A Stark Realization! (Revised)

Being up in the mountains and out in the country a bit, not on city water or sewer, Maureen has been concerned about our ability to manage in a disaster. She had me get a portable generator when we first bought the house and now she's working on a hand pump for our well for when the generator runs out of gas. Facebook occasionally has a reoccurring story about a prepper who buys and buries a large steel shipping container and turns it into a fallout shelter/bunker. I occasionally kid that my prepper efforts consisted of getting one of those large shipping containers, packing all of my stuff in it, loading it on a truck, and then moving out of earthquake country. I then had the driver drive through tornado alley and stop before he hit the hurricane coast. I understand the national head quarters for the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) are in Asheville, NC because this area has the fewest natural disaster events in the nation. That was good enough for me and that was the extent of my prepping.

And then came "A Stark Realization!" We don't live anywhere near a Trump Resort property. Should the unthinkable happen there is nothing within hundreds of miles to attract enough attention to ensure that we would get federal aid. When Erma hit Florida, the home of Mar-a-Lago, FEMA was all over it. However when Maria hit Puerto Rico, over 1000 miles from Mar-a-Lago, all they got was Trump touting how great a job he was doing, but no real aid.  It's been months and 75% of Puerto Rico is still without power, water and just basic needs for survival.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the guy. And whether you are in the Secretary of State Tillerson's "Trump is a f***ing moron" camp or not, you have to admit, Trump has a talent for taking care of his own! 

Trump has openly professed that "Global Warming" is a hoax. He recognizes the climate change effects of man made carbon in our atmosphere has only affected one location in the entire world, Doonbeg, Ireland. What is unique about Doonbeg, Ireland? It is the home of Trump's luxury golf resort, the Trump International Golf Links and Hotel. On his application to construct a sea wall to stem the erosion, Trump cited the effect of rising sea levels due to man made climate change as the primary reason the sea wall was needed. (Read about Trump's "other" wall here.)

After the tragedy of 9/11, it was reported that Trump successfully filed a "small business" claim for $150,000 even though his business netted several times the revenue ceiling that defined a small business. (Politifact small business claim article.) In 2005, Trump was also able to collect on a $17 million dollar insurance claim for hurricane damage to Mar-a-Lago, damage that few actually remember happening, with some of the excess money he admittedly transferred to his own accounts. (AP article about questionable hurricane damage claim.) Throw in the reports about Trump using RNC and Republican Donor money (Vanity Fair article) to fund his legal team for his Russia Gate scandal defense and his self proclaimed business acumen that allows him to pay little or no taxes and it becomes very apparent that Donald Trump has a talent for taking care of his properties and his wallet. 

And what about this new tax bill? I know that Trump professes that he and his pals will be losing money but by the most conservative estimates Trump is set to make millions! And if you include everyone in the top 1% the number is in the Billions!

Then there is his latest Trump proclamation eliminating offshore drilling restrictions for the entire eastern and western seaboards of the United States.  Of course afterwards he did exempt the Florida coast where the restrictions will remain in place.  Trump does not want to have to look out from Mar-A-Lago and see oil drilling rigs ruining the view from his personal resort.

Everyone seems to be concerned about Trump's proximity to the nuclear button.  I don't know why his advisers haven't considered this yet but if someone would just point out to "The Donald" that "Nuclear Winter" would be horribly bad for his resort properties Trump would likely become the biggest proponent for nuclear disarmament!

After considering all the evidence above I just want to be under that "Trump Umbrella" should an unlikely but unfortunate disaster strike in the Western North Carolina mountains.

I don't think I could afford the fee that Trump gets for naming rights and I really don't think our apartment downstairs that we promote through Air B-N-B is grandiose enough to attract Trump's attention. Maybe if his deal with Putin to build a Trump Tower in Moscow falls through and he is not too in debt to the Chinese I could sell Trump on the idea of building "Trump Tower Asheville." Or, for expediency I could try to sell him on an existing property, something like "The Trumpmore Estate." Or if the Biltmore owners don't want to give up the estate proper, they might be willing to part with the real estate and shops outside of the estate. We could have "The Trumpmore Village."

Sam's club sells a bulk "Emergency Food Supply." You can buy different packages that will feed 1-4 people from 1-12 months. And the food is advertised to last in storage up to 25 years. I think my next project might be to build shelves to house our new emergence food supply just in case "The Donald" is too distracted playing golf in Florida to send help our way. And just to hedge my bet, while Maureen is researching and arranging for our new hand pump to be installed on our well, I think I'm going to circulate a petition to try to get our local Planning and Zoning agencies to consider a new resort project somewhere between Asheville and Weaverville. You can never be too prepared for an emergency!

Ever Throw A Party Where No One Came?

