Lazy Thursday

Thought I might take the eight minutes I've got until 9 o'clock to write a blog. It's been quite a while.

I'd wanted to write one yesterday about the character's you can meet around here. Minot's got 'em - just like anywhere. At B&D I was buying some root beer to mix with rum and a set of batteries for my recently acquired game boy pocket. She was working the till. Bookish. Black hair. Behind her sat a book about Texas No Limit Hold 'Em. I said, "Is that your poker book?" She's all of 19 would be my guess. She said, "Yeah." "You play a lot?" "Just played my first tournament last Spring at the Vegas." So what place did she take at the tourney on the hill? "39th." "Out of what," I asked. "1,436." Or some number. It was past 14 hundred. Her handle? "Poker Princess, that's what they call me..."

At Cenex. The one by Ebeneezer's. They've changed the name now, though. To what? Enerbase. Anyway, went in to hesitate about buying some cigarettes and my uncle, John, said, "The best way to quit smoking is to stop buying the damn things." Then he went on to tell me about a guy who stops in every day of the week to buy 3 cigarettes off his coworker. The old man pays $5 for those 3 smokes. Doesn't want more. Doesn't want less. It's a small enough place in a small enough community to make some things happen if you wanted them to. John says, "Hell, with the $25 he spends a week on those 15 cigarettes, he could just buy a pack and leave 'em behind the counter - ask for 3 and be done with it." I tell John I'll be waiting out front to sell the man 4 for $5. John reminds me that he doesn't want 4.

And, it's been so long since I've been back to this blog that I had a comment to moderate. It was from Anthony J. I miss that guy.

Here's something I did today: