This one will be quick as I've got a lot I need to do today. The POD is unloaded and gone. All the furniture is in place. Whether it's in it's final resting place only time will tell but most of it probably is. We didn't really over stuff this house with 'stuff' too bad but we did have enough that there are not a whole lot of sensible ways to arrange the furniture. About half of the stuff that Connie wants hung on the walls is up now. All the boxes except about eight with some of my stuff are unpacked. Mostly I have too much 'stuff' I know roughly what is in those boxes that have not been unpacked and most of it I either really don't need or don't need except in special circumstances. No doubt I'll keep most if not all of it anyway....sigh...I said I wasn't going to do that and to a big extent I haven't really. We threw a LOT out rather than move it and then threw a bit more out AFTER we moved it. LOL I know that's not the right way to do it but at least we got rid of some more clutter. Hopefully is is the LAST move. I know some people, military families in particular, move a lot and we've moved our fair share of times but I'm tired of it. I want this to be IT.
On another front poker shows signs of picking back up. It was just horrible from before Thanksgiving through Christmas. Not so much that it was going badly for me, more that it wasn't going period. There were simply few if any games and they were just not worth playing. I love to play but I'm not going to play in a game that I know I can't make enough to at least best the rake and come out even. I'm not looking to get rich but I'm not going to go to the casino just to feed the casino which is what those games were amounting to since it was difficult if not impossible to make any money in them.
This past weekend Connie and I both went and found games to our liking. She in the smallest they had, a 3/6 and me in a slighly larger 4/8 game. I was getting mediocre cards at best but the table was pretty good so I stuck it out even through a period of having to play extremely short handed. Normally I will not play 5 handed 4/8 because the blinds come so fast that it's too highly variable. I'm glad I stuck it out because I came out of a shortish three hour session with a nice profit. In her smaller game Connie out earned me by tripling my meager profit. She had one of those rare session where the deck just hits you over the head and the other players just refuse to believe you have a good hand. Makes it very easy to make money when that happens. I'm tickled because when she does well she is willing to go back again. A bad session would have her sulking for a month :) (she reads this so I'm probably going to pay for that but it's TRUE!). Now that things are settling down I should be playing more. The WSOP tournament circuit is in town, starting today at Harrah's (formerly The Grand). That should mean that there will be more and softer games available for the choosing for the next couple of weeks. I hope so.
Time to get back to work now...well it's got to be done.
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
Monday, January 5, 2009
The Road Less Traveled
There is no telling how many entries I've used the above title for but I'm willing to bet it's a few over the years. It seems that on my journey through life I've spent a good bit of it on, as Robert Frost put it "The road less traveled by." That has long been my favorite poem. It came up today in my email when I got it as one of two daily quotes. The actual quote is:
Two roads diverged in a wood and I –I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.-- Robert Frost
It's a great poem and describes my life very well I feel. If you've never read it look it up on Google and take a look.
The other quote in today's email was:
As you go the way of life you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think.-- Native American Proverb
Both of these are very fitting as today is pretty much the start of a journey down a new road in my life. I guess I've dabbled with this path for a while now but today it seems like I'm really firmly and surely on this new road.
There aren't too many people, or too many couples who would pick up and move OUT of Florida for their retirement years. True we're not really retired yet, not nearly, but we also don't plan to go back. That's why I feel that both those quotes fit my situation so well.
Today was Connie's first official day working from here in Mississippi. All our stuff is either here or in transit to here. I can now say that I'm living in Mississippi. I thought about it a bit last night and it was actually a bit scary in some ways but it's too late now, this is the road I'm on for better or worse now. I think it's going to work out just fine really. Mostly anything scary about it was the fact that I sometimes have trouble eliminating options or burning bridges and really don't like change all that much. Well the option of living here or there is now gone, the bridge pretty much toast, the change is done. Now all there is to do is move on and enjoy this new road less traveled.
Two roads diverged in a wood and I –I took the one less traveled by,And that has made all the difference.-- Robert Frost
It's a great poem and describes my life very well I feel. If you've never read it look it up on Google and take a look.
The other quote in today's email was:
As you go the way of life you will see a great chasm. Jump. It is not as wide as you think.-- Native American Proverb
Both of these are very fitting as today is pretty much the start of a journey down a new road in my life. I guess I've dabbled with this path for a while now but today it seems like I'm really firmly and surely on this new road.