It's not as bad as it sounds.  We had absolutely "FREAKISH" weather for New Year's Eve.  Not only was it cold, about 10 degrees F (at least not single digits), but just after about noon it started to sleet.  Now I took credit in my family's "who saw snow first" competition, but sleet is not snow.  Think BBs, like you would use in a Red Rider BB gun (for you Christmas Story fans) only about 1/8th to 1/16th the size, and little round frozen balls of ice.  Now think about how difficult it would be to walk on a thin sheet of little balls of ice.  Maureen put together what promised to be a great New Year's Eve party.  A fare number of people that we've met here in the Asheville/Weaverville area and a good number of neighbors had RSVP'd that they would attend.  The party was scheduled to start at 8 PM.  About 2 PM Maureen sent me out to pick up something at the grocery store that we'd forgotten.  At that time the sleet was coming down but you couldn't even see sleet sticking to the roads.  However, it was so cold that the sleet was sticking to the windshield of my truck.  I had to crank my defrost until my truck cab was a sauna before the sleet would melt on my windshield and I could use the wipers.  During that trip to the store, even though the sleet was not really visible on the roads, I lost traction with the rear wheels of my truck at least a half dozen times only driving about 20-30 mph.  I lost some traction with my front wheels almost every time I had to make a turn.  It was scary slippery out there.  The only responsible thing to do was to let all our guests know, that although we still intended to have our party, if they had to drive we would understand if they chose not to come.  Sometime around 6 PM the Highway Patrol had closed at least portions of I26 & I40 (the main north/south and east/west freeways), either due to accidents or because the sleet had made them un-navigable.  Of course by that time all our commuting guests had cancelled.  By 8 PM the sleet was so thick on the ground you could hardly walk down my driveway which is flat.  However the incline of the street leading to my driveway is steep and so by 9 PM it became apparent that our neighbors had the good since not to attempt to navigate that hill to our house.  

So there you go.  I threw a party and no one came!  The upside is that we have all those hors d'oeuvres that you love to have at parties but that you never make for yourself during the year otherwise.  The downside is that we'll be eating chili (enough for 30 guests) for days.  And I have a "drinking problem"! OMG, I have so much beer in the house.  I need some of you to come over and help me with that.  If I try to drink it all I'll end up weighing 300 lbs before Valentines.  I still had a great new year.  I stayed up to toast the New Year with my beautiful bride and my son (who can now drink legally (and hopefully responsibly)).  What else do I need?

Yes, Liam has turned 21!  Can you believe it?  We spent his birthday and Christmas in Cleveland with Maureen's family.  Liam has cousins in Cleveland closer to his age which must be infinitely more fun than partying with your mom and dad when you turn 21.  A couple quick anecdotes about Liam's 21st:

His cousins and their friends took Liam out at midnight on December 22nd.  They arrived at the bar a little early.  Apparently, for some reason, a half dozen police officers were congregated outside the bar they chose.  Liam is standing outside the bar and the bouncer had to negotiate his entrance to the bar 6 minutes before his birthday.  The cops were cool and let him in early.  By all accounts he had a great birthday, except;

The next day Liam and I are running around trying to take care of a minor issue with one of his birthday presents when he asked if I could take him to the grocery store.  Which was fine but when I asked what he needed, Liam indicated he wanted to buy a beer.  At a grocery store?  Apparently when you turn 21 everyone goes out of their way to buy your drinks.  Liam was 21 and all he wanted to do was show his ID and pay for his own beer, just once.  It's funny what might be important to a person.  I assured Liam he had his whole life to by his own beer and to enjoy the attention.  If it was really important, I told him we'd stop at a bar and he could buy me a drink.

As cold as it is here it did get down to single digits in Cleveland.  I've been fairly disciplined with my running and exercising since we landed in NC.  But it does get cold in the winter.  I've built up a fair amount of cold weather running gear.  All of that may be on its way to the Good Will.  For Christmas, Maureen got me a nice recumbent bike.  I have it out in my shop which only has a portable heater but no more running the hills and blind corners on the narrow mountain roads in 13 degree weather (remember, 12 degrees is too damn cold).  I have it set so I can just open the door and see the downstairs TV and pedal away for an hour.  Much better than pounding the pavement with frozen fingers (I can never seem to get my hands warm when it's that cold out).

What else?  I've moved into fourth place in points with my on-line poker group.  And I've played fewer tournaments than the three above me, 20-25 less than a couple of them.  I've signed up for an oil painting class.  I did a little painting in high school.  It will be interesting to see if I've retained any of the old talent.  And last, if you've noticed the gap between now and my last posting, I did write a blog entry during that period but I was forbidden from posting it.  You see it had a slight political bent.  I won't say who forbade me but her initials are M(aureen) B(rooks).  With the political winds, the way they are blowing, I may just revise (update) and post it after all.  It was just a little passive/aggressive but I thought it was pretty humorous.  I'll have to think about it!

Maureen, Liam and I hope everyone had a great holiday season and we wish the best to all of you!  Or as the Irish might say; May the best of your past be the worst of your future!

