kids are three of maybe six good pitchers in the whole league. I don’t want to here you complain about anything.

Anyway, all three kids played well and we get to have tonight off for a change. I’m sure I’ll have something to do when I get home.

Getting your Butt Kicked

No poker content what so ever.

The girls got their butts kick last night. Actually, they had their asses handed to them. It started off well when the lead off hitter knocked a triple over the right fielders head. The next girl grounded out but knocked in a run for an early lead. Softball E. walked and that just about ended the day. They didn’t give her a chance to steal 2nd base and the next girl grounded out to 1st base. If they let her steal she would have been on third. The pitcher then threw a wild pitch and she would have scored. Instead the inning was over after another ground out.

They gave up 2 runs during the bottom half of the inning after making a couple of errors. In the top of the 2nd inning they had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out. The coach sends the runners, both slow, and the lead runner is thrown out. Now there are two outs and a runner on second. Next girl walks so instead of the bases loaded and 1 out we have 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. Another wild pitch moves the runners up but the inning ends with a strike out.

The bottom of the 2nd saw and error by the center fielder when she tried to throw a runner out at first base. The next player bunts and the 2nd baseman doesn’t cover 1st. A walk loads the bases and then wham…a shot to left center field that makes it to the fence. The center fielder misses the cut off to give up 4 runs after all is said and done. They get out of the inning trailing 6-1.

Rinse and repeat for the rest of the game. After 2 innings the could have been tied, winning by 1 or behind by 1 but life and competition didn’t treat them well.

Softball E. played well. She pitched one inning and after a shaky start came back and threw a lot of strikes. She was pissed at the poor play and you could see it in the velocity of her pitches. She was throwing harder then I’ve seen her throw before. In the end they lost 15-3 in a game that could have been much closer.

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I conducted another interview today. This guy was full of energy but had no CAD experience. Considering this position needs to work with CAD files I don’t think it will work. From what I’ve seen so far, most of the applicants are over qualified and thus won’t come work for us because we don’t pay well. I think I have an interview every day this week with people who don’t have what we are looking for. A sound use of my time.

Freedom

An evening of freedom at the PE’s house. No games for a change but I did spend some time looking up information on The Great Lakes for Speedy E’s report that is due Thursday. We got it finished just in time for me to watch the Cubs game.

That was about it for me last night.

Tonight we have 2 games at the same time and I’m suppose to be coaching both of them. I think I’ll start with one and finish with the other. All I really have to do for Speedy E’s game is make the line-up. My other coaches can take over for me if I have to leave. I’m not really required to do much for Softball E’s team. I’m the pitching instructor and first base coach and it is understood that I won’t be there all the time.

It looks like I may be able to play the Mookie tonight if we can get home in time. It will be close because we are going out after the game for a bit of ice cream but I should be home in time. Regardless, you should play the Mookie on Full Tilt at 9:00 central time. The password is vegas1 and it will earn you the chance to be beat by donkey bloggers. There is also a 2nd chance event at 10:30 so you have a wonderful opportunity to mix it up with want to be poker players like my self.

Have a great day.

7 Things Just for You

Surf tagged the world with the meme that has been going around so I’ll step up and do my part.

1) All of my children were conceived while I was on a softball trip. Softball Enthusiast began her existence while I was playing in Decatur Illinois. I wont go into the details but my wife and I were early in our marriage and still took every chance we to do the bump. Speedy Enthusiast was conceived at the NAFA World Series In Salt Lake City. If I could pin it down to a moment in time it would have been while we were watching TV, waiting to head to the mountains with another couple. And Baseball Enthusiast while not officially being conceived during the trip was basically created while attending the AAU World Series at Disney World. It really happened during the build up for the trip but it was close enough for us to say we was made during the trip.

2) I spent one hour of my life in jail for driving on a suspended license. When I first got my license I got a ticket for doing 35 MPH in a 30 MPH zone. I didn’t have the money to pay for the ticket so eventually I had a warrant for my arrest sitting out in the police world. After being informed of my license being suspended I paid the ticket and thought it was over. 3 years later I got pulled over on my way to work and got hauled to the Aurora police station. I still had the recite but it didn’t matter to my dad who had to bail me out of jail. As it turns out, I needed to send $15 to the state to have my driving privileges reinstated. I sent the money down state and got the reinstatement but the court said they had to charge me with something so I now have a petty offense on my record. It is a misdemeanor so I can vote and own a gun.

