Brain Fried

I only got about five or six hours of sleep last night.  I went to sleep early enough, but I woke several times through the night. Finally, about four thirty a.m. I rolled out of bed and started the day.  I had a nice conversation with TR, then headed off to the office. I spent the morning working on the analysis I mentioned yesterday, finishing it about mid-morning, just in time to start a four hour round of meetings. A nice conversation with one my analysts about ongoing business conditions and a few e-mail wrapped of the day.  I came home and started the evening with an hour long nap, then a light dinner of peanut butter and jelly on whole wheat. Now, I've settled in for an easy night of watching episodes of Dexter and Longmire from the DVR.  Because of the lack of sleep and the detailed time spent staring at the analytical report I'm pretty brain fried tonight.

The Map of the Day

Today was a good day here.  I woke to the sound of a crow, outside my window, calling loudly into the pre-dawn.  Knowing how smart crows are, I have not doubt that he flew by, saw me sleeping there, and thought he would amuse himself by startling me awake.  He was quite successful!

I rolled out, made a cup of coffee and a bowl of Special K and settled down in front of the TV where I ended up watching "Hildalgo" on cable.  That is a truly enjoyable movie.  When the movie wrapped, I headed over to the Hickory Pit and met Tony for breakfast.  From there, I ran a couple of errands and then reached out to my friend Don to see if he wanted to shoot some pool.

He did, and we headed up to the California Billiards Club - where it turned out they were having some sort of corporate event and the entire place was packed.  So, we switched directions and headed over to Edgies.  We played five games and Don won four of the five.  The changed I have made in my game are starting to settle in. Though I lost four games, I never lost by more than a shot or two.  The changes in style and the additional practice are paying off.  I am starting to zero back in.  I predict that, after another five or six hours of practice, I will be back to the level I was before and then I will begin to advance beyond that.

(While I was waiting at California Billiards, TR called to tell me a very amusing story that I won't repeat here, but I did want to bookmark in in my online journal here so I would remember it.)

After we shot pool, we went over to the Outback at the Great Mall and met Tony for lunch.  It was a good lunch - I opted for the rib-eye steak and the loaded backed potato.  After dinner we took a walk through the great mall, then I headed home for a quiet evening and nice little goodnight conversation with TR.   Tonight, my plan is to read into the evening and alternate with watching episodes of Continuum, Warehouse 13, and perhaps Longmire.

A Paragraph to End the Day

The rest of the day was as simple as the morning. I met Don up at Edgies and shot about two hours worth of pool. I mostly lost.  I decided two weeks ago that it was time to work on the technical aspects of  my pool game, so one of the first things I did was change my grip - which of course through the rest of my game off, in a good way. The new grip allows me to shot truer shots, but since my mind had been trained to compensate for the fact that I tended to pull to the left, now, since I am shooting a straighter line, I am pulling about a degree or two to the right.  Enough to make a visible difference. I figure I need about ten hours of practice to hone in the new grip. In the step beyond that I've started working on cue ball control, through spin and English, to set up the next shot.  That part has been working pretty good.  I think that once I hone my aim back in I'll make a measurable improvement in my over all game. After Edgies, we grabbed dinner at a seafood place, and then I came home, took a short nap, and watched an episode Longmire.  From here, I plan on curling up in bed with Leviathan Wakes.