Take care and have a great New Year!

Rick

           

I Saved So Much Money It Put Me In The Poor House (Erma Bombeck I think?)

(At least I believe I read that line in one of her books.)  

Anyway, another year has come and gone. Yes, I just had another birthday and I'm another year older. I'm still working out, running or some type of strength training most days of the week. I had my annual follow up with my doctor Thursday and it's all thumbs up. I have gained about 10 pounds in the last year but I'm not too worried. When I hit 150 lbs I had gotten down to a 32" waist. Now I'm floating around 160 lbs but I have roughly a 30/31" waist.

One of the positives or negatives, depending on your point of view, of going from a 38"+ waist to a 31"+ waist is the need to purchase almost an entire new wardrobe. However, I'm learning to embrace my "Senior" status. Seniors get an additional 10% off at (C)Ross Dress for Less on Tuesdays (that was for you Dave). Maureen and I are planning a trip to Europe next March and we both need travel clothes for cooler weather in addition to my general need for an "S" or "M" on my clothing labels instead of the "XL" on most of the stuff I brought with me from California. What I love about Ross is that I can walk out of the store with Nike, Under Armor, 32 Degree Cool/Heat, North Face, and other name brand apparel that I would never spring for normally and for just a fraction of the cost. I bought something from each of those sporting brands at Ross this past Tuesday. I added up the original retail price tag amounts (not the Ross tags) and it came up to an insane amount for just six items. With Ross' discount prices and my added senior discount I actually paid less than 40% of the previous total and I'm stylin'! TJ Maxx is almost as good. I don't have the same luck at TJ Maxx finding the sporting brands like Nike and Under Armor, but I still find name brand stylish clothes at a fraction of the normal retail costs.

North Carolina has a number of opportunities to identify yourself as a military veteran including veteran license plates on your vehicle and having your veteran status shown on your drivers license. And a number of businesses extend discounts to military veterans. It cost me $13 to have "Veteran" put on my drivers license and I've saved that and more just buying dinner salads at Zaxbys with their veteran discount. Lowes also gives discounts to veterans every day of the year. Home Depot only chooses to honor veterans on Veteran's Day. I'll drive further and pay 10% more at Lowes just to get their 10% discount for no other reason than they choose recognize my service to this country. I recently was able to get an Air Force Veteran license for my truck and it has already saved me money. Right after I received my new plate I had to put new all weather tires on the truck. The owner of the tire store, when looking at my truck saw my plate, pointed at it, looked at me and said; "the tires will be less than what I quoted you", and then went on about his business. Yes, he's getting all my business as well. 

I'm not clipping coupons yet but I'm sure that's coming. After all I am retired and on a fixed income! 

My actual birthday was Saturday, October 7th. Liam came home from school to spend the day with Maureen and I. We hung out for a couple of hours at the semi-annual gun show down by the airport at the Ag Center/Fair Grounds. And yes, Maureen did buy me something at the show. I was going to make it an extreme "foody" day and eat all of the stuff that I normally forgo during most of the year but that didn't really materialize. The minimum goal was to get my slice of birthday carrot cake. I always have carrot cake on my birthday. By the end of the day Liam had to head back to school and Maureen and I were just kicking around downtown Asheville. The one place that actually had carrot cake had a line to get in just to order a slice to-go so we didn't wait. And the other restaurants and pastry shops that might normally have carrot cake were out. Just my luck.

Sunday the plan was to pick up my birthday slice, hang out for an hour at our favorite Irish pub, Jack's, catch the Celtic jam session and then catch the Packers game at the "Packers Bar" in town. In the "it can only happen to me" realm, Maureen goes into Well Bread to get my birthday carrot cake and we head downtown. We get to Jack of the Woods and I open the to-go box and start to enjoy.....something that was not carrot cake. I still don't know what exactly it was but it was so disappointing that I asked Bernadette, our barmaid, to throw it away. Then we were late getting to the Packer Bar and it was standing room only. I'm guessing Sunday knew it was not my birthday anymore and had no sympathy. I had no interest in standing for three hours so we just went home to watch the game there. 

Seriously though, I had a great birthday spending the day with my son and my best girl. I got a great birthday present at the gun show. And I eventually did get that slice of carrot cake. And the Packers won in an exciting come from behind Aaron Rogers master piece orchestrated with only a minute eighteen (1:18) left on the clock! It was a great weekend.

Fall is upon us again.  And as beautiful as the autumn colors can be, I hate raking leaves, almost as much as I hate painting.  And you know how much I hate painting.  I'm looking out across my deck into the yard and I see the leaves just waiting for me.  And I know if I head out to tackle them there will just be a fresh batch waiting for me tomorrow.  Oh well, I guess you take the bad with the good.

I have to go out and rake now, so until next time.....

Here, Hold My Beer And Watch This!

