Easter was pretty good. I spent most of the weekend with Leah and her kids. Leah and I went to a little park in San Marcos and chilled out. It was great, and I even kicked some hacky sack with her two middle kids. The day was beautiful.
I had planned to borrow a truck for the weekend from a good friend of mine, but was dismayed to note, a bit too late in the process, that said truck was not an automatic transmission.
I think, perhaps, under duress I could summon my powers of driving technique and drive a straight transmission, but my confidence level is low. I’ve always hoped for a “straight transmission simulator” I could use to grow my confidence level. Alas, the practice I’ve had driving stick has been minimal.
So, no car.
So Easter morning, which was sprinkled with lovely Easter Bunny hats courtesy Leah and Me) and a lovely breakfast. Leah and her kids went to Easter services and I got on a bus, bound south for Crawford Holiday Activities. It took a while, but eventually I got far enough south that my Aunt was easily able to pick me up.
On the way I got some strange news about a mutual acquaintance, about which I really can’t say anything here, but suffice to say that fidelity and loyalty abused is a terrible thing. I feel for those who have been made to play the cuckold.
I played ping pong with various cousins, kids, my uncle — very good time, and I was able to not embarrass myself too badly with poor play. I’m surprisingly proud of my performance. I also threw a nerf football around with my cuz (he’s 15) whose form with a football is an order of magnitude better than mine (he plays both football and baseball) … his exhortations to “throw it like a tomahawk” were well intended, but no closer to my frame of reference than “throw it like a football.” Continuing the theme of game-play, we played a game called Phase 10, a card game with Uno like cards and rules like a mush of Yahtzee and Rummy. That seems rather promising.
I had also played “poker” with Leah and her kids on Friday night – and enjoyed it much, though it was poker modulated by rules to make it more “fun.”
This is I think poker is only poker when there are real stakes (e.g.: things of value, usually money), otherwise the game really doesn’t have the necessary impetus to work. I believe it was in a David Mamet essay where I read that poker is not a game of chance, or a simple card game, it’s a game specifically about playing against the wills of other human beings. Bluffs and raises are not inherent in games of skill or chance, they are about human manipulation.
This entry is unfinished, and will remain so.
