Well once again I am overdue for a post. Not much to update, but I’m doing fine. Had my followup appointment with the doc and she seemed quite surprised at the results of my blood work. I’m surprisingly healthy. I’m sure she expected some negatives given my lifestyle choices, but so far I’m doing alright. Which is not to say that I don’t need to make some changes. Gonna start walking to work 3 days a week (weather permitting) as a start.

More tests to come. Doing the stress test thing Monday. Need to schedule a CT scan because the chest x-rays were unclear (something about my fat getting in the way). I’m also supposed to do a pulminary test and I still have to do the colonoscopy. Eh, getting older is not all its cracked up to be, but then again, it beats the alternative.

I’m waiting to hear about a trip to the States later this month. It all comes down to funding. Seems the Army is out of money, but if it works out I will do a week of training in Columbus and then take a week of vacation and go home to Virginia and South Carolina for the 4th of July. I’m really wanting to go, it’s been a year since I was home and I’m missing my family, especially that sweet granddaughter.

Dart league starts up in a couple of weeks. I’ve been playing in some tourneys, but not playing well enough to have anything to brag about. We have our banquet Saturday and I’m looking forward to that.

And that’s about it for me.

Though Adam was a friend of mine, I did not know him well
He was alone into his distance
He was deep into his well
I could guess what he was laughing at, but I couldnt really tell
Now the story’s told that Adam jumped, but I’ve been thinking that he fell

–Jackson Browne

Today the expat community is abuzz with shock and sadness upon learning of the death of Shawn Matthews, author of the Korea Life Blog and more recently the China Life Blog.

I only knew Shawn from his writing, but he was the type of person I enjoyed sharing adventure with, albeit vicariously. Even as a stranger, I somehow feel diminshed by his loss. I’m not sure how to explain that, but I know on my dark days far from family and friends, I have often been comforted by the words and kind thoughts of my fellow bloggers. Shawn was surrounded by people who loved him, and yet he was still beyond their reach.

As others have said, suicide is incredibly selfish. Whatever pain Shawn was expericing was not escaped, merely transferred to friends and family. But I’m not going to judge, only regret that Shawn chose to stop singing in the middle of his song. And his voice will always be missed by those he left behind.

We beat the Hyatt team from Bless U Pub last night! They had finished 3 games ahead of us to take second place during the regular season, and they had beat us twice previously. So this was a big win for us. We play in the championship round Monday night against Eberhardt of Scrooge Pub. Eberhardt finished first in league play, but we beat them once 10-9 and lost once 10-9. So we are going into the finals feeling confident. We just need to bring our best game.

I didn’t play particularly well last night losing my singles 0-3, but I somewhat redeemed myself in the doubles 701 match, which we took 3-0. Anyway, we celebrated heartily last night. I had the good sense to take today off though, so no hay problema.

Today I attended the Memorial Day Honor Guard ceremony on post. Quite moving really, and I really enjoy that unique military pomp and circumstance stuff. My cell phone died last week, so I picked up another used today. Bought gas and did my grocery shopping. And that is the up to the minute report and my amazing life in Korea.

I’m hoping to be able to report some BIG news (the good kind) in the next couple of weeks. Send me some positive vibes that this dream becomes a reality.

I’ve been reminded that it is past time for an update. And this is it.

Last night we had the league doubles tournament for darts. The “A” division players were paired with us “B” division types, so it made for some good competition. I was fortunate enough to draw Petro as my partner, he’s the top rated “A” player.

We did great, when he was a little off, I filled in the gaps. But he is a tremendous player and we sailed through the winners bracket. And then things fell apart. Petro lost his cool over a bullshit call, and I started throwing like shit, and we wound up with second place. I’m not complaining, it was great fun and I had a lot of the “A” guys complimenting my game.

Tomorrow night we have the first round of league playoffs. We are playing the Alley Ratz from 3 Alley Pub. We beat them both times in league, but they have some good players and we can’t take them lightly. Looking forward to a good match.

