Sometimes stepping out of your comfort zone makes for a nice change of pace. Of course, I don’t do anything in a big way these days, but a couple of tweaks now and then can still be pleasant. For the group hike, I suggested a flat walk along the river, but Steve wanted to head for the hills. Who am I to argue?

Back home, Swan prepared me something different for lunch.

And then it was time to change things up for the evening activity. We had a warm-up drink at Sloppy Joe’s, then moved next door to Alaska Club to prepare for my first-ever 9-ball tournament. Hell, it was also the first time I’d played that particular game, and I hadn’t participated in a pool tournament since long ago in Korea. Our waitress, Alex, offered to play a warm-up match before the tourney began, and I managed to win. I had no expectations for success competing against the regulars, but it ain’t always about winning or losing; fun is important too.

I guess you’d call it the luck of the draw, but I wound up having a first-round bye. The reality of that meant that I sat there drinking beer from the beginning of the tournament at 6:30 until my turn to play came around at 8 p.m. Well, it was good to watch and learn, I suppose, but I would have preferred to be participating.

And when it was my turn to play my first-ever game of 9-ball, my opponent was Mercy, a GRO from next door at Rum Jungle. She is a very talented player.

The winner’s bracket is a best of three format, and I somehow managed to win the second leg. Mercy didn’t have mercy on me in the third leg.

It was almost 9 p.m. when I headed home, but we had a really good time hanging out at Alaska. I’ll be back next week to try my luck again.

Continuing with the October 2022 LTG archives, I’m without a girlfriend and living a life centered around hiking and drinking in the bars. Sounds familiar, right? Anyway, I decided to tag a post about climbing the “stairway to heaven” up to Kalaklan Ridge as a worthy part of “The Story of My Life.”

Today’s YouTube video talks about the twelve most hated cities in the Philippines. Olongapo and Angeles both made the list. I invested the ten minutes watching this, but I thought it was crap for the most part. I’ll try and do better with what I share here in the future.

And if you thought that video was bad, wait until you see these:

Oh, well. It is what it is.

I listened to Johnny Horton a lot when I was a kid (my dad was a big fan and had his albums). I didn’t realize until now that he died in 1960 at 35 years old. Damn.