3) On my 22nd birthday I was playing in a softball tourney in Iowa with a bunch of guy in their late 30s and early 40s. They got me hammered and poured me back into the hotel room around 3 am to get some sleep before the 8 am game the next day. At some point in the middle of the night I woke with the urge to pee. Someone was in the bathroom so I found a chair in the corner of the room and used it for a urinal. I didn’t really know I was doing until the guy sleeping next to the chair started yelling at me. I guess he didn’t like getting splashed in the face with my urine.

4) I lost my virginity in my father’s truck on Jeter Rd. in rural Big Rock, Illinois. I had asked my burnout stepsister to hook me up and she came through. My prerequisites were that she had to be cute and she had to be easy. She was both and we headed to a party a friend of mine was having. So after the 30 seconds of lust was over, we headed back to the party to find my mom and my friends mom sitting in the kitchen. They knew the party was going on and had come back to see how things were going. It wasn’t a big deal. Not until my buddy threw me under the bus and told my mom I had just gotten laid. The next day my mom shows up at my dad’s house and we have a discussion on sex and the responsibilities we have in life. I denied the whole incident say that my buddy was just trying to keep the focus off of himself and his cherry busting moment he also had that night. To this day, I won’t tell my mom that I lied.

5) I was a band geek in high school and proud of it. I played the clarinet for 7 years and quit playing my senior year because band got in the way of accounting class and my girlfriend who was in accounting. In reality band was an easy A and it was dumb to quit when I did. I did have a lot of fun and we took some cool trips to various places including one trip to Detroit my sophomore year. To this day I will still pull my clarinet out of the case and see if I remember how to play.

6) For all the sports and activities I’ve done in my life I’ve never officially broken a bone in my body. There was a couple of time when I may have broken a finger, like when I hit a mailbox with my hand at 40 MPH trying to hit the mailbox with a beer bottle. The other time was during soccer when I slipped on the astro turf and my little finger swelled up. I just taped it up and had friends open my beer bottles for a week. Anyway, I have had a separated shoulder, knee surgery, surgery on the other shoulder and more sprained wrists and ankles then I can count. Just no broken bones.

7) One of the most painful experiences in my life involved me and an enlarged prostrate. One morning I woke up and hit the bathroom like any other day. The difference this day was the pain I felt when I took a leak. There is no way to describe the amount of pain I felt other then to stay I though someone stabbed me with a knife. I met with my doctor later in the day and by the end of the next day, the pain was all but forgotten. That is until the medication ran out. I eventually changed doctors and received the right prescription for my ailment and have been pain free ever after. The only bad part was that I had to get my prostate check and that involves a rubber glove, ky-gel and no dinner after then intrusion. All I got was a paper towel and a bill for services rendered.

Paella Marinera

I had no time for poker last night as I was having dinner with some customers at a Spanish restaurant. I was home in time to play the Mookie but I hadn’t seen the family all day and thus poker was not important. Sorry all but my family is more important then you. Anyway, the dinner was excellent consisting of Paella Marinera which is seafood with rice and various veggies mixed together and served family style. It was outstanding. The best part was it didn’t cost me a thing to try something new because it was a business dinner. +EV for sure but I can’t say that for the Mookie.

I have a meeting tonight so Prolly no poker again but maybe Friday. No games to go to and no practices that I know of so Friday should work. Anyway, That’s all today. I just got finished with an all day meeting and have a little time to catch up on work so I must do that.

Have a great day.

Los Angles and Sickness

I guess I missed a lot while I was gone. I mean waffles won a blogger event so hell must have frozen over. Anyway, my trip to LA was uneventful other then the 2 ½ hour delay because of some issues with the jet. Then you add the 50-year-old women sitting next to me who wouldn’t stop talking. I eventually put on my headphones and listened to music to avoid her rambling. I ended up getting home around 11 pm, tired and a little under the weather.

Saturday was a day of practice for Speedy Enthusiast followed by a delayed Easter dinner for all my wife’s relatives. By the time we got to the in-laws house around 12:30, I was feeling terrible with a fever and no appetite. I spent the whole time sitting in the living room trying to fall asleep. Later in the afternoon, Softball Enthusiast had a practice game so we headed to the ball park for some softball fun. Now it’s almost 80 degrees but I’m cold and end up with a blanket before the end of the game. I shivered uncontrolled for the last inning as my body tried to warm up.

