I don't mind telling you ... ...

Well, I DO 'mind' telling you, but I don't know how I can avoid it, OK? There are a few potentially awful things going on in my life right now and I'm a little scared, to tell you the truth.


First off, I fear that my short term memory might be going. While my partner (s) and I have done well, generally ... ... within the last week or two, in particular, I have begun to notice slights in almost every aspect of my bridge game. I find that scary. Very scary!

(My father's bridge game deteriorated during the last few years of his life to the point where he no longer enjoyed the game as he once had. He couldn't always remember which cards had been played, and that's a deathknell for both declarer and defender. The worst thing of all was that he knew it! Kind of reminds me of Charlton Heston and Ronald Reagan, who knew early on the devastating effects Alzheimer's would have on their lives and those close to them and who both chose to bravely go public with their goodbyes while they were still lucid.)

Now, Julian and I are scheduled to play in a Swiss team game tonite at the studio. I'm going to share my fears with him after our game. I don't want to alarm him unnecessarily beforehand. I'm pretty sure he will give me an honest response. We go WAY back and I consider him a good friend.

I'm scheduled to play bridge again Tuesday evening, will be teaching a class Wednesday evening, plus Rick and I will be playing 'speedball' on BridgeBase Thursday for an hour in final preparation for our being one half of a two-session Swiss team event at a Houston sectional tournament coming up a week from today.


[This post was started Sunday afternoon. It's now Tuesday. Any bracket notations you see have just been added. In regard to my short term memory loss fears, I think they might have been imaginary. I played very well Sunday night in spite of having had very little sleep. See next section.]


Has any of you ever missed the pottie? I've heard about this, but never had experienced it until last night. I woke up in the middle of the night, having to tinkle. I stumbled around in the dark, feeling my way as per usual - I'd only done this a few thousand times before - and sat down heavily on the left side of the toilet, landing somewhere between its seat and the tub rail. I knocked the toilet off its hinges and found myself trapped in the shower curtains while water was cascading from the commode.

Some many seconds later - I was still trying to ascertain whether or not any bones had been broken in my fall and why the devil wasn't I able to get up while water was still pouring forth and drenching my feet - I managed to extricate myself from the shower curtains, upright the toilet and stop the cascade.

My first thought was, "How much is THIS latest gaffe going to co$t me?" (It seems I'm always doing something to screw up the works!) I got very little sleep and my dreams were all over the place, as you might imagine!


[I thought, when I first uprighted the toilet, that I was successful - somehow, by some miracle - in reattaching it. The first time I flushed it was 'as written'. The second time I tried was not. And so, as I write this, I am not using that bathroom. I am a little hopeful that - when I DO call ARS (plumbing/AC/heating) - they will reassure me that all that will be needed is to reattach the thing properly to the floor and I will not have to purchase a whole new commode. Meanwhile, of course, I have made 'other arrangements'.]


All is not always "golden" in my world. In fact, often it is not! I have hesitated publishing this post, but then I decided, "Why not? This is life. This is reality. This is truth." (Btw, this latest incident will not be included among my 'transformative' moments!)