Worked the swing shift at Kwagga Sports Pub last night, throwing darts from 3:00 till 11:00.  Started with our Toys for Tots charity event which my partner and I managed to win.  Then we followed up with a singles tourney which I managed to win as well.

Of course the real winners were the kids. We collected some toys and $80 in cash to make Christmas morning a little happier for some needy boys and girls.

Kwagga Sports Pub hosted the event and provided some cash to the winners and some very nice bar swag (I took home a case of beer!).  It was a bittersweet day as sadly the bar is shutting it’s doors for good on December 15.  They did a lot to help us grow darts in Columbia.  A few unfortunate incidents and misunderstandings resulted in a significant loss of customer base that couldn’t be overcome.  If I weren’t moving, and had the time, money and inclination, I think I could make a go of the place though.  Well, maybe in another lifetime.

Thanks for the memories!

We have a new guy in our singles dart league who has been tearing everyone a new asshole.  He won his first two matches by scores of 15-1 and 14-2.  Last night was my turn in the lion’s den.  I fully expected to be dominated as well (yeah, he is that good) but I surprised myself by hanging with him most of the night, eventually losing 10-6.

He beat me 4-1 in the 501 set.  I actually had a shot at the out in three of those losses, but failed to execute on my first attempt.  He’d hit his out shot on the first try which is what successful darters do.

I came back to beat him 4-1 in cricket, but I had to throw some amazing darts to do so, coming from behind to win most of those legs.

He finished the night by waxing me 4-1 in 301, a game that requires a double in and a double out.  His superiority in doing both gave him the match.

Still, it was a great match.  He may have been a little off his game and I probably threw a little better than usual which kept it interesting.  I’ve always said I don’t mind losing to a better player as long as I don’t throw like a chump. It’s good to have someone like this in the league to push you, even if he is a carpetbagger from New York.

My first loss of the season, but I didn’t go down without a fight.

Entering tonight’s match in the Monsters of the Midlands Pub League, we found ourselves tied for first with the lads (and lady) from JD’s.  As fate would have it, we were playing JD’s in the season finale.  Winner of the match was poised to take the league crown, and take it we did 11-5.

And that was that.

Won my singles league match 15-1 today.  Drank a bucket of beer (six bottles) and took home a rack of ribs for dinner.  Now, I’ll continue my viewing journey through Boardwalk Empire.

This makes for a better day than most, sad though it may be.

Yep, JD’s Too was a classic redneck dive. I kinda liked it.

So last night I ventured out to the Dixiana hamlet for an evening of darts.  I was immediately struck by a full display of every Confederate flag used during the short life of that failed republic.  I assumed the battle flag with the “Git-er-Done” entreaty was meant to inspire me to darting greatness.  Sadly, that was not to be the case.  One dart away from victory and I inexplicably imploded.  Damn, I hate when that happens.  Lost to a couple of Yankees to boot (New York and Detroit).  Ah well, I shall not forget and the Walrus will rise again!

Well, at least I have a roof over my head.  Back in May there was a massive hail storm.  Since my return from the ROK I’ve been besieged by roofing contractors wanting me to file an insurance claim for a new roof.  At first I couldn’t be bothered with it, but this week I finally relented and called the insurance adjustor.  Sure enough, I had damage that warranted replacement.  So I’m getting a new roof.  The $1000. deductible stings a bit, but with the house going on 20 years old I’d likely need to replace the roof at some point anyway.

So this stuff showed up in my yard yesterday. I wonder if I should have specified that I wanted the new roof installed?

And in other news, I’ve made my peace with the guy running the dart league.  I wrote about that conflict here.  I was grousing to a couple of dart buddies about the situation and after listening politely to my rant, one of them said “so when are you going to man up and talk to the guy to resolve this?”  Realizing he was right in that there is no point in walking around with a huge grudge on your back, I extended the olive branch.  We basically agreed to disagree on the issue, put the matter behind us, and move on.  I think we both feel better about it and now I can get back to just focusing on my game while ignoring the politics.

And that’s about it.  I took note of the fact that I had a 48 hour period this past week where I had absolutely no human interaction whatsoever.  I am a rock.  I touch no one and no one touches me.