Sunday wasn’t much better. I took a couple of Advil in the morning as I was walking out the door to go to Softball Enthusiast tourney. It helped some but I wore a jacket for much of the day. The girls played well and went undefeated in three games so it was very good day for ball. My daughter threw well. She had 10 strikeouts in 5 innings of work and threw the ball stupid hard. I’m not sure how hard she was throwing but it was the hardest I’ve seen her throw.

That brings today and trying to deal with the continued sickness that has attacked me. I have that clammy feeling as my body goes from slight fever to sweating it out. I want to crawl into my bed and pass out. I’ve dozed off a few times already today and may take a nap at lunch.

I have a couple of reviews to write so I’ll try to get them done tonight.

Have a better day then me.

Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes, Knees and Toes

Speedy Enthusiast’s shoulder must be feeling better. Sunday she was playing waffle ball in the back yard and last night she practice and was throwing the ball without to much trouble so I is good. After practice she said it hurt a little but I think its just some carryover from when she injured it two weeks ago. It must be nice to be young and to heal fast. Overall it was a good practice because I think we will have a few girls who will be able to throw strikes and a solid infield to throw out runners.

Softball Enthusiast had practice for her in-house team as well last night and it went ok. There is a huge difference in the talent level of the players who are playing travel ball and the ones who don’t. I think it will be good for her to get some pitching in but other then that it will be a challenge. Only one other girl has played on her in-house team and the rest of the players are well behind. The other coach and I have a lot of work in front of us to bring this team together.

The sad part of this is that my son had to endure sitting through 2 practices back to back. This wouldn’t have been so bad if it wasn’t so cold but he is a trooper and got through it mostly unscathed. He did have an accident just before then end of practice when he didn’t get to the bathroom in time but we didn’t tell anybody. And wet pants in cold weather id never good so it worked out well that practice was over.

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Since this is story-telling week, I will bring another episode of stupid things in the Poker Enthusiast life.

You remember the first time you got drunk. I’m not talking about a good buzz or getting a little goofy but when you drank so much your head was spinning. (Scooby Doo intro inserted here)

October my junior year was an interesting time. I wanted to be part off the in crowd and was for the most part. It was soccer season and soccer players went out on Friday and Saturday nights. We drank and got stupid because we could and it was expected. This Friday night was no different.


It started with my buddy Bill who’s mom just happened to buy us a couple of 15 packs of Stroh’s Beer. Stroh’s was the first to offer the extra 3 beers when buying a 12-pack and lord knows that 2 high school kids couldn’t get by on only 12 beers.

We take off from my house and start driving around at about 6 PM. By 6:30 we find the road party and start drinking like fish and having a good time. We’re luck enough to have about 2 dozen cars sitting on the old gravel road filled with plenty of friends just having a good time. By 8:30 my 15 pack is done.

I really don’t remember drink all of those beers and I probably didn’t. But one thing for sure is that however many I had was to many. Bill made me get in the car because he had to pour me home. On the trip down the road I asked him to stop so I could take a leak. I started to run back to the party and fell right on my face. This was a clear indication that it was time to go home so I complied to his wish.

When I got home my mother was glad to see me. A normal Friday night was much later then this so being home at 9 was a nice change. I sat in one of the chairs in the living room and talked about the evening. As we were talking I was leaning on my right hand on the arm of the chair. I was felling dizzy and I actually fell left while leaning right. With all the dexterity I had left I managed to catch my self and make a smooth move, saving grace, and just switched the hand and side I was leaning on. It was obvious she hadn’t caught my slip because I’m way to smart to be caught.

She asked if I had been drink and of course I couldn’t lie. I had a couple of beers just to be social. But now it’s time for bed.

Being that I had never been through this before I had no idea what was to come. As I climbed into bed and laid my head on the pillow I knew I was in trouble. The room was moving, the bed was tilting and I couldn’t tell which way was up or down. I rolled over on my side and hurled my guts out all over the side of my bed and floor. The I rolled back over and tried to fall asleep.

My mother came up and dragged me into the bathroom. The ice cold floor felt like heaven in my delirium and as I drifted off into an alcohol induced semi coma, I thought the last thing I would ever do again was drink.

