Hot Hot Heat

It is officially Africa Hot in the IE. IE stands for "Inland Empire," a rather high-falutin name for the area in which I live, an area far more notable for its confluence of clandestine methamphetemine labs than for anything one would normally associate with an Empire. It's also still refered to as the "909," for its original area code, but most of the region no longer has that area code, so it's as outdated as platform shoes.

ANYWAY, the heat has had several implications. One, the A/C got turned on, in both vehicle and home, for the first time this summer. I am so not an A/C in the car type person. I need the open road man, wind whipping through my luxurious mane, sunburnt arm dangling. But yesterday, I felt like the swelter would shrivel me up. Seems like a long time ago that I was freezing at Carlsbad State Beach. Two, it apparently caused our refrigerator to surrender. Our eight-month old refrigerator, stocked with the finest meats and chesses, all of which we had to consume last night in an orgy of gluttony. Just kidding, we have another refrigerator in the garage. And the only thing I ate last night was five Hefeweizens.

Three, it killed a promising romantic evening, as the dear and patient wife invoked the Too Goddamn Hot Rule, which bars body contact. Not to worry, I've been rejected on flimsier grounds than that. I suggested I could manage the feat with minimal friction, from partially across the room even, but that was met with predictable guffaws.

So I played poker.

Big thanks to Wes for further expanding on my post yesterday, throwing even more illumination on what's been hampering me. "Quality time with poker." Perfect. That's exactly what I've been lacking. She and I have been sitting around eating Cheetos and watching TV instead of getting out there and L-I-V-I-N. I also stumbled upon another truth:

I'm spending too much time working/thinking on MY game and not enough on THE game.

Make sense? If I immediately filter everything I absorb through my personal poker frame of reference, it will naturally have a certain distortion. Thinking about it in the abstract, letting the concepts stand on their own and THEN applying it to my personal situation seems to be precisely the kind of "different angle" I'm looking for.

Bouyed by my unlocking of secrets great and small, I played in the right mind last night and went to bed with a winning session. A slight winning session, but you'll not hear a single disparaging word from this quarter. It was definitely quality time.

Again, a reminder:

WPBT "Charlie" Tournament

When? 6PM EST Sunday July 17th

Where? PokerStars

How Much? $20 - every penny goes to charity

What Do I Get When I Win? The comfort of knowing you're doing something good for someone else

No, Really... No. Really.

All proceeds to go to wherever Charlie Tuttle's family wants them. Come on out and play!

Had nearly 50 last night when I checked, which isn't bad, especially considering the registrations tend to pick up as the date gets closer. I'd like to see some big numbers here. How about 250? That's Five Gs, man. As Axl Rose once so eloquently implored Bob Guccione Jr, "Get in the ring..."