Yes I am still here.............somewhere

Good evening boys and girls from the wilds of the Tampa Bay area of sunny Florida.  And sunny it is.  This might have been the mildest winter we ever went through and while the spring was nice, it certainly was short.  Summer is just about here.

Sorry about dropping off the face of the earth.  My life over the past year has just not led me into wanting to write much and really I haven't much to talk about.  I have hardly played any poker and I'm sure people are not all that interested in my hum drum life. 

What I have been doing over the past year was to change my lifestyle, at least somewhat.  I finally got disgusted enough with the shape I was in and started doing something about it.  I have done this a couple of times in the past but this time I have actually stuck to it.  Its been about 11 months since I started dieting and exercising and as of today, I've lost 95 lbs.  I got a long way yet to go but it's a decent start.  As my wife said, "you've lost a Backstreet Boy".  Probably one of the little whiny ones - which might be all of them.

Another thing I've done is upped my activity level a bit.  Mostly playing golf and walking.  I am playing at least once a week and I usually hit the range a time or two most weeks as well.  I was doing some pretty heavy walking but had to scale way back when my knee started acting up.  That's slowed down my weight loss a bit.  But I make sure I get my golf on as much as I can.  I used to be frequent golfer before the advent of wife, kids, etc but I rarely golfed more than once or twice a year over the past 25 years.
                                                                                                                                                                  About a year and a half ago I started playing with a buddy of mine.  Boy I am not the player I was in my 20's that's for sure.  And early on, I really struggled just to walk from the cart, up a hill to the green and back.  Luckily this part of Florida is not known for being hilly.  So while most courses are flat, I wasn't walking up to a green 30 feet above the fairway.  I went to a golf retailer and tried some clubs mainly to see what it said about my swing speed.  I was shocked to find it was only 80mph.  I used to swing it at nearly 100.  That definitely changed how I played the game but the main thing is I'm enjoying being out there with a group of guys, doing guy things.  And my game has improved a decent amount in the past year or so which makes it even more enjoyable.  I won't be gracing anyone's tv screen anytime soon but I'm fairly satisfied with my game.  Now if I can only break 90 on a full course.  Thought I might do it this past Sunday but the back 9 did me in. 

So don't expect to get a lot of poker content or much gambling news from me.  I will occasionally get my gambling jones on and I do play a little online but not nearly as much as I used to.  But I sure feel better than I did a year ago and I'm happy to still be around and kicking it.  When my knees feel ok.  And I'm still enjoying reading the hijinks of Rob, and Lucki, and Lightning, and PPP.  I can still live vicariously through them.  So until the writing bug strikes me again, keep on doing what you're doing.