Funny, I’ve been called a killer when I’m dealing – along with a variety of other names – but for the first time in my life, I actually thought I was going to kill someone. No, it’s not even close to what you might be thinking. No rage, no premeditated stuff, just simple death. I was cruising down Tropicana in the Silver Steed, 45-50 MPH, in the inside lane of three lanes. The light changed to yellow about 30 yards in front of me. No…there’s no way to stop and I wasn’t even close to a red light and the speed limit is 45 mph.

The truck in the middle lane was stopped but as I approached, from my angle, he could have just been slowing down. BOOM! A guy stepped right out in front of me – he was in the cross walk and completely hidden by the truck in the middle lane. I hit the brakes, cranked the wheel – luckily no one was in the center turn lane or I would taken them out – and the Steed handled magnificently. At the same time – as everything is happening all at once – the guy saw me. It registered that he was going to DIE! He jumped back to safety in front of the stopped truck.

I was through the intersection in a heartbeat – the light was still yellow – I was gasping for air, literally going through emotional breakdown and my whole body was feeling the aftershock of “OH MY GOD!” I was so emotional for a few minutes after that that I burst into tears.

No…I don’t feel I was wrong or could have even done anything any differently than I did. What was the pedestrian thinking? He didn’t have a ‘walk’ light. The light had just hit yellow and wasn’t even close to going ‘red’. And worse than that, why was the truck stopped, allowing the guy to cross when he’s not supposed to be in the crosswalk? Kee-rist!

The pedestrian was a big guy – about 30ish – healthy – and I watched him in my rear view mirror, he just continued across the intersection like nothing had happened…or seemed to. He would have looked pretty bad as hamburger spread up and down the street for a half a mile and stuck all over the front of the Silver Steed. And this kid would never have gotten over it. I can’t even stand the thought. I leave it at that.

That happened on Friday as I was on my way in to work. I finally settled down and stopped hyperventilating about three miles and numerous red lights later. But not to worry, once it starts, it continues for a few days or so it seems. Three small cars, at different areas of traffic, cut right into the lane in front of me with no space to spare, and they were driving too fast. I wonder if the Steed is invisible on some days…or if they are just on a death wish and they figure today is the day.

But back to work. I arrived at Bellagio, hit the poker room office, walked in and said ‘hello’ to Karen and Pete, and went out to sign the E/O Play list and who would be standing there? None other than Paul! And like a dumb butt, I had my camera and my brain was so addled I didn’t even have someone take our picture. Phffft! Paul and I almost met one other time, back a few years ago. He’s a reader here and that’s how we started our email trail of his coming to Vegas and when. I followed him out to the entrance to the poker room, met his wife, Jessica, and their friend Ashley. We managed a visit and said our goodbyes…they were going somewhere else to play poker and I was going to check the line-up to see where I started for the night.

I went in asked Pete if there would be any players at 7 p.m. – that would be me hopefully. He looked at me, “What are you doing here? I had you off for the night!”

Ok! Color me out of there. Away I went; back out into the heat of the city and the desert, a three-day weekend with a detour to check into work. Sweet!