So, does it sound like my life revolves around darts these days? That’s only because it’s true. Hey, there are a lot worse ways to spend your time in Itaewon.

I am finally going to break down and see a doctor next week. I’ve had some numbness in my left arm these past few days, and coupled with the blackout incident I’m guessing it may be a good idea to find out what’s up inside this rapidly aging body. I’ve just about let the ignorance is bliss attitude run its course I guess. I’m confident nothing is seriously wrong, but just in case I’ll get the physical. Worse case scenario I can stop worrying about the future!

Anyway, all is well. Still fat and relatively happy these days.

But it is hard to eat for someone as klutzy as I am with chopsticks. Still, as this video clip indicates all you need is a little technique…..

Yes, this is a real commercial….

Everything is fine. Nothing happening here of late that is worthy of note. I’m having a good time and I’m generally happy. Just so you know.

The Marmot posted this video clip of an accident involving a motor scooter. What was most interesting to me is this is the gate I use to access and leave the base everyday.

Now, I don’t drive much, but when I do I am in an extreme defensive driving mode. But as you can see, in this case there wan’t much the driver could do to avoid the red light running scooter. This particular intersection is notorious for red light runners. Sometimes half the signal cycle is gone before the cross traffic actually stops.

Anyway, if I’m gonna get hit I expect it will be from my alley onto the main drag. I usually wait for the pedestrian light to change, which at least slows traffic. But if no one is crossing they are just as likely to blow through. I’m not ragging totally on Korean drivers here, I note a lot of the cars running the light have SOFA tags.

Still, these scooter drivers are insane. Especially on the sidewalk. Give me DC traffic anyday….

I really must be a creature of habit, or routine at least. I’ve settled into my weekly rituals of bar games (and the requisite recovery periods) and y’all must be as sick of hearing about that as I am of writing about it. Year two in Korea is without much adventure thus far, but I do have some dreams about changing that. I’m going to keep those dreams to myself for now because I don’t want to jinx things, but if it comes to pass things will be infinitely more exciting around here. Stay tuned.

Ok, I do have to just mention my dart exploits briefly. Saturday night at the Blue Frog tourney resulted in a second place finish. And Monday night at Bless U resulted in a most excellent first place. My partner on Monday was Mr. Kim (who was on the team that beat us out for first Saturday). An excellent player, but we were both a little off our games. Despite our struggles, we kept finding a way to win. The championship round was a thrill. We played Petro (the dart league President) and his partner Mr. Lee, another solid player. We started with a real cut throat game of cricket, lots of pointing and very intense, but Mr. Kim hit a double bull to win it for us in the end. Then it was ‘o1 (a game where you start with 701 and subtract the total of your darts, and you have to finish by hitting a double out) and they were dominating us. I was my usual inconsistent self, scoring like: 41, 22, 30, Ton, 22 and so on. Mr. Kim was actually throwing worse. and we still had 176 on the board when our opponents were shooting a 16 double out. Then I hit a ton-60 (160 points-the most you can score is 180, which is 3 triple 20s). My next turn I hit the double-1 out for the win. Real exciting finish and I was congratulated on my play by some really great dart players. It was definitely the high point of my darts “career”.

Anyway, also went to Namdemun market Saturday. First time there (yeah, pretty amazing that I’ve not made it there after all this time). Ordered some glasses that I pick up this weekend. I’ll try and get some pics when I go back.

Yikes, I’m going to be late for work! Gotta go.

Sorry to all who care for not being regular in my updates here. Truth be told, I’ve just not had much to say. I’m into a comfortable routine these days of going to work, playing pool, darts, CIV, and reading other people’s blogs. Which may not sound like much of a life, but it seems to be working for me. I guess sometimes you just have to embrace the simple pleasures and not think too much about what you are missing. At least that has been working for me.

