My Heroes have not always been Cowboys

Well my football season ended last night most probably. It was a pretty good game, a nice way to finish the season. Unlike the last game, the weather was near perfect. Game time was about 65 degrees and no wind. It was comfortable out there. The game was hard played and mostly clean. We kept a real tight rein on the ticky tack stuff and I think that helped a lot. Near the end of the game I took a pretty good shot to the elbow and side so I'm a little sore today. Good thing the kid who hit me wasn't a little bigger or they'd have had to scrape me up off the field. A couple of umpires seem to get wiped out fairly often. I was never knocked down all year though I did take my share of hits during the year (every umpire does, it's unavoidable where we are positioned) but last night was probably the hardest hit all year.

After the game we went out to a local establishment for some adult beverages. Had a philly cheesesteak and some Stella. The group I worked with was the same guys (and one lady doing the clock) that I worked with the week before. Fun group of guys and do they know how to pick on each other. I know a couple of them pretty well from working with them other times so it was a good time. Most of us went out last week after the game and a couple of them told me to ask the scheduler to put me back with them for this game since they knew their umpire would be out again. I guess I did a pretty fair job with them and they didn't want to take a chance on getting someone else. Fine by me, as I said I really enjoyed working with them and did again last night. Anyway we spent a couple of hours out eating, drinking and laughing it up. An excellent way to close out the season if I don't do any kids games next weekend. I didn't have any this weekend and next weekend will be the youth championship games.

It's been a good season but it does wear on you by the end of the year. A lot of refs get banged up quite a bit during the year, occasionally pretty badly, most of us don't get to the end of the year without aches and pains. The back judge from last night partially tore his meniscus a few weeks ago and by the end of the game last night he was limping pretty good. Last year a head linesman I was working with couldn't get out of the way of a play coming to the sidelines and got run over. Left the game in an ambulance with a broken ankle. Definitely not the way you want your season to end. I've been lucky that way, been hit, cut and bruised a bit, but never anything serious.

Thursday night I went over to Derby Lane to play a little. My wife was playing in a satellite tourney to get an entry to a big tourney down here. Top 3 got entries, 4th got some cash. She went out 7th. She played pretty well but couldn't get a hand to put her over the top. I went to play some 1-1 no limit while she was playing. Not a great night for me. I played pretty well all in all, avoided a lot of problems and laid down a couple of hands at the right time. But lady luck killed me all the same. Worst hand I was on the button and raised to $5 after 3 people limped. One of the blinds called along with all the limpers. I had KK. Flop was magic K88. Big blind checks but then guy across the table bets $4. Guy next to me called. I'm really hoping each one has an 8 and I call while the blind folds. Next card is the killer 8 of spades. God damn. Everybody checks. River is an Ace. Same guy bets 4, guy next to me calls, and I'm weighing my options. Option one is one guy with a pocket pair and another with an Ace or King. Option 2 is an Ace King in one hand and a king in the other. Both seem unlikely though the first is at least possible. Worst possibility is some yahoo called me with an 8 and got extremely lucky. Bingo. I decided to call anyway as the bet was small compared to the pot size. Guy next to me has the 8. I guess he hoped I had KK or AA and would push over the top on the river so he could clean me out. Sorry to deny you lucktard. Calls a 5x raise with 7-8 off suit and makes his 22-1 shot

And thats how the night went. Every good hand getting shot down, no draws hitting, etc. I did well to keep my self out of losing a ton but it never got good. Amazing to me how I never once even flopped a flush draw though I had suited connectors a ton of times and hands like AJ and A10 suited. Even had AK suited once. Never caught shit. The only hand I caught on was the one that should have broken me. Must have pissed off the poker gods that time. Idiot 2 seats to my left said I should have pushed all in after the flop. Of course he is lucking into full houses with 6-3 off and straights with J7 so he must be the poker master. I just ignored him. As bad as it was it was still a good night. I made myself be patient, not push out of position, and picked off a couple of bluffs. Also made a couple of good bluffs because they knew I played the goods. Got the moron to my right to call my top pair all in with second pair and no draw. Unfortunately that still left me behind but it was good to take back some chips at least.

Today I have no real plans. Maybe a little shopping and possibly some more poker but I haven't made any decisions. Wife is coming back from Orlando today. She had the day off Thursday for Veterans Day and then took yesterday off. She took my nieces and a nephew to Universal Studios to go to Harry Potter world and other things. She bought them all (well I bought one) season passes to Universal as an early Christmas gift. They went by and picked up our daughter and all seemed to be enjoying it quite a bit based on the call I had last night and this morning. So maybe I'll go have a little adult fun while they are out and about. And on that note it's time to go cuz I need a shower and some lunch. Stay lucky you nuts.