Regular readers know I’m all about avoiding the drama that seems to inevitably follow the dart scene.  While I was in Korea there was a falling out with the owner of the venue that hosted our singles league here in Columbia.  I wrote about that here.  So the upshot of that unpleasantness is the league moved to another bar.

I played a match last week at the old bar.  When I turned in the score sheet the guy running the league was not happy.  He told me if I played at any other bar again he wouldn’t count my score.  I pointed out that nothing in the rules dictated where matches had to be played.  He said this bar is hosting the league.  I said are they paying the league money for us to be here?  No, so why does it matter where I play?  And then he told me he wasn’t going to discuss it further.

Later, on the league Facebook page he wrote that since “CWs was kind enough to give us a place to play”, all matches had to be played there.  This was my response:

It is “kind” indeed that CW’s has so graciously allowed us to come and spend our money at their bar and play darts in their otherwise unused back room. And while I’m sure we owe them a debt of gratitude for that act of generosity, it does seem to me an equal amount of loyalty is owed to the players in the league. Since CW’s is not financially supporting the league, I don’t understand why if a player finds it more convenient or desirable to play at a different venue and his opponent agrees, why you or anyone else would have an issue with that. Prior to the start of the season I asked ” I assume I can play my matches at another venue by mutual agreement with my opponent, correct?” and you responded “yeah”.(see post on September 30). So the only misunderstanding or confusion I’m seeing is how the “rules” were changed mid-stream. Did I miss a vote or something? Regardless, I believe that playing the matches is what we are about, not where we play the matches. I’ll abide by the dictates of the league leadership if I must, but if I’m ever disrespected again for asking a question I’m gone. Or you can fire me now. Your choice.

He responded by berating me for taking our dispute public.  And the kicker was he said if I had an issue I should have talked to him about it off-line.  Which is precisely what he refused to do when I attempted it.

Well, I founded the league but I don’t pretend to own it.  When I was running things folks were free to play wherever they wanted.  I’m not running things now and apparently the new dictator is going to do it his way.  I considered taking the highway but without darts I basically have no life.  So I’ll just have to suck it up, even if doing so, well, sucks.

And that Facebook comment and this post represent the total extent of my caring.  Life is too short to sweat the small stuff.

Last night I played the Friday darts tourney at a new (to me) bar called Off the Rail.  The owner’s name is Jim, but that’s where any similarity with Dolce Vita Pub begins and ends.  The bar sits across the railroad tracks from the Sandhills shopping center.  You might say it sits on the wrong side of the tracks as it’s a bit of a dive.  The clientele last night consisted of a handful of darters, some bikers, and various other working class types.  Nothing wrong with that of course, and we all got along.

The bar is within spitting distance of the tracks and as I was preparing to make a dart throw a passing freight train blew it’s horn at a road crossing.  I nearly jumped out of my shoes but managed to hold on to the dart and recompose myself.  This is certainly not the place to play if you are easily distracted.

The match itself went alright I suppose.  I got teamed up with owner Jim and we made it to the finals.  He claims to have thrown before and truth be told he wasn’t a bad shot.  But he had no real concept on how to play the game.  For example, when we were playing single in/double out 501 Jim would ask before EVERY throw “what do you want me to do here”.  Now, this is a basic game–you start at 501 and subtract the score of your three dart throw until you get to zero (you have to finish on a double; for example, if you have 32 left you’d throw a double 16).  There is no real strategy at the beginning of the game other than to get the highest score you can on your darts (the best possible throw is 180–three triple 20s).  I admit I’m not the most patient person you’re likely to meet, but it was pretty frustrating to continuously repeat throughout the night “just throw your darts at the 20 and subtract whatever you hit”.

Actually, I don’t mind helping inexperienced players improve their game.  My problem with Jim was he kept disappearing on me.  It would be his turn to throw and we’d have to drag him away from the bar where he was chatting up customers.  He didn’t seem to have any real interest in the match we were playing and he had zero appreciation for how rude it is to keep people waiting during a game.  I was so disgusted that by the time we made it to the finals I suggested to the other team that we just call it a tie and split 1st and 2nd place money 50-50.  They agreed I think because they could see I was in agony.