I’ve been feeling alright physically, so who needs a physical, right? Truth be told, it is just too much of a pain in the ass to get treatment at the base hospital. You have to pay up front and bill your own insurance. And I guess if something is seriously wrong with me, I don’t really want to know. Ignorance is bliss and all that. And I do know that my attitude about that is in fact ignorant, ok?

I’ve been having a blast in the dart league. I’m too inconsistent to call myself a good player, but I’ve been winning. I’m ranked in the top third of my division and my status on the team has gone from fill-in to being counted on. I’ve not had a competitive outlet since I retired from playing softball, so I’m really enjoying that aspect of the game too. Not to mention, being old and fat doesn’t affect your game. HooAh! I’m going down to the Blue Frog tonight to play in the doubles tourney. It’s mostly “A” calibre players (I am in the “B” division) but they do a blind draw so if I hook up with someone good, who knows, I might get lucky and win some money. Worst case I get some practice in throwing under pressure.

I am playing pool with more confidence and competence too. Still losing mostly, but not losing ugly. Actually, our team has been playing well but we always seem to get snakebit with bad luck and lose close games and matches. Ah well, its a good group and we don’t get down on each other when things go wrong. Some of the teams in the league are just ugly to each other. Win or lose, we have fun and that’s what its really all about.

Work has been busy but not so much as to be a problem. Arcelia left last week and I already miss her tremendously. She was a good comrade. She wasn’t able to sell her car so she left it with me to sell. It was a pain in the ass, I had to get an exception to policy (only one vehicle is allowed) which let me park it on post. Had to insure it, and register it and all that. She brought if over from Japan so it is right hand drive, which made it more difficult to sell. But sell it I did yesterday. Which meant some more hassle with transfering ownership and all the associated paperwork (took two hours of my day), but it is done. I mailed Arcelia a check yesterday. She wound up with quite a bit less than she was asking, but what she is getting is considerably more than nothing. Which is what she was facing before I stepped in. So, I did my good deed, although I kept a couple hundred for my trouble. (Ah, did you really think I was a nice person?)

Not much else to report. The weather is starting to warm up so I will soon be able to get out and about a little more. Even if it is just a hike up Namsan or along the Han river it will be good to be a little more active. Carol is talking about coming in May for a visit and wants me to take her to China. That’s something to look forward too.

Kevin asked me what I thought of the entire Dubai ports deal. You know, I’m just having a hard time getting worked up over politics these days. And that whole fiasco was pure politics. Cripes, America has been selling itself for years. If I was going to get incensed it would be the sorry state of our merchant marine, that’s a real national secruity issue. Port security is a joke, but that has nothing to do with who is managing the terminals. Hell, the Chinese and Koreans own the west coast operations, why doesn’t Congress care about that?

I think what is really happening is that Americans are waking up to the fact that a certain percentage of the followers of Islam are insane. After weeks of rioting over cartoons, is it any wonder that perceptions are changing? My thinking is that the Muslim extremists are to be more pitied than feared. They are like rabid dogs. Now, you don’t get angry at a rabid dog. You just kill it. It’s the only sensible thing to do. A day of reckoning is coming, and I don’t believe its going to be pretty. Americans are not big on nuance. If we feel threatened we will strike. I think its gonna be real interesting to see what we do about Iran. I wouldn’t want to be investing in infrastructure there these days.

In other news, the State Department just screwed us over big time this week. We were getting a 5% premium on our pay called Post Differential. It was basically extra pay for dealing with the hardship of living in Korea. The State Department decided that life here is not all that hard. Well, honestly I have it easier than most, what with commissary and post exchange privalages. But on the other hand, we are forward deployed and Mr. Kim, Jung-Il has a bunch of chemical artillery shells (and maybe nukes) 50 miles away and pointed right at Seoul. I think living with the risk of almost certain death should war break out is worth a 5% bonus. That’s a lot of beer!

Oh well, as I say its all good. Thanks to all for your kindness and support. I will try and stay in touch on a more regular basis.