There aren't too many people, or too many couples who would pick up and move OUT of Florida for their retirement years. True we're not really retired yet, not nearly, but we also don't plan to go back. That's why I feel that both those quotes fit my situation so well.
Today was Connie's first official day working from here in Mississippi. All our stuff is either here or in transit to here. I can now say that I'm living in Mississippi. I thought about it a bit last night and it was actually a bit scary in some ways but it's too late now, this is the road I'm on for better or worse now. I think it's going to work out just fine really. Mostly anything scary about it was the fact that I sometimes have trouble eliminating options or burning bridges and really don't like change all that much. Well the option of living here or there is now gone, the bridge pretty much toast, the change is done. Now all there is to do is move on and enjoy this new road less traveled.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Moving on up
Up to Mississippi that is. As soon as Christmas passed the packing began in earnest. The POD was delivered right on time the day after Christmas and we started loading up. It's gone very well so far and now we're down to just having to pack up the kitchen cabinets and one bathroom.
Here's the POD on the drivway in front of the house. It was really cool watching them deliver it. I had visions of them having to tilt it to get it off the truck onto the ground and didn't see how I was going to keep the furniture from sliding around. The way they do it is really cool but hard to explain. The truck carries a sort of skeleton vehicle that sort of surrounds the pod and supports is at four points from below so that it goes up and down nice and evenly. It looks to be adjustable every which way, somebody did some real creative thinking with that one.
Here is the partially loaded POD sometime early yesterday I think, maybe the day before. It's all kind of mushed together. It is MUCH fuller now. I thought we would not be filling it but we will be getting it quite full. It's a very good thing that I took as much as I did one pick-up truck load at a time for the last year and a half when I went to visit. If I'd taken any less stuff we'd have had a problem.The packing should be finished by tomorrow night and Wednesday they will come pick the POD up. We leave here on Saturday and will drive straight through. Connie and Caylith (the cat) will be in the toyota and I'll take the pick up. She is not looking forward to driving for 14 hours but she'll do fine. It's a one shot deal for her. I've done it on average every 4 -6 weeks for a year and a half or more.
We need to be up there on Sunday because... hold onto your hats...
THE DOLPHINS MADE THE PLAYOFFS!!!!!
That was supposed to be the dolphin's teal green :) I can't believe that they went from 1 and 15 last year to 11-5 and in the playoffs this year! I can wear my dolphins stuff out in public now and not face (deserved) ridicule. I may be moving out of Florida but I will remain a Dolphins Fan!
I'll also be glad to get to a place that isn't HOT all the time. We had record heat for Christmas. It was like 83 or so here. That is just WRONG! I don't expect a white Christmas but is it too much to ask to be able to wear long pants and a long sleeved shirt? No problem with that in Northern Mississippi that time of year!
Ok time to get back to work... I hope everybody had a wonderful Christmas...take care ya'll.
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Completed Projects
A while back I posted some pictures of a couple of projects that I started, intending them to be Christmas gifts. Well I actually finished them! I thought I'd post a picture or two as proof and to let you see how things turned out. I'm not posting pictures of all the ornaments, the one I'm including is representative.
I'll probably do more of them during the year to prepare for next Christmas because they were a lot of fun. The bookhouse I will probably not do another of until Connie starts teaching, she has already told me she wants one or more for her classroom. The bookhouse turned out pretty good but it was a LOT bigger than I thought it would be, why I don't know. It did have to be big enough to hold books after all.
I don't even want to THINK about how much it cost to ship to Pennsylvania to my sister in law. I guess I need to remember to think SMALL for the things that need to be shipped.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
Plodding Along
It's been a while since I posted an entry. In part I've been busy. In part I did not have anything that I deemed remotely interesting to write about. I've been reading journals and, as usual, not commenting. When I do that it's usually because I didn't feel I had anything to add to what had already been said. That is also a part of why I have not written. I didn't feel I had much, if anything of much value to add to anything going on in this community or any other.
Did anybody really want to read about the state of poker and casinos in general? Probably not anybody I haven't emailed and gripped about it to. Does anybody really care how many boxes I've packed in preparing to 'officially' move to MS in a month? Only Connie and she knows, she has to walk around them. I didn't have the energy or motivation to try to write a worthy Thanksgiving entry. It was actually a good Thanksgiving as holidays go but nothing astounding to share it seems to me, not compared to what I read anyway.
On the other hand I do like to write and it's time to do so. I look back on these journals from time to time to see what was happening so in part, in large part really, I'm writing for myself. Maybe we all are, or maybe it's just me.
I've got this feeling like I'm living in an almost schizophrenic world. If I don't watch too much news and look only around my immediate little world then my journey through life seems to be going very well. I'm pretty happy. Connie is pretty happy. Lee is doing pretty well. All well and good.
Unfortunately there is this kind of feeling as I walk along the path of life's journey that I'm walking on what has become an increasingly narrow ledge. There are no saftey rails, most of them have rusted and fallen away thanks to things totally beyond my control. It's a long way down and I am not comfortable with heights. Couple that with the fact that on the other side of the narrow path is a huge cliff with boulders poised to fall at any minute and either sweep away any remaining feeling of safety or possibly sweep me into the abyss. Sounds like a dark and forbidding picture huh? Actually it's very much a mixed picture in my mind. I can also see bright blue skys and lush green pastures that await if I can dodge the obstacles in front of me. In a sense that is always the way it is on any journey but in this case I feel like there is little I can do to control the outcome of the journey right now. It's that lack of control (and I am NOT a control freak by any stretch of the imagination I don't think...am I?) that has me feeling sort of antsy. We've planned, we've worked, we've done all the right things and yet it could be all for naught...or it could be wonderful...and there is not a thing we can do now but wait and see what happens. That is a tough situation. I know I share it with many, if not most, people right now although most would think my way of looking it it a bit weird.
But having written that do you now see why I have not written? Talking about it does NOT help. What helps is staying very busy doing things that I can see producing tangible if not vitally important results, building things, creating, cleaning, improving things in my immediate life while trying not to take too much time looking at a big picture that is increasingly bleak and which is increasingly nothing that any amount of planning or work on my part can do anything about.
I'll be back in less time this time...maybe writing about some of the small things that are making me feel good will not only help me but help somebody else. They don't matter in the overall scheme of things but they make me happy and more and more it seems to be important to take any happiness where you can find it and be grateful while trying to avoid thing things that you cannot change that make you unhappy. I know it's a philosophy sure to be condemned by many in this community and the world in general. Sometimes its a good thing to have a small audience, fewer people to tell me I'm nuts (dont' waste your breath...I'm know I'm nuts....I like it that way).
Did anybody really want to read about the state of poker and casinos in general? Probably not anybody I haven't emailed and gripped about it to. Does anybody really care how many boxes I've packed in preparing to 'officially' move to MS in a month? Only Connie and she knows, she has to walk around them. I didn't have the energy or motivation to try to write a worthy Thanksgiving entry. It was actually a good Thanksgiving as holidays go but nothing astounding to share it seems to me, not compared to what I read anyway.
On the other hand I do like to write and it's time to do so. I look back on these journals from time to time to see what was happening so in part, in large part really, I'm writing for myself. Maybe we all are, or maybe it's just me.
I've got this feeling like I'm living in an almost schizophrenic world. If I don't watch too much news and look only around my immediate little world then my journey through life seems to be going very well. I'm pretty happy. Connie is pretty happy. Lee is doing pretty well. All well and good.
Unfortunately there is this kind of feeling as I walk along the path of life's journey that I'm walking on what has become an increasingly narrow ledge. There are no saftey rails, most of them have rusted and fallen away thanks to things totally beyond my control. It's a long way down and I am not comfortable with heights. Couple that with the fact that on the other side of the narrow path is a huge cliff with boulders poised to fall at any minute and either sweep away any remaining feeling of safety or possibly sweep me into the abyss. Sounds like a dark and forbidding picture huh? Actually it's very much a mixed picture in my mind. I can also see bright blue skys and lush green pastures that await if I can dodge the obstacles in front of me. In a sense that is always the way it is on any journey but in this case I feel like there is little I can do to control the outcome of the journey right now. It's that lack of control (and I am NOT a control freak by any stretch of the imagination I don't think...am I?) that has me feeling sort of antsy. We've planned, we've worked, we've done all the right things and yet it could be all for naught...or it could be wonderful...and there is not a thing we can do now but wait and see what happens. That is a tough situation. I know I share it with many, if not most, people right now although most would think my way of looking it it a bit weird.
But having written that do you now see why I have not written? Talking about it does NOT help. What helps is staying very busy doing things that I can see producing tangible if not vitally important results, building things, creating, cleaning, improving things in my immediate life while trying not to take too much time looking at a big picture that is increasingly bleak and which is increasingly nothing that any amount of planning or work on my part can do anything about.
I'll be back in less time this time...maybe writing about some of the small things that are making me feel good will not only help me but help somebody else. They don't matter in the overall scheme of things but they make me happy and more and more it seems to be important to take any happiness where you can find it and be grateful while trying to avoid thing things that you cannot change that make you unhappy. I know it's a philosophy sure to be condemned by many in this community and the world in general. Sometimes its a good thing to have a small audience, fewer people to tell me I'm nuts (dont' waste your breath...I'm know I'm nuts....I like it that way).
And that's the way it is....
Look around you...find one thing that can make you smile and then....SMILE...and have a great day ya'll!
Sunday, November 2, 2008
Cruisin' on home...
I'm tired so this will be short but I'm feeling a wee bit of withdrawal having not been able to even think about writing here for over a week now.
We're back from our cruise. It was great as they usually are. It was our fifth trip on the Carnival Glory and probably our last since a year from December they will be pulling the Glory out of Port Canaveral and replacing her with a new ship, the Dream. Of course we won't be living in Orlando and Mobile and New Orleans will both be closer as ports to cruise out of but who knows when and where the next cruise will be. I'm ready to go again now but that's just me. Too bad they aren't free LOL.
We even got an extra half day tacked onto this cruise. On Thursday a crewmember on the ship, a 23 year old woman, developed appendicitis and we had to divert and head toward Puerto Rico to get within range of a US Coast Guard helicopter to medi-evac her off the ship. We cruised for 5 or 6 hours in pretty much the wrong direction... straight south instead of the Northwest heading we'd been on. The helicopter got to the ship around 7:00 pm I guess, in full dark. It was interesting to watch and the Coast Guard did a great job. Oddly this is the second cruise we've been on where somebody had to be evacuated by helicopter. The other time we were not diverted though since we were already within range of a coast guard station I suppose.
All told we got into Port Canaveral about 10 hours late. Usually we count on having all day Saturday to do stuff after getting off a cruise but we didn't even get home until 8PM. Normally that would not matter but we were having a bunch of people over for poker on Sunday so it put a crimp in our prep time.
We got everything done though and had 13 people here tonight. First we watched a poker show on FSN called ClubWPT.com. A friend of ours had won a seat to play on TV six handed for a winner take all prize of $5000. Tonight was the airing of his show. It was fun to watch as this was the first time he'd seen it too so he got to see the hole cards of the other players for the first time. It was even better because it turned out he WON!!! He managed not to tell anyone but we'd kinda guessed that he might have.
We played two mini-tournaments after the show was over and everybody ate too much considering that EVERYBODY brought plenty of food. It worked out well even though we've moved a lot of our furniture to Mississippi already. Instead of telling people "bring your own bottle" we told them "Bring your own chair". How many times do you hear that? LOL
Anyway we're done and everybody is home and I'm beat. We were supposed to leave for Mississippi tomorrow but I didnt' get the truck packed so it's looking like we'll be leaving Tuesday...and yes...we've already voted.
I'll be writing again in a day or two probably, who knows from which 'home'. I'll get caught up on everyone's blogs as soon as possible but it will probably take me until the middle of the week or maybe even next weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has been up to.
We're back from our cruise. It was great as they usually are. It was our fifth trip on the Carnival Glory and probably our last since a year from December they will be pulling the Glory out of Port Canaveral and replacing her with a new ship, the Dream. Of course we won't be living in Orlando and Mobile and New Orleans will both be closer as ports to cruise out of but who knows when and where the next cruise will be. I'm ready to go again now but that's just me. Too bad they aren't free LOL.
We even got an extra half day tacked onto this cruise. On Thursday a crewmember on the ship, a 23 year old woman, developed appendicitis and we had to divert and head toward Puerto Rico to get within range of a US Coast Guard helicopter to medi-evac her off the ship. We cruised for 5 or 6 hours in pretty much the wrong direction... straight south instead of the Northwest heading we'd been on. The helicopter got to the ship around 7:00 pm I guess, in full dark. It was interesting to watch and the Coast Guard did a great job. Oddly this is the second cruise we've been on where somebody had to be evacuated by helicopter. The other time we were not diverted though since we were already within range of a coast guard station I suppose.