As I was fixing to leave I noticed a van had parked in such a way as to block my car access to the only exit I was aware of.  Rather than try and track down the errant van driver I went looking for another path of egress.  First I walked along the tracks behind Off the Rail only to encounter a dead end.  So then I walked a bit in the other direction and found a driveway alongside another business.  It took some maneuvering but I managed to make it out of the parking lot and safely home.

So that was my Off the Rails experience last night.  Sad to say it was one of the better nights I’ve had recently.  C’est la vie.

My new driving accessory arrived in today’s mail.

My own personal breathalyzer…

When I opened the back to insert the batteries I got a little surprise that made me laugh out loud (hey, I’m easily entertained):

Who’d a thunk it? Ah well, it goes nicely with my Samsung TV and LG appliances. Guess next thing on my shopping list will be a Kia…

Anyway, I took it for a *ahem* test drive tonight.  Before leaving the house I gave it a blow and registered 0.00 blood alcohol content (BAC).  Since I hadn’t had anything to drink it seemed to be working to perfection.  First stop was a new bar for me called Over the Rails.  It sits right next to the CSX railroad line, hence the name.  The owner wants to install a couple of dart boards so me and a pal dropped in to reconnoiter the joint.  It’s a bit of a dive, but the staff and patrons were friendly enough.  Had two icy cold Mich Ultras and headed to the car to see precisely how drunk I wasn’t.

In accordance with the instructions, I fired up the BACtrack and let it do its 12 second warmup.  At the appointed time I took a deep breath and gave it a hardy 5 second blow.  And it registered a BAC reading of 0.67, perilously close to the legal limit of 0.8.  I was a bit dismayed until I remembered the instructions emphatically stated that you must wait 20 minutes after your last alcoholic beverage to ensure an accurate reading.  I had waited maybe 2 minutes at most.

Seeing as how I was still technically on the legal side of the limit I felt confident enough to drive the two miles to my regular pub, Kwagga.  Played some darts and enjoyed two more beers.  Then I had a diet Coke and waited the specified 20 minutes before passing wind into my breathalyzer.  This time I got a much more satisfactory reading of 0.36.  So, four beers in two and a half hours and I was less than half-drunk.  Which tells me my self-imposed limit of five beers in three hours was pretty much on target (a bucket of five bottles of beer sells for a discounted rate of ten bucks which is why I go that route).  But there’s nothing like the peace of mind and confidence you gain when you don’t have to fear being arrested.

A commenter on my previous post about the BACtrack asked if the product came with a guarantee.  After reading the instruction booklet I can state with certainty that it does not.  In words that only a lawyer could write it made clear (repeatedly) that it is never safe to operate a motor vehicle after consuming any amount of alcohol.  Furthermore, the results of the BACtrack are not admissible in a court of law.  And just in case you missed it, the last page of the booklet contains one line of words in capital letters: DO NOT DRINK AND DRIVE.  So I won’t. Much. And certainly not while driving.

In other news, my buddy Duke up in Northern Virginia left a comment on the post where I mentioned I had applied for a job at Yongsan Garrison in Seoul.  Turns out that vacancy is with the company he works for.  The hiring decisions are made a couple of pay grades below him, but he did forward my resume with a recommendation from him to the folks who will make the selection.  I figure that may boost my prospects, although Duke did note that they give first preference to military veterans.  I had no idea at the time I applied that I actually had an inside connection.  And if Duke hadn’t read my blog he wouldn’t have known I was looking for work there.  IF (and that’s a BIG if in bold face letters) I have the good fortune of being selected I would love the fact that after nearly ten years of blogging this damn hobby of mine actually paid off in a tangible way.  We’ll see.

Finally, for those readers who care about my darting “career”, I’m happy to report that I’m off to a hot start back here in America.   In the Tuesday pub league, I won 6 legs (our team totaled 8).  In last night’s Pointless Dart League tournament me and my partner earned a first place finish.  More darts on tap tomorrow in Columbia at the Publick House tourney and then I’ll drive up to Charlotte on Saturday morning to participate in a “fun shoot” at Steamer’s Pub.  Since I haven’t played there before I have to get “rated” prior to the the tourney.  Not sure what that entails but it should be interesting.

So there you have it.  Other than my continued sleep deprivation things are going about as well as might be expected.  We’ll see what tomorrow brings.