The high school where I help out with the soccer team has an Alumni match against the high school varsity team at the beginning of each season.  The coach from the last three seasons amended the definition of "alumni" to include past coaches so that he could play (he has passed on the torch to one of the JV coaches from last year).  Since I qualify as an "Alumni Coach" I decided to take my newly fit person out and take a shot as a player.  Here, hold my beer and watch this! (What was I thinking?)

The alumni team was comprised of some recent graduates, as well as at least a couple players from each decade back as far as the 80's.  Of course I was by far the oldest on the field but I fared well enough that I was able to stay on the field for at least 35 of the 80 minute match.  I'm generally not that fast on my daily five mile jaunt in the mornings.  However, as it turns out I've still got a sprint or two left in me.  

Knowing that the skills required for any competitive sport are "perishable" and that I've not done any real practicing of my soccer skills other than the occasional filling in a gap on the field during a practice scrimmage over the past two seasons, I tucked myself away as the back left defender in our 4-4-2 and waited for the kickoff.  It took me a while to get comfortable but my coaching knowledge paid off with my positioning and I was able to hold my own for the most part.  Until....

About the middle of the first half the alumni defensive line was up trying to catch the varsity attackers offside when a through pass and forward beat the right center of our defense clean just past the midfield line.  I know I said I was  slow but that's on my morning jaunt!  I took off at a full sprint angled to cut off the attacker and intercepted him about thirty yards out from the goal.  I ran with him through the far corner of the penalty area forcing him wide.  His shot went wide of the near post harmlessly into the side of the net (outside the goal).  Now I coach defenders all the time that attackers attempting to keep control of a soccer ball can not maintain the full speed that they are capable of when running without the ball.  And that any defender taking the proper angle should be able to run down almost any attacker that is trying to maintain control of a soccer ball no matter how fast that attacker might be.  But in this instance, the attacker was 16 and I'm 56 so I'm going to brag about it anyway!

I also found myself one-on-one with arguably the best player on varsity.  He was on a break away with our defense out of position.  Realistically I had a chance to win the ball outright but when I looked up to see who would be challenging me I hesitated.  Go or no go?  I went, late.  Because I hesitated we arrived at the ball at the same time and as luck would have it I managed to play the ball over his foot out of bounds giving my team a chance to regroup.  Everyone was happy with the result...yeah, I meant to do that.  

And then there was the time that I received the ball at the back left with space and time and saw one of our alumni attackers making a run to get free forward right.  I wound up to deliver the fatal cross only to pop the ball up with back spin landing about twenty yards away at the feet of one of my teammates, who had room to go!  Everyone was happy with the result...yeah, I meant to do that.

My best pass came when I saw an opening and went to lead my fellow alumni midfielder into space.  The varsity defender read my intention perfectly and moved forward to intercept.  However, I again mishit my pass and the ball went behind the defender, who's momentum carried him forward out of position, the ball traveling through the space the defender vacated arriving right at the feet of my alumni teammate.  I looked like a tactical genius and the comments from my teammates indicated that they thought so as well....yeah, I meant to do that.

Looking back, the only play that started and finished as I intended was a ball crossed to my side that I set up to chest trap but noticed a teammate about ten yards away in space.  So instead of trapping the ball I met the ball with some force and used my chest  to pass the ball and it actually did what I wanted.  That I did mean to do!

At the end of the day, everyone's perception was that I acquitted myself well enough that I'll probably be invited back next year.  At least I can hope!

On a side note, Maureen was working the snack bar and was not able to see me in action.  I didn't give her any details, I just told her I was brilliant.  So don't let on any of that other stuff.  That's just between us, OK!

Thursday, I took Liam back to school.  He has moved into a new (actually old but different) house that is practially right on campus.  When Liam crosses the street in front of his house he is right in the middle of campus.  Althought the house is old, poorly altered to accommodate as many student/tenants as possible, and moderatly run down, it's still 4x better than the house he moved out of and you just can't beat the location without living in a dorm.  And, Liam still has the illusion of being "independant"!

Like a crowded dorm room, Liam's one room in the house has very limited space for furniture and personal belongings.  Maureen had purchased 8-fabric cubes that fit under Liam's bed to act as a quasi dresser in his old house where he had even less room.  However, Liam indicated after a year of use that it was impractical to keep his bed far enough from the wall to access the cubes on both sides of the bed and would prefer something akin to a dresser.  And me with my workshop (man cave) downstairs and no projects in progress.  Here, hold my beer and watch this!

I measured the space on Liam's only free wall between a closet and entry door.  Then I did some rough calculations on how many shelves sized for the cubes that I could get out of a single sheet of 3/4" BC sanded plywood.  With an idea in my head and nothing on paper except my math Liam and I went to work.

