A bit of a ramble...

I'm tired and maybe coming down with a cold so I thought I'd stop working for the day and ramble here a bit.

I have not done much writing in my journal (am I supposed to call it a blog now?) for the most part because not only did I not feel like it but whatever I wrote would probably be more negative than I would like it to be.

Life is kinda getting to me right now. I'm trying not to let it but it sneaks in there. I've got lots that is going well, I'm healthy as is Connie and I've actually made a lot of progress on the house in Orlando in terms of fixing it up. When I've been here in Hernando I've been busy and have a backlog of projects to do that won't be cleaned up soon, and that's a good thing. I'm still really enjoying the Hernando area and we're having wonderful weather right now.

So why do I let life get to me?

Well in part it's because I keep trying to play poker. Right now that is going horribly. It's the whole reason we moved here. That makes me feel kinda dumb at the least. Connie loves it here as much as I do though so who knows, maybe my poker playing was just a way to get us up to this area and it's now served it's purpose. One thing is for sure, it's not going to be providing any extra vacations this year as it has in the past which is tremendously disappointing.

One reason I think it's going badly ties in with another thing that is getting to me and that is the economy in general. How is that effecting poker? Well there are a LOT less people playing right now, especially less people playing limit poker. I think you can trace that pretty much right to the crappy economy. Less people playing means less and usually poorer game selection. I still think I'm playing well overall, I'm just having crappy luck. Of course I'm still looking to see what I can change but I can't find too much. It's gotten so bad right now that I'm going to take some time off from live poker, a couple of months anyway. I'll continue to play a bit online to practice but I doubt I'll play much, if any, cash game poker in a casino for a while. I may play a tournament or two since I sometimes do fairly well in them and they have the advantage of a fixed cost if I don't do well. (I can control any potential loss up front)

The economy is also taking our retirement savings on a roller coaster ride and it's not fun even though we try hard not to even really look at the stock market results. You can't avoid it sometimes and knowing that we've already suffered a six figure loss doesn't make for a happy camper. I'm sure it will come back but we're getting ever closer to the time we actually want to retire and use that money so there is less time for it to come back. But none of that is news to anyone, plenty of people are in the same boat. Too bad all of us bailing together still may not keep it from sinking huh?

To end on a slight positive note I'll tease you about a couple of potential future entries. If you've followed my AOL journal you may remember me writing about Tux, the cat I adopted up here in Mississippi. I may have even wrote that she had a baby. Well she had three more and they are adoreable. Pictures and a few words (like I could write just a few words!) hopefully will be forthcoming. I may also do an entry about a Christmas present I'm making for my sister in law. I don't think she reads this so it should be safe. Before I write anymore on that i'm going to check with Connie first but I think it's going to be a fun project and should be something that Stephie will like when it's done.

Ok, I'm done rambling. Ya'll take care and have a great day!