Back on the Road = Back on the Blog

It was a nice week at home.  I made time to spend with the wife, the dogs, the poker friends and to just relax.  There will not be much of those for the next 7 weeks or so.

I spent the best part of this past week getting ready for the big road trip that has now arrived.  There are a million and one things to do, and all of them never go smoothly.  This time it was only 5 sets of training that I no longer have permissions for.  When I contact the person who needs to help me clear this up, there is no reply.  It almost always works out, but waiting for that to happens is not my strongest skill.

There was plenty of poker to partake in.  We had a special HORSE tourney at Casa de Falstaff.  I wasn’t able to play in the tourney, but I showed up in time to play a few hours of cash game.  It was mostly short-handed.  I started out strong and then my cards dried up like spit on a sham-wow.  I really couldn’t do a thing for about 2.5 hours but watch my chip stack shrink on the blinds and cheap calls.  I made up some ground during the O8 portion of the night, but I still ended the night down 50.

Friday night was the return of Poker at the Warehouse.  We had a full table with The Knife, Little Nick, Falstaff, Brian the Red (from sunburn this night), T, Nate, and TomTom.  A few good hands early followed by hours of crap made this night feel exactly like the night before.  However, when the cards turned, they really turned in my favor. KK gave me a big pot against Nate just one hand before NLH ended.  I had one or two other good scoops in the O8 rounds and a huge scoop late to seal a profit for the night.  That hand had me flop an open-ended straight draw and a decent low with a board of 348 rainbow with me holding 5h6hA???.  A good bet from me (button) drove out a few of the 5 remaining players leaving me, Nate, and the Knife.  The turn was a beautiful 7 giving me the nuts.  I bet something like 20 and get two calls.  The river was a J (no pair and no 3-suit on the board) and I fired 120 since I still had the nuts.  We had discussed that move earlier in the night so I tried it.  It was about this time that I saw that I didn’t have the nuts.  9ine-Ten now made a higher straight.  If anyone had drawn to a top straight, it would have been Nate or Jim.  Jim called with with what I don’t remember, but not 9T and I scooped that pot. (I feel about 60% sure I messed up something about that hand, but you get the picture).

July 4 was Saturday.  Dr. K and I returned to Mama C’s place for a party/picnic that was excellent.  The evening was quiet with a drink or two and the NASCAR race.  Great finish with K-Y Bush spinning and Tony the Tiger taking the win.  Any race that ends with bush spinning is a good race.

Now it is time to get back to work and a lot of work there is to do.  I’m in DC through Thursday.  Before the the sun rises on Friday I will be on my way to DFW via CLT where I will drive up to OKC and Oki-Vegas.  Poker, drinking, and fun will ensue.  On Sunday I drive down to the Ft. Hood area where I spend the week getting final approval to go back to Baghdad, Iraq where, if successful, I will work from mid-July to mid-August.

The prospect of being away from home for so long makes me nervous and a bit depressed.  I’m happy to serve and hope that I can make a valuable contribution to the troops, but it’s not fun.  It will be hot and dusty.  Living conditions will be cramped.  I’ll have to travel walk or ride for most of my meals and the toilet and showers are more than 100 yards away (really sucks in the middle of the night).  So it’s one day at a time from me.  I’ll do my best to do my job.  I’ll enjoy what there is to enjoy and get back safe and sound when the time comes.  I’ll be keeping this space updated with stories and pictures as I can.

Time to get started.  See ya.