Writing Update (Patreon)

tl;dr - Lost half the week to life-crap, but plugging along.

Allow me to whinge about my entirely first-world difficulties.

Tuesday night I went to play a poker tournament, a satellite into this weekend's $100k guaranteed tournament. I won the $85 satellite, so got a seat into the full tournament, running Day 1s Thursday through Saturday. Tournaments like this have multiple "day 1" in order to cut the field down for the Day 2 event -- so, typically something like all the Day 1 tournaments go until there are, say, 50 players left, then those players take their stacks into Day 2 along with 50 from each of the other Day 1 events.

Anyway, I pull out of the poker venue, get on the highway, and get a low tire-pressure warning.

I have an EV, so this isn't new to me -- EV tires are susceptible to punctures. When I moved into my new house, when there was construction all over the place, I went through eight tires in the first year I was here.

So I'm driving home, watching the pressure, and wondering if it will hit the red-zone before I get home. It starts dropping faster. It gets under 30psi and I pull over to break out the tire sealant kit (no spare due to weight).

Imagine my surprise when said kit is not in the trunk -- I have no idea where it is.

I do have the inflator, so I figure maybe I can get it back up enough to drive a few more miles. Maybe I'll have to do this several times to get home.

Won't inflate above 21psi.

It's 12:00am, I'm on one of the loneliest stretches of road in the state, with 20 miles to go to get home. Finally flag somebody down and offer him some cash to drop me at my house, which goes smoothly.

Wednesday morning, I catch an Uber back to my car, stopping to pick up a can of fixaflat.

That goes in, tire inflates, and we're off ... for about two miles. Pressure starts dropping again, followed by pop-bang and a sudden drop to zero.

Call the insurance company, they send someone, the someone calls and says I'm out of their service area, they'll tell the insurance company to send someone else, ten minutes later no word, so I call a local tow company.

Tow gets me home, mobile tire visit scheduled for Thursday.

Friday involves going to the county courthouse to pay an unrelated ticket - first ticket in years, but I didn't make it to "school" in time, so have to go pay more.

Saturday, I go to my Day 1 flight for the tournament, get up about 2x in chips in a couple hours, then this hand.

Queen/Jack of spades, I limp in. Flop comes QJ5 rainbow. I have two pair and position. Dude bets 4x pot. Everybody else folds, I raise 2x his bet. He reraises.

The only thing that can beat me is trips, as I have top two pair. I'm blocking QQ and JJ, and he really wasn't acting like he had pocket 5s preflop. I say YOLO and go all in.

He turns over ... QQ.

I turn over ... 45 of spades, because QJ of spades is what i had on the hand before this one and I was distracted thinking about a good bit for a scene.

I am not playing Day 2 today.