Except for some brad nails and glue to hold on some 3/4 round trim around the shelves and a few dowels glued into one end of select posts, the entire project  is held together with 3/4" dowels hammered into 3/4" holes with a rubber mallet (all friction fit) so it can be disassembled for transport if necessary.  I also attached a power strip to the bottom of the very top shelf so he could plug in the TV, alarm clock, etc...  I can't say it came out perfect but the end result was pretty darn good except.....

You'll notice two white dowels poking up just under the center of the TV in the space designed for a PS4 or cable box or whatever.  Those should have been cut flush with the shelf and the tips painted.  I was back in Cullowhee Saturday with my sawzall, hand sander, and some black paint.  Ten minutes is all I needed.  I couldn't get Liam to take two minutes to clear off that shelf so it didn't get fixed.  I won't see it all year but it's going to drive me nuts.  I think Liam knows that and is not allowing me to fix it on purpose.  I'm going to keep my tools in my truck and the next time I'm in his house and he goes to the bathroom?  That'll teach him!

On a side note, instead of fixing the shelf, Liam and I went to see "The Assassin's Body Guard."  OMG!  That movie is hilarious!  Forget whatever you read from the critics and see that movie if you can (warning, language, violence).  I think I could even pass it off as a "Guy Approved Romantic Comedy" so take your wife/girlfriend. 

Unless you've been holed up in your house with no contact whatsoever you can't have missed that we have a solar eclipse coming up on Monday.  I for one was surprised to learn how limited the viewing area is to be able to see the Total Solar Eclipse.  If the earth were a basketball the area for optimal viewing of the eclipse would be considerably smaller than a ping pong ball.  The total eclipse will only be visible along a path from about the Washington/Oregon border to South Carolina.  

Click this link for the path.

That path just happens to cross over Western North Carolina and one of the optimal viewing areas will be Cullowhee where Liam's school is located.  Maureen was able to secure viewing glasses several weeks ago.  If you're just looking for them now you're probably out of luck.  Be careful about counterfeit (ineffective) viewing glasses!

For me; here, hold my beer, want to see this!

Take care!

Rick

'It's deja vu all over again' - The late, great, Yogi Berra

Has it really been two years?  It seems just like last month I was asking, "has it really been a year?"  Actually it won't be two years in our house until September be we officially landed in Asheville in the middle of June, 2015.  Still, time is just flying by.  Liam will be starting his Junior year at Western Carolina University.  I'll be starting my third season as an assistant soccer coach at North Buncombe High School.  And Maureen is contemplating continuing with a third (yearly) session teaching ESL.

I just made my annual trek to the gun show at the WNC Agricultural Center south of Asheville.  That was a big "deja vu" moment.  In an ever changing world I'm fairly confident that this group will never evolve or change.  I don't think anyone has told them the presidential election is over because there were anti-Hillary t-shirts and banners everywhere.  And of course the "stars and bars" were displayed prominently at every other vendor's table.  I've updated my camouflage.  I have a new camo Lions International cap that I'm using to try and blend in.  My attempt to mosey through invisible, or at least inconspicuous, was somewhat unsuccessful this trip.  I was accosted by a man hawking concealed carry permits who wanted to know if I had mine.  Having answered in the negative I answered his next query, "why?", with; "I never really felt the need," to which he had further, and I'm sure endless, rebuttals.  What I really wanted to say was something like; "I'm not so insecure in my manhood that I feel the need to pack a firearm every time I have to leave the security of my home!"  But I'm sure that would have made me less inconspicuous.  If I really wanted to raise a ruckus I could have pointed out publicly that the many flags with stars and bars prominently on display in almost any form you can think of was in fact not the official flag of the Confederate States of America (CSA).  The flag most commonly associated with the CSA was actually the battle flag for the Northern Virginia Army led by Robert E. Lee.  And although later versions of the CSA's official flag incorporated the "stars and bars" image in an upper corner of the flag, that battle flag was never an official symbol of the CSA.  Of course in order to make that particular proclamation in that company I would have to be "carrying" in order to make it out alive!

I took Liam and two of his friends white water rafting Saturday at French Broad Adventures (FBA), which was my next deja vu moment.  If you recall, French Broad Adventures is the outfit I took my guide class with.  You might also recall that I was unable to complete the course because one Saturday it was cold and rained all day resulting in my being sick for about two weeks.  So I made a point of checking the weather forecast prior to booking the trip.  Not only was the forecast favorable but on the day it looked to be gorgeous, a perfect day for rafting.  When we arrived I was greeted by two former classmates that completed the course and were hired on by FBA.  After checking in I worked my way down to the back and met Ed.  Ed manages the raft guides and is every bit as crusty as you might image someone my age who has been associating with raft guides his entire adult life.  I wanted to make sure he had an opportunity to rag on me a bit about dropping out of the class.  It was going to happen eventually and I wanted to get it over with.  I also saw Richard who was one of the guide instructors in our class and who would be our raft for our outing that day.  All the while the sun is shining and the weather is still gorgeous, until...  As we got on the bus it was the start of just the lightest drizzle.  When we arrived at the put-in a steady rain began in earnest.  It cooled down and the rain came followed by thunder and even a little lighting.  The rain wasn't so intense that we couldn't have fun.  Richard (our guide) was great and Liam and his friends were joking and smiling throughout the whole trip.  With three twenty-somethings and me, we were a powerhouse of propulsion.  With all that energy we were able to tackle some of the more technical routes through the rapids.  And Richard took advantage and gave us the E-Ticket ride.  As we got to the take-out the rain slackened.  By the time we arrived back at FBA home base the rain had stopped completely.  After, as if to mock me, when we stopped for dinner the sun came out just as bright and warm as the forecast had promised.