When the train that went by our house every morning blew it’s horn at 6:00 am, I peeled open my eyes to a sunburst of pain and agony that must mean death. Crawling across the floor was harder then any 2 a day practice I’d ever gone through and I slowly made my way back to my bedroom. My mattress was laying on the ground, cleaned up by my wonderful mother, so I climbed on top and covered my head with my comforter that I somehow missed the night before. But the lingering smell of alcohol induced vomit was still in the air so I made my way down stairs to the couch to die.

When my mom got up in the morning she didn’t ride me to hard. All she required was for me to take the mattress outside to air out and to get ready for my game.

We were playing the 6th rated team in the state at 2:00 and I felt like crap.

Around 10:00 I made my way back up stairs to get the mattress outside. It took me an hour but I got it done so I prepared for the game with my first hangover in my pocket and headed to the field.

Coach was pissed. Not just at me but the whole team. It seems that all but 2 guys were nursing hangovers of various levels and we were going to pay on Monday. I had the privilege to take the brunt of his wrath and was benched at the start of the game. I played goal keeper so this meant I wouldn’t see any time unless the other keeper got hurt or sucked so bad he had to put me in. I ended up playing one of the best games I’ve ever played.

After the first quarter we were down 4-0. Coach screamed from the other end of the bench and I ran into the game. I don’t remember much other then I dove a lot and stood on my head for most of the game. I even got an assist when I punted the ball to the right winger on one bounce and he put a shot into the left corner. I’ve seen pictures of the game but none of it is really left in my brain.

The next morning I had breakfast with my dad. He kind of empathized with my plight but marked it up as a learning experience. In the end I had to take the class over many times because I would continue to get failing grades from time to time. But none of them were as bad as the first.

Sometimes...

The end of March showed me something more then a continued run on the poker tables. It gave me some sort of sickness that is kicking my ass. I think I’ve lost 5 pounds of snot as I’ve been blowing my nose constantly for the last three days.

Last night surf gave me a call as I was starting practice for Speedy Enthusiast team. We talked for a couple of minutes and then I started practice for the young ladies. As I was heading home, I called him back because I couldn’t remember anything he said and being that he is so important I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything. I didn’t miss a thing.

That was the last time I saw my cell phone.

I don’t misplace things for the most part. I have a couple of places that I keep my wallet, keys and cell phones, so if they are not in one place then they are in the other. That is until this morning. I feel naked without it.

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No poker last night. This time of year will make big impact on the amount of poker I play. Considering that I’ve cut back already my time will on the virtual felt will be minimal. Looking at practice schedules over the next month and then the game schedules through July, I see games almost every night of the week and many weekends that will be filled with ball. I loved playing the game and truly get just as much enjoyment from watching my children play.

Speedy Enthusiast tried to throw yesterday but her shoulder is still sore. She still took ground balls and did the drills she could but I think she’s still a week away from light throwing.

Baseball Enthusiast had his first practice ever and made a tag play and threw the ball to first for an attempted double play. Considering he is 5, I would say he has a nose for the game.

Softball Enthusiast has the week off from practice so she played catch with a friend and worked on her pitching. She really wants to be the #1 pitcher on her team so I’m glad she’s working on her own to get better.

Play With Pain

Speedy Enthusiast is out of here sling and feeling much better though she still has pain. I worked with her to lift her arm up to see her range of motion and she gets parallel to the floor before the pain hits. I’ll probably wait until next week before I start her on some physical therapy to help her along.

Now I’m not a doctor but I have had my share of injuries during my career as a ballplayer which includes surgery to repair a torn labrum on my right shoulder. I went through therapy the year before the surgery in hope that I wouldn’t have to get the repair job done and it did help. The problem was that all the pain return at the start of the next season so I had to start all over again with the workout routine. It helped again but after consulting with my orthopedic surgeon and having some test done it was determined that I needed to get it fixed if I wanted to play without pain. So do I quit playing the game I love or fix my bum shoulder for a few more years of adolescent like activities? Fix it.

More rehab and it feels much better. The arm numbing pain is gone when I fire the ball abut is replaced by a general weakness that bothered me for years after. It didn’t bounce back like before and I had to live with a small amount pain every time I threw the ball for the next 8 years. That is until It finally dawned on me that I need to keep exercising those muscles all year long. Then it went away.

So I played with pain for 8 years after the surgery when I could have done a little work throughout the year and played relatively pain free. During that last 3 years I’ve been able to use my arm again and now I’m to old and out of shape to play as much as I used to play.

