POKER

There’s a saying, somthing to the effect that we have to play the hands we’re dealt. In other words, this would say that what we’re given determines our fate.

Now I’ve played poker for many years and have to differ. Yes, we get dealt a hand, but before we play it, we also get to draw to it. And then after we draw to it, we still get to “play” it. What does that tell us?

Well, I’ve actually won a good-sized pot with nothing more than a Jack high hand. And I’ve lost a hand when I was holding a full boat.

Go figure.

Fading

I guess some of our clearest vision comes to us between sleeping and waking.

Clarity came to visit me during the night just passed,  in that fuzzy hour before dawn. It came in the form of a dream just before my waking, did this epiphany. And it brought a clarity I could have done without.

I was preparing to make a speech. One I used to make annually, emceeing a large gathering of military types. This time, however, it wasn’t in a convention hotel somewhere…but rather on a mountain. And the final gathering of the convention–including my emceeing duties, were to take place in a large open area well beneath the summit.

This particular year, for some reason, my preparations weren’t complete as the convention played out. And even as the final gathering began, there was much uncompleted in my part of the ceremonies. I left the general area, and moved up the mountain to try and get my speech finished, moving into heavier and heavier fog as I went up the mountainside toward a place where I planned to the work done. But I just couldn’t seem to complete my portion of the final gathering. Then, having moved into heavy fog, I realized that I could no longer see the path and no longer had any clue as to which way to go to reach my destination or to return to the gathering area somewhere below me.

To further confuse everything, snakes had begun dropping out of the trees around me. I don’t recall them striking or attacking in any way, but their very presence was certainly unnerving. And at some point in all this, I heard, somehow, from someone I’d worked under years before in a completely different setting that I didn’t need to finish my speech and the fun and educational little “quiz” I had always provided.

Then, through the fog, I could hear someone else–a very young man–doing the speech in my place.

Suddenly I realized that I was no longer a part of the “convention”. Just someone in the activity’s past. And it dawned on me that this is what happens to us in life as we grow old. Little by little, our “place” in life just slips away and even though we are still here, those who follow us in our professions, our environments…have less and less use for us; less and less need for us to fill a space among them.

For a short while, we are perhaps venerated for our deeds and experience, but that soon fades as well. Until we are only an occasional subject of idle conversation, usually beginning with the word “Remember…”.

And then, if I may paraphrase General MacArthur–now just a faint memory himself, “Like that old soldier of story and legend, we simply fade away.” We may remain, but our time is done. And now, it’s “their” turn…”their” time.

And in the time remaining to us, we have but to find a way to pass that time.

If we are to believe the dream, I suppose my remaining time would be spent lost in the fog banks high on the side of that mountain somewhere.

Desert Air

In the desert, there are a number of dry river beds. The Arabs call them Wadis. You can hide entire armies in some of those things.

There are also a number of wild dog packs that run out there…coming up close to towns or bedouin encampments just when they can’t find enough food in the desert.

Chasing the packs on motorcycles is a great sport. Until you accidentally run off into one of those wadis.

Hey…out in the Empty Quarter, you find distractions and amusements wherever you can.

Memories

I remember the first time someone else’s metal entered my body. Didn’t even hurt at first…just felt like someone had punched me real hard with a fist. Then it began to burn.

I remember entering a forbidden place by swimming down a long drain pipe. Had to hold my breath for around 2 1/2 minutes. It wasn’t so much holding my breath for that long, but more the thought that there was no retreat and no alternative route. You finished the run, or you drowned.

That simple.

I didn’t drown.

I remember an instructor once telling me that water was life. He was right. I always felt like I would live, if I could just reach water. We were both right.

A “Free Drinks” Trivia Gift

 

  How about a nice freebie today?

  This one can get you lots of free drinks in bars. It sure has been good to me.

  See if anyone can name the seven actors who played the seven cowboys and the villain in the movie, “The Magnificent Seven”.

  Many can name the main actors, i.e. Yul Brynner (Chris), Steve McQueen (Vin), James Coburn (Britt), and Charles Bronson (Bernado).

  Some can name the fifth and sixth, Robert Vaughn (Lee) and Horst Bucholz (Chico).

  And a few more can name the villain, Calvera; Eli Wallach.

  But almost no one can name the seventh “samurai”. Can you?

  Got your pencils ready?

  Brad Dexter. (The ever popular “Harry Luck”)

  Oh..yeah, if they get all those, don’t push with this one, but it’s a good one, too.

  Who played the undertaker for another 500 points.

   Whit Bissell

  And while we’re on the subject of trivia, who said, “What we have here, is a failure to communicate”

  What movie?

  Sorry. This one you gotta figure out on your own. I’ll never tell. <hehehe>

  Just some useless information that can come in handy. If I think of more, I’ll pass them along, too.

Nights Ago

Thoughts from the darkside on a late night somewhere…somewhere not here…and not quite there.

Once upon a time, in a land far away, there were…and then…there weren’t.