Off my deja vu subject line (or maybe not),
I really miss our Corona Host Lions Texas Holdem' Tournaments.  I had some moderate success making the money a couple of times including a third place finish and a first place win.  So it should come as no surprise that one of the things I've been doing to fill up my time is I joined a "Special Interest Group" (SIG) at the Osher Life Long Learning Institute on the UNC Asheville campus.  This particular SIG is all about Texas Holdem' Poker.  The group made entirely of retirees meets Monday afternoons for mini-Holdem' tournaments.  Bruce, the orgainizer, also sponsors an on-line "Home Game" through PokerStars.net.  The Monday games typically have between 20 and 30 participants.  Early on I made a lot of final tables in the Monday afternoon games and even managed to win one of them.  The prizes are donated by the players and can be almost anything.  I've won movie tickets, a book written by Vince Van Patton, and fish salad.  Since I've won a couple of prizes I donated a couple things back myself, baked goods or wine.

In January I joined the on-line group and won first place my first time out.  That group usually has about 18-25 players registered for each tournament, a couple even from different states and one from Canada.  After that initial win I had some varying degrees of success.  I had a couple second place and a third place finish.  Shortly after I had a bit of a dry spell.  It didn't seem like I was playing any different but I just couldn't seem to win a race.  Time after time I'd get my chips in with the best hand only to get out drawn by the time the river card came.  It was completely discouraging especially considering some of the weak hands that went in against me.  

Well it appears that the statistical probabilities have caught up with me.  Over the past three weeks I've managed to finish third in a live tournament at Bruce's house, second twice (one Wednesday main event and one smaller Friday tournament), and first place three times (two smaller Friday tournaments and one Wednesday main event).  

Last week I related to Maureen my struggles and my recent turn around specifically describing the eight day run I won, finished third, second and then won again.  When I told her about my latest main event win last Wednesday Maureen's response was; "great, is that your first win?"

What?  Really!

After our discussion just a few days before?  I'm not sure if she forgot or was just not listening but I'm sure Maureen is not going to appreciate this written declaration.  However, she did it to herself!

Our on-line group plays for points and bragging rights.  Of the 49 players currently registered as members of the Blue Ridge Bluffers (our PokerStars.net home game group) I'm currently ranked number 7 in points total even though I've played fewer games than most of the members who have been part of the group far longer than I.  I'm in the top 10 for average points per game (1.25 points per game).  And I'm in the top 5 for knocking opponents out of tournaments (at 48 and counting).  And even with my little dry spell I've been in the money 32% of the time.  

Maureen always says I'm just too competitive.  I don't see it.  However, I am aiming for No. 1 (in all categories)!

Until next time, take care!

Rick

Stymied by "June Gloom"........Again!

For those of you NOT from Southern California, "June Gloom" is not akin to an emotional condition like Seasonal Affective Disorder or Winter Depression such as might be experienced by someone living in Alaska during the winter months with no sunlight to speak of.

"June Gloom" is a Southern California term for a weather pattern that results in cloudy, overcast skies with cool temperatures during the late spring and early summer."

My first experience with June Gloom was the summer of 1982.  It was early May and I was 21 years old and had just transfered from the Virginia Air National Guard to Active Duty Air Force.  I had mixed feelings about my first duty assignment, March Air Force Base, in Southern California.  However I was going to make the best of it.  Being 21, the first thing that came to my mind was I would need a good sun tan to fit in when I arrived.  I had a month and so I was out in the sun at every opportunity slow roasting myself so that I would not look out of place when I arrived in sunny Southern California.  The Virginia weather cooperated and by the time I had to leave on the 2nd of June I had a reasonably good tan.  

However, when I arrived in Southern California on June second of that year, I landed right in the middle of one of the rainiest years on record for the region and it was June Gloomy all over the place.  I was the only one within sight on the Air Force Base with a tan.  It was a full two weeks before I saw my first day of sunshine.  I didn't mind a little rain and cloud cover but the downside was that by the time the sun came out my beautiful tan had peeled and faded completely.  The upside was that no one else had a tan either so I still fit in as well as a conservative young man from Virginia could in this radically different environment.