What all this really means is that I don’t want this injury to my daughter to have any long term issues. And even though she isn’t a die hard ballplayer like her sister, she plays the game and it isn’t fun for a 10 year old girl to have to play in pain. I would never expect her to have to go through the things I went through to play. It just isn’t that important. What I can do is guide her back into well being and that is what I will do.

Go Kansas and Going to the Store on Friday

No poker last night as I had a meeting at church and then watched b-ball. Ohio State came back from 17 down at half time and won the game against Tennessee. I give them credit for a great comeback but Bruce Pearl blew this game. With a 17 point lead at half time you should not loose. Tennessee kept firing up off balanced 3-point shots and bricking them and he didn’t get them back under control until it was to late. He did put some full court pressure on them after Oden got his 4 foul and it seemed to spark the team but then he took it off.

Kansas is still my road to glory in Mookie’s bracket pool. If North Carolina and Kansas make it to the finals I’m in the money and if Kansas wins I win. I’m still in a tie for third but some of the players above me took hits last night so I’m on my way. They few other brackets that have Kansas winning are behind me in the standings.

Well it is Friday, which means poker at my house. The problem is that it won’t start until late if it starts at all. We have to go get cleats for Softball Enthusiast and Speedy Enthusiast (notice I’ve been using the names trip) and that involves a trip to the sporting goods store. Now I love going to the store with the family because everyone always finds what they want right away so we’re in and out in no time at all. So maybe if I’m lucky this will only take a few hours.

That’s it for now so have a great weekend on the felt.

Sometimes Poker Doesn't Matter

I wrote my little story the other day about a family auto accident before I knew about some friends of the family. They’re not good friends but really the family of good friends…but that doesn’t make this less tragic. Their daughter was killed in a car accident Friday morning on her way to school. She was 17.

Many of us have children and all of us are some ones child so there is a degree of understanding and empathy we feel when we hear something tragic like this. Our children shouldn’t die before us….they have so much to look forward to in life but when it gets snatched away because of some unfortunate accident of a long battle with an illness life hits us hard.

Right now her mother is getting ready to be strong at her dead daughters visitation. She doesn’t feel strong but she wants everyone to know that life will go on and that she appreciates their support. The alone times are the ones that hurt. When nobody is there to console her and the world crashes into her being like the car who T-boned her daughters car. There is no justice….just pain.

We will be there for her as will many other people over the next few days. But when the people go away and the silence screams mercilessly at her, tearing at her sanity as she grieves for her fallen child, hopefully she gain perspective and honor the life she had as well morn the life she missed.

BOOOOM

When I was 19 or so, I had the pleasure of being in a minor auto accident. I had just bought a new/used car and was driving home. It was winter time but the road were clear as I approached our mail box at a reduced rate of speed. A small patch of compressed snow had frozen over and as I attempted to come to a stop the front of the car slide over about a foot and dinged the post that carried the mailbox. There was a small dent that was easily knocked out with a rubber mallet and it was as good as new.

We’ve almost all had some kind of motor vehicle accident in our lives, some of us more then others, and if we’re lucky there is no major damage. About a year after the fender bender above I was involved in a collision. Yes collision sounds more dramatic because it was in many ways. I was working nights at the time and fell asleep on the way home from work. When I came to I was on the floorboard of my car looking up and realizing that this wasn’t a natural position and passed back out. The next thing I remember is being in the x-ray room and asking the nurse if the other guy was alright. She informed me that I had already asked her a dozen times about the health of the other driver and that it had not changed. There is no way I asked her that many times because I would have remembered…right? Anyway, I spent the next few days in the hospital on a painkilling IV of some sort with a bad concussion and a bruised heart and sternum. I had lingering affects from the accident for many, many weeks but eventually I recovered.

Events like these make an impression in your being that molds the way you look at things. Being 20 at the time it reaffirmed that I was invincible. Something like that today would make me thank my lucky stars and deepen my love for my family even more then it already is.

9 years ago I got a call at work that my wife and two girls had been in an accident and that they were being taken to the hospital. When I get there I find that my wife has a lacerated spleen and that my oldest daughter was in getting a CAT scan and that she had a broken leg. My other daughter was shaken up but no real injuries other then the trauma of being in the accident. A short time later the nurses wheel in a young child who has blood all over her face and just looks terrible. It was 5 minutes before I realized that it was my daughter and that she was hurt bad. The moved everyone to intensive care for observation and eventually flew my daughter to another hospital that specializes in these types of situations. She would end up with a skull fracture, broken leg, missing teeth and some stitches along her mouth. My wife had the spleen issue and some micro fractures in her teeth while my other daughter has bruised and battered and walked with a limp for about a week. In the end everything turned out OK with complete recovery for all but things like this are scary for everyone involved.