All told we got into Port Canaveral about 10 hours late. Usually we count on having all day Saturday to do stuff after getting off a cruise but we didn't even get home until 8PM. Normally that would not matter but we were having a bunch of people over for poker on Sunday so it put a crimp in our prep time.
We got everything done though and had 13 people here tonight. First we watched a poker show on FSN called ClubWPT.com. A friend of ours had won a seat to play on TV six handed for a winner take all prize of $5000. Tonight was the airing of his show. It was fun to watch as this was the first time he'd seen it too so he got to see the hole cards of the other players for the first time. It was even better because it turned out he WON!!! He managed not to tell anyone but we'd kinda guessed that he might have.
We played two mini-tournaments after the show was over and everybody ate too much considering that EVERYBODY brought plenty of food. It worked out well even though we've moved a lot of our furniture to Mississippi already. Instead of telling people "bring your own bottle" we told them "Bring your own chair". How many times do you hear that? LOL
Anyway we're done and everybody is home and I'm beat. We were supposed to leave for Mississippi tomorrow but I didnt' get the truck packed so it's looking like we'll be leaving Tuesday...and yes...we've already voted.
I'll be writing again in a day or two probably, who knows from which 'home'. I'll get caught up on everyone's blogs as soon as possible but it will probably take me until the middle of the week or maybe even next weekend. I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone has been up to.
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Remember the Ice Cream Truck?
Do you remember as a kid how you loved to hear the Ice Cream Truck driving through your neighborhood? I know I did. It would bring kids tearing out of their houses to try to catch up with it.
I'd thought it was a thing of the past actually, gone the way of the Milk Man, the Charles Chips Man and Drive In movies. It's not gone though. It's driving through my neighborhood.
At first it gave me a nice nostalgic flashback. Then, after it had been parked in front of my house for a bit the nice nostalgic feeling gave way to irritation. The old curmudgeon in me started to come out.
I suppose that it always played really badly recorded music realy loudly. I mean that is how we knew it was coming. But after listening to it for a good ten minutes (I guess the kids could not make up their minds) I know wonder if maybe our parents didn't look at it with quite the enthusiasm that us kids did. Possibly they even had thoughts of ripping the speaker off the side of the thing and stomping on it. I would no longer blame them :)
Just goes to show you how your perceptions can change over time. I was tempted to go out and see about buying something but I have a feeling the prices would shock me. I can't actually remember how much we used to pay for things but I know I always just needed some change, no paper money. These days you probably need a credit card to afford it.
The neighborhood kids still looked just as happy to see it as I remember being though. I never got to see my kid react to hearing it. At 21 now he'd be more likely to want to shut off the loud and truly horrible music than to get an ice cream...but maybe not.
Even the the old curmudgeon can step aside long enough to smile at the nostalgic thoughts of times gone by. Oh...and it moved on so it's quiet again which helps too :)
I'd thought it was a thing of the past actually, gone the way of the Milk Man, the Charles Chips Man and Drive In movies. It's not gone though. It's driving through my neighborhood.
At first it gave me a nice nostalgic flashback. Then, after it had been parked in front of my house for a bit the nice nostalgic feeling gave way to irritation. The old curmudgeon in me started to come out.
I suppose that it always played really badly recorded music realy loudly. I mean that is how we knew it was coming. But after listening to it for a good ten minutes (I guess the kids could not make up their minds) I know wonder if maybe our parents didn't look at it with quite the enthusiasm that us kids did. Possibly they even had thoughts of ripping the speaker off the side of the thing and stomping on it. I would no longer blame them :)
Just goes to show you how your perceptions can change over time. I was tempted to go out and see about buying something but I have a feeling the prices would shock me. I can't actually remember how much we used to pay for things but I know I always just needed some change, no paper money. These days you probably need a credit card to afford it.
The neighborhood kids still looked just as happy to see it as I remember being though. I never got to see my kid react to hearing it. At 21 now he'd be more likely to want to shut off the loud and truly horrible music than to get an ice cream...but maybe not.
Even the the old curmudgeon can step aside long enough to smile at the nostalgic thoughts of times gone by. Oh...and it moved on so it's quiet again which helps too :)
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