I’ve thought about being here.  That sums it up pretty well.  I’ve thought about it but not taken a slice of time out of the daze to get here.  Some days I leap through and barely know they were there, others are like a quagmire of molasses and drag forever but not much is accomplished.  Today is a day to be somewhere but I thought I’d stop here and make some noise into the echoing emptiness of cyber.

Riot spent the weekend with me.  I picked him up from school on Friday and we stopped by the old digs for a few and then headed for “P” to start searching for rabbits, throwing dirt into the air, picking up sticks to carry for weapons against the bears, and a variety of other very important issues that are a must on the list of to-dos.  We set up our fire pot each evening so when it got dark we could go out and start our fire and stare at the mesmerizing flames.  I stared, Riot romped around, and was the main fire tender with being allowed to slide the grid over on the pot and stir the fire with a poker.  We have had many lectures about fires and never playing in them – my most over used expression to him in many instances is, “not a toy!”  He should have that tattooed forever into every lobe of his brain by now.  I spend some hours of each of his visits explaining that games and movies – are just that, not real, all pretend, and it’s OK to pretend.  But in the real world where we are, some things are not fun and not wanted, like hitting, bad talking, and some things simply are not toys.  I often wonder if it ever registers.

I swear, if I take him into one more store or place where he can open his mouth to a 6’5″ guy and defiantly blurt out, “I’m gonna kick your butt!” as he stares down his opponent, I’m going to take him immediately out of the store and whip his butt.  We went round after round on that one.  He’s been warned.  I’m not into spanking a kid but I’ve spanked him a few times and will do it again if I have to.  At my place he has to go ‘time out’ which is my little 3-step-up to the bedroom.  As soon as I say, “Go time out!” he immediately goes over and sits down.  There is no time out zone in a store.

It’s just brutal having him in a cart or walking beside me and having him say, “I’m gonna kick your butt!” and then chastising him for saying it and trying to apologize and explain to the guy he said it to.  Riot was probably a high limit poker player in his last life and has no respect for anyone. UGH!

My shoulder is frigging killing me today…for no reason other than an old skiing accident where I tried to jam my it thru the mountain on a poorly timed downhill turn.  It should have bothered me five days ago when I threw 180 windsor stones out of the back of my truck like I was doing a shotput, or even as I dug a hole for a new planting project, or a variety of other reasons that would explain it, but today and yesterday were easy-on-the-body daze and it aches like a bad toothache today in the joint.  Is this old age?  Fiddle shit.

Sis is home since almost 10 days ago and will be here about another 10.  The other half went to MT to pick up the last of his tools that have been stored up there, he should be back on the weekend.  They set up an older travel trailer on the back of the property and it will be converted to his shop.  He’s done the jack of all trades type of thing, woodworking, electrical, concrete and more.  Not sure what his 1st major project will entail but it’s nice to know that it’s available if something is needed or sis wants something changed in the house.

The weather is cooling off again.  Nights have been ranging to the low 50’s in the early a.m. and the last three days have been very tolerable – no, the air conditioning isn’t off during the day yet – and I have to confess I’m ready for the season to change.  I have a few planting projects coming up and have started to make plans for my front yard/sis’s backyard landscaping project.  It should be a doozy.  We will need more loads of #2 gravel hauled in and me, a shovel, and the wheelbarrow will be the major gravel movers again.

I haven’t played poker as of late, other than the PokerWorks Family tournament on the 13th.  We played 7 card stud 8 or better and definitely got some play for the investment.  Clearspine didn’t make it but there were seven of us that did.  J.B. – the super user – hasn’t been there in quite some time now but he’s still missed.   As far as our tournament results, Glenda won the big bucks.

PokerStars Tournament #192541574, Limit 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo
Buy-In: $5.00/$0.50 USD
7 players
Total Prize Pool: $35.00 USD
Tournament started 2009/09/13 21:00:00 ET
Tournament finished 2009/09/13 23:27:17 ET
1: PokerHack07 (Alturas), $17.50 (50%)
2: djhomeschool (Denton), $10.50 (30%)
3: yestbay1 (Grapevine), $7.00 (20%)
4: grupper (**),
5: cmacc85 (waycross),
6: PokerWorks (Las Vegas),
7: msacesup (Nashville),

I do enjoy the hell out of these little tourneys.  We wish you would all join us, the next one will be on the 27th and we didn’t take a vote as to what game we would play, so check back.

I have a Vegas run tonight and a Vegas run tomorrow.  Love it!  No, really, I do!  *grits teeth*  I had a dentist appointment today but cancelled yesterday since the evil tooth has semi settled down.  I guess threatening to have it yanked from its home made it figure out it was time to quit being a pain in the mouth and creating problems.  It’s still not 100% but it’s livable.

Life’s dramas continue to play out and I’m ignoring them for now.  My energy level has dropped to ph-h-hlat.  I’ll be back soon.