My second experience with "June Gloom" was of course this month during our trip back out to California.  We had promised Liam a trip back to visit all of his friends and everybody's Uncle John, famous for my "What I Learned From My Uncle John" series, was having his 80th birthday celebration.  So Maureen, Liam and I used that as an excuse for us all to go back for what might be our "one last visit."  For about two weeks prior, while preparing for the trip and packing, Maureen stated several times that she wouldn't mind a little "June Gloom" if that meant we could avoid the worst of the Southern California heat.  You see we have quite acclimated to the Western North Carolina (WNC) mountain weather but still vaguely remember the blistering heat that can come in waves in Southern California.  But with all that talk of June Gloom, guess who didn't pack for a little cooler beach weather?  This isn't the first trip Maureen and I have taken where Maureen has had to go out and purchase some climate appropriate garments after we arrived at our destination.  Hmmmm!  I'm starting to see a pattern.

So the beach stayed overcast and very pleasant by my estimation for the whole trip.  Maureen had the forethought to rent a house practically on the beach right by Balboa pier for the week.  Yes, it was a little more expensive than we might otherwise spend for a vacation rental but the theory was to avoid spending our entire week parked on the 91 freeway trying to visit everyone individually.  Instead we just let everyone know where we were and put out an open invitation to "come spend the day at the beach."  That way everyone else spent a little time on the freeway and we were able to avoid spending the bulk of our week driving.  And, we all got to "spend a day at the beach" together!

The one planned exception was Thursday where we drove in to see a couple of friends that we new couldn't make the trip to the ocean.  I was also the lunch program for the Corona Host Lions where I continue to hold an Associate Membership.  If you've been keeping up with this blog then you know my program.  It was bits and pieces of all our experiences over the past two years since our departure.  

And of course, one of the two main reasons for our visit.  Uncle John's birthday was a surprise affair for the most part.  Of course one of the biggest surprises was that Shirley was paying for everyone.  Our dinner for John that Thursday was at The Summit House, a VERY nice restaurant in Fullerton, California.  When he discovered that Shirley was paying I heard John comment, "I didn't know I had so much money."  And of course my retort was, "you don't anymore!"  Friends came in from all over the US to see Uncle John on his 80th, Arizona, Oregon, North Carolina and I don't know where else.  I could only hope that that many people think as highly of me down the road!

Each of Uncle John's birthday events went off as planned over the weekend; first the dinner on Thursday, the limo ride to lunch on the roof at Ruby's on the pier, the Wild Goose (John Wayne's yacht) tour, the pizza party and finally the neighborhood ice cream social, made this a birthday to remember.  We kid about how much money we all speculate that our Uncle John has but with Aunt Shirley at his side and all of his friends around him, our Uncle John is truly one of the "rich" among us.  Maureen, Liam, and I hope you had a great birthday and it was great to see you again Uncle John.  And you really do need to come out and see us.  Bring Aunt Shirley too if you can manage it.

Have I ever mentioned how much I hate painting!  I'm sure I must have.  As soon as we returned from our vacation I had the task of staining our 900+ square feet of deck waiting for me.  I had power washed the deck twice before we left but could not get the weather to cooperate.  We got home Friday morning early (actually Thursday night very late) and I had already scheduled to drive (half way) to Virginia on Saturday and Maureen and I had guests coming on Sunday.  So I sucked it up, got my Hudson sprayer out, and went to work treating the deck.  My window was so tight that I didn't bother masking off any non-porous surfaces so I'm left with a bit of cleanup from over-spray, but I got the job done in the small window available.  The deck came out fairly nice but I still have that cleanup waiting for me.

Our guests were John & Veronica O'Doherty.  We had dinner with them Wednesday night at BJ's in Corona, California and then breakfast with them on Monday morning in Weaverville, North Carolina.  We had a great visit, hit a few pubs and did all the touristy things here in WNC, at least as much as we could fit in during their brief stay.

On a completely unrelated topic, I was thinking of getting Buddy a playmate.  You know, go down to Brother Wolf and adopt another dog to keep him company when we are out and about.  Having two dogs is no more inconvenient than having one.  But it looks as if Buddy has already made friends with the neighbors by the look of the video that Addison got while watching Buddy at the house while we were in California.

Speaking of Buddy, I let him out last night at my mom's house just before bedtime.  Buddy took off like a shot out the door which is not like him.  All I could think of was the family of skunks in the neighborhood that mom keeps telling me about.  I went out after him and he ran back by me in the dark.  I couldn't tell if he was chasing something or actually had it in his mouth, that's how close he was.  I yelled, Buddy stopped, and then the motion sensor light came on.  Sure enough, it was a baby skunk making its way around the corner of the house.  How Buddy managed not to get sprayed I'll never know.  That's one disaster I'm happy to have avoided.

