Old Mexico is New to Me

It’s been a while since I blogged. Sometimes the reason is laziness. Sometimes it is a sign that I’m just too damn busy. In this case the answer is different. Life for the past few weeks has been blissfully boring. There has been little to write about on any particular day. But over the past two weeks, a few things have transpired, built up, and generally kept moving while I tried to slow down.

My job keeps me traveling most of the time. I’m writing this entry sitting in a Bennigan’s near Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. I joked with friends last night that I expected it to be like the Caribbean, but without the ocean, beach, or any of the nice places. The line got a good laugh, but the truth is that Monterrey doesn’t look bad. I’ll have a better idea of the place after I’ve seen a little more, but so far, it beats the shit out of Kingston, Jamaica.

Last night was an absolute HOOT. I got an invitation to the house of fellow Charlotte blogger Falstaff (http://www.pokerstage.blogspot.com/). He had about a dozen folks over to play some poker. These people are truly whacked, and I mean that in the best possible way. My buddy BG was good enough to come along. That was helpful since I had never met anyone there.

BG actually saw something that he had never seen before. About halfway through the night I threw down the hammer. I bet preflop, bet again on the flop, turn and river before my one opponent finally folded. I did catch a middle pair 7 on the turn, but it was a sight for BG. I think my table image is pretty tight and deservedly so. I don’t take many stabs. I know I’ve never shown the hammer in his presence before.

Thanks again to Falstaff and his crew for having us over. Now go visit his blog.

Now for a little buzz-kill, also know as the family business. After months of build-up, we finally put my grandmother in assisted living. She was not taking care of herself in her own house. She was not eating or sleeping nor taking her meds and that was causing a series of illnesses. It was only a matter of time before she had an accident that put herself in a nursing home or worse. She is not very happy about the situation, but it is much easier for us to see her now. She has lots of friends around. The food is good and the care seems to be excellent.

My uncle D is doing better. He has been in chemo for 6 weeks now and they are thinking of operating on his esophagus cancer in 4 to 6 weeks. His prognosis is greatly improved since we discovered the problem. His chances are better than 50-50 now. We’ll take what we can get.

More on Monterrey tomorrow.