Nightmares are dreams gone bad…hard to remember after a while, but still…the queasy uneasy feelings hang…and cling…and drift out there…just out of reach…just close enough…to itch…an itch you can never scratch.

–Le Loup Garou

Desert Air

In the desert, there are a number of dry river beds. The Arabs call them Wadis. You can hide entire armies in some of those things.

There are also a number of wild dog packs that run out there…coming up close to towns or bedouin encampments just when they can’t find enough food in the desert.

Chasing the packs on motorcycles is a great sport. Until you accidentally run off into one of those wadis.

Hey…out in the Empty Quarter, you find distractions and amusements wherever you can.

A Test

 How about a test today? A jargon test, let’s say. If you can decipher most of this, I’d like to buy you a drink sometime.

 A night visit from “Puff”? How about the Betties? Ground and Air…(1) Bouncing and (2) Bitchin’.

 Which side faces whom? On what?

 An AK? Or a 30-30? What about an O2 Rebreather?

A ThunderThud? Rhino? Birddog? Willy Peter? FAC? HALO? Slick? Prick 9?

Get out of jail free card?

A Dragunov 7.62×54? A hushpuppy? Chainsaw? ACP?

Guard geese? Nukmom spitbath? Sittin’ on your pot? KBar?

Studies and Observation Group? Snafu to Fubar and back? Figmo?

The Hill? The Plain? The Red Line?

Sierra Hotel and Tango Uniform?

Just late night rambling…

Well, Have You Ever?

 Ever seen the world upside down from the front of an airplane?

 How about this. Ever looked out of your face mask and at a shark cruisin’ towards you?

 Ever seen Paris from the top of the Eiffel tower?

 Ever break bread with Bedouin in the Empty Quarter in Saudi Arabia?

 How about seeing the Rockys on the back of a motorcyle? Or the Smokeys? Or the Alps?

 Ever crossed the Mojave Desert on a motorcycle?

 Ever had to deal with guard geese?

 Ever been fired?

 Ever stood on top of the North Face at Crested Butte, then skied down it? Well, skied part way and fell the rest.

 Ever shook Bear Bryant’s hand? John Wayne? Elvis? Bob Hope? Had dinner with a King?

 Ever been stabbed? Shot?

 Ever free-dived to 100 feet depth in the ocean?

 Ever jumped out of a perfectly good airplane? How about out of a burning airplane?

 Ever laid in two feet of slimy critter-filled water half the night, waiting for a Slick to get your butt out of there?

 Ever built a website?

 Ever read Sun Tsu’s “The Art of War” Or all the way through the Bible? Ever read “The Fires of Spring?”

 Ever water-skied in the morning and snow skied in the afternoon? In Beruit and Syria?

 Ever stood up in front of 600 0r so motorcycle riders…and talked about safety?

 Ever held a new-born baby, just minutes after she was born? Your own grand-daughter?

 Ever been surrounded by young barracuda, in the Red Sea?

 Ever swim across the Mississippi River?

 Ever looked at another person…through a telescopic sight?

 Ever been knocked unconscious?

 Ever held another person while their life slowly drained out of them?

 Ever flown an aircraft that has no engine, to an altitude of 18,000 feet?

 Ever eaten something while it was still alive?

 Ever had someone you really cared about turn their back on you?

 Ever won a fist fight? Ever lost one?

 Ever run with the bulls at Pamplona?

 Ever crash-landed an airplane?

 Ever had to remove leeches from someone else, while they removed leeches from you?

 Ever spoken other languages?

 Ever regretted?

 Ever felt pride?

 Ever felt lonely? Ever truly been alone?

 Ever been absolutely convinced you were only seconds away from death?

 Ever played chess with Werner Von Braun?

 Ever had a dog?

 Ever been so scared you actually wet yourself?

 Ever driven a race car? In competition?

 Ever saved someone else’s life? Or had someone else save yours?

 Ever run the rapids on “The Green”?

 Ever found out you were absolutely unforgiveably wrong about something?

 Ever been in a knife fight?

 Ever fallen off a running horse?

 Ever cheated at something?

 Ever lied?

 Ever done something nice for someone and made sure they never knew it was you?

 Ever wondered what happens after we die?

 Ever flown an airplane into KaiTaik airport in instrument weather?

 Ever had a true friend? Ever been one?

 Ever been fully prepared to give up your life for someone else?

 Ever climbed up a hill just to see what was on the other side?

 Ever done what was right, even though it cost you dearly?

 Ever run illegal beer into a dry county?

 Ever been lost in a jungle at night?

 Ever stayed up all night reading a good book?

 Ever ridden a bicycle down Hawaii’s highest peak?

 Ever been held prisoner by people who hated you?

 Ever been loved? Unconditionally?

 I have. It’s been a pretty good ride, overall.

Life Question

  Ever wondered why some people seem to breeze right through life, getting the best of it all, without seeming to even work at it very hard. But for others, every step is hard, uphill and on a slippery slope?

  Feel free to enlighten me. I haven’t got a clue.