So what does any of this have to do with anything now?

I got a call from my wife that they were involved in an accident this morning. My first reaction was fear but the realization that she was calling quickly helped me regain my focus and that it probably wasn’t that bad. A driver failed to realize that the road were slick and slid through a stop sign and put a nice dent in the front of the van. Everyone is OK and though the van is drivable, a headlight is messed up so it can’t be used at night.

Relief is the best way to describe how I feel.

Just Life

I’ve been trying to get hold of my dad for a few days. I call his house and get a busy signal each and every time I call. So yesterday my sister calls me and says she is having the same problem and asks if I’ll run over to his place. No problem. The wind is blowing snow all over the place and I have an hour + drive home anyway but I’ll be glad to drive way out of my way to check on him. Now I really have no issue with going over there because I am worried about him but the time just sucks.

The traffic wasn’t too bad and I made good time driving through the blizzard like conditions with idiots on the road. As I pull into his driveway I can see it has been shoveled so I’m sure he is OK but there is no answer at the door. I have a key but I know that he has to be down at the club.

I see his van and they let me into the AMVETS via the intercom system and there he is…sitting at the end of the bar. I don’t go there very often. The stench of stale cigarette smoke and old people who have given up on life fills the room with an appalling aura. No my father doesn’t fit into this category but for the most part this not a stereo typical remark. The average age of the people in the room is some place north of 65 and they go there to forget how they treated their families and brag about the glories of days past.

Dad and I sit together and talk about things that are going on in our lives. As a matter of fact I need to give him $1 for the bad beat I talked to him about. Anyway, a cold beverage with dad is always a good thing. The worry I felt when I could contact him was replaced with the joy of just talking about anything that came along.

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The Enthusiast wife is under the weather. She contracted the sickness that enveloped M last week and is trying to fight through it now. I now have a slight fever and my throat is like sand paper. I don’t know if it was caused by sickness or the smoke filled room I spent so much time in last night.

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It is Wednesday which means the Mookie but there is no Mookie tonight. I may play a little tonight but being Valentines Day, I may keep off the tables. If I play I’m going to play some NL cash games and maybe some RAZZ tourney action.

The Hammerday Poker Event and Self Appraisals

Play in this tonight if you have a chance. It will be a good time but I can't play.

What a day. We had a nice snow storm dump around 5 inches of fluffy fun everywhere so the commute home was a blast. There is nothing like driving home with a bunch of idiots on the road trying to put you in the ditch. Anyway, the boss came by around 2:00 and gave us all permission to go home for some reason. I stayed late and was the second to last to leave.

I bought a snow blower back in December because I’m fat. It was the best investment I’ve ever made based on the 5 minutes of time it took to clear my driveway. I should have done it years ago when, at my old house, I had a 100 foot driveway. We took turns shoveling that huge driveway and even with both my wife and I it would take well over and hour with a small snowfall. Live and learn I guess.

So after dinner I get a call from the HR guy at my work place. This is a strange thing because I can’t understand why he’d call me at home when I had just left there a couple of hours earlier. Crap, here we go again. Time to look for a new job or some other shit. Maybe Waffles and I can play $10 Razz tourneys everyday for a $2 profit. But as it turned out I needed to have my self appraisal ready for today.

I spend the next few hours answering silly questions about how I see myself doing my job. It wasn’t really that hard but I think that some of the questions are stupid. For example…

9. Adherence to Policy - The extent to which an employee follows safety and conduct rules, other regulations and adheres to company policies.

Now this is a standard question with responses being outstanding, very good, good and so on. How can you do an outstanding job of following the rules? You either follow them or you don’t. Good is the standard answer for doing your job requirements so anything better then good is self aggrandizing. Anyway, I got through that and fell asleep a little later. Great times.

I’ve thought about saying something like swimsuit models or Anna Benson to try to get more hits but I wouldn’t do that. Maybe something like A-Rod and Yankee baseball could get a few more hits.

Kitten Cannon

Klick this link to play.

636 is my best so far.

751

Kitten Cannon