As I write this I find myself in Mechanicsville, Virginia waiting for our brief rain storm to subside so I can finish power-washing my mom's house.  Her garage desperately needs painting.  Did I mention how much I hate painting!  Tomorrow, back on the road with "Traveling Buddy" heading for home.  I know when you're retired you are kind of always on "vacation."  But I think I need a break!  

Until next time, take care!

Rick

I'm A "Raft Guide School" Drop Out!

Remember my blog entry; "Summer Colds are the Worst"?  It turns out that "Spring Colds" are pretty bad as well.  The second weekend of my Raft Guide class it rained all day Saturday and it was fairly cool relative to how the weather has been here in Western North Carolina this spring.  And of course we were out in the rain running the rapids all day long.  Sunday was still cool but at least not raining.  I woke up with a little bit of a sore throat but trudged off to class anyway.  By the end of our mourning outing down the river I could feel my throat closing off so I begged off the afternoon raft trip.  By Monday morning I was done.  This has to be one of the worst/longest colds I've ever had.  By the following weekend I was still seriously under the weather.  I must have had a low grade fever because Friday and Saturday I alternated from hot and sweating to cold and clammy.  After that I started feeling better but then I developed that persistent and annoying after cold cough where throughout the day you're convinced you are about to cough up a lung.  As of right now it's just an inconvenient hack that always surprises me just as I'm about to drink something from a full cup.  I think I've gone through a roll of paper towels cleaning up the spills from those ill timed coughs.

The class was great fun for the most part.  The first day the outfitter sponsoring the course, French Broad Adventures, took us down the river as tourists so we could experience what is expected of a guide from a patron's perspective.  Our guide was the only one ejected from our raft going down the rapids.  Apparently it was his first day back for the season and he was just a bit lackadaisical securing himself into the raft.  The second day came the reality check.  After our morning trip down the rapids we spent the whole afternoon taking turns lifting six-man rafts up to the top of a school bus.  In addition to learning to guide (steer) a raft we spent time on the rapids learning things that you might not think were all that important like knowing the names of all the rapids or the "commercial route" through each of the rapids.  The first was in case of an emergency so you could identify your exact position for emergency responders.  The second was for liability reasons.  If for some reason you got into trouble because you varied your trip off the prescribed commercial route you could potentially expose the outfitter to more serious legal consequences.   

Having taken a raft trip down the Colorado river and several trips on the Kern river, even though there are class 2/3 and 3/4 rapids depending on the water level, I perceived that the rapids in the section of the French Broad river we were running were perhaps not as challenging as some of the other trips I had been on.  I said something to our Guide Instructor one day and his response was basically; "This is likely the first raft trip down any rapids for most of the patrons.  And if you don't have any other frame of reference, it is exciting!"  Which I guess is true enough.  In addition to losing the guide instructor from our raft during the two weekends I did manage to attend, one of the rafts (not ours) completely flipped at the bottom of one of the trickier rapids and several rafts (including ours) managed to get stuck on rocks, one so securely (not ours) that river just washed over the top of it.  We thought that raft was going to be stuck until the water level went down but, after a little clever maneuvering, that group managed to get off the rock and back in the current to join the rest of the flotilla. 

So with those disclaimers, French Broad Adventures seems to be a great company and I'm adding that to my list for activities to share with our guests if they're interested in that sort of thing.

Today would have been my last day of class but it's cooler today than it has been all week, and it's raining!  So although my cold has been effectively reduced to the above described nagging cough I decided, under the circumstances that discretion may in fact be the better part of valor and, to skip the last of the class as well.  However, I'm looking at taking what I have learned and dipping into some white water kayaking on that section of the French Broad river and it would not be out of the question for me to sign up for the Guide Class again next spring.  We'll just have to wait and see.

I shared in an earlier blog that Liam had chosen his major, Construction Management, at Western Carolina University. Liam's first observation was that all the other students had some level of construction experience and he had none. Well Liam has his first construction job this summer. A local small general contractor who happens to be in the Weaverville Lions Club with me has taken Liam on as an intern/laborer. On about his third day on the job Liam sent me a text, the exchange went like this; 

Liam: "Hey dad thanks for getting me this job"

Me: "Are you having fun?"

Liam: "Wouldn't say fun but it's good for me

Me: 👍 

Two days later I received this text;

Liam: "When is the last time I had my tetanus shot"

Liam is ok, just a small cut.  Welcome to construction!

I've spent my entire morning sitting on my back porch watching the rain, having my coffee and writing to you.  All of our patio furniture is in my shop at the moment so I'm reduced to a folding chair and end table from inside the house.  I pressure washed the porch in preparation for treating the deck, posts, and railings but the weather is not cooperating, not that I mind.  Sitting on the back porch while it's raining is one of my favorite things to do.  I think I'll go in and persuade my lovely bride to accompany me downtown for a couple hours to have a Guinness and catch the Celtic jam session at Jack of the Woods! 

I hope everyone is having as lazy a weekend as we are!

Until next time, take care!

Rick