Pool Vacation

I was just getting into discovering the joys of my
"Pool Vacation".

For several days I have been
getting a lot done,
all of it non-pool related,
you know, LIFE!

Being addicted to pool, or anything for that matter,
(I know, I seem to collect addictions)
seriously limits other activities.
That's what addictions are all about.
They take over your entire life
until all you do is the addiction.

Hello, my name is Mikie, and I'm an addict.

So here I am, doing good for a couple of days,
staying clean, no pool,
and then El Maestro (El Diablo?)
stops by and challenges me to a game of
Straight Pool.

I'm sure I could have resisted 8 or 9 ball.
But straight pool?
El Diablo knows my weakness too well.
The bastard.

We were well and truly into it,
it was my shot, and far up in score,
when the phone rings and I had to take the call.
I was away from the table less than 4 minutes.

While I was in the office on the call,
out of sight of the table,
El Maestro moved the 7 ball,
the exact one I was lining up before the call,
and snookered it for no shot.

Did he think I am a complete moron?
I may be a pool addict
doing a little backsliding at the moment
but my mind has not completely snapped,
yet.

It did not end there.
El Diablo continued to shark me
throughout the entire game.
At one point, as he was moving the scoring beads
at the end of a rack,
he removed several beads from my score
with a slight of hand that
he obviously thought I would not notice.
Un-freaking-believable!

This confirmed my earlier thought that
he had caught up to my score rather quickly.

I wonder what other stuff he was doing
that I didn't see.
He is an expert at these things.
He has seen it all,
and over the past 4 years,
he has shown me some amazing sharks,
cheats, tricks, mind-games, and more.

Hmmmm.
Maybe that's what he is trying to teach me now...
He wants me to shoot pool,
but take my mind off the score,
take my mind off of "winning".

Pool without keeping score.
Just for the fun of it.
What a concept!!

Curse you, El Diablo!

In his defense,
he had a good reason to show up at the Fun House.
The shaft on his Joss cue
has been making some bad sounds,
a twangy vibration,
and it has been getting worse.

I needed to measure the shaft diameter precisely
so we could order up a replacement shaft,
and a spare.
(12.25mm, Moori soft tip)

Sherry, at Joss, made the process easy.

Sherry, Joss Cues

Looking at Sherry's photo,
I just want to order some more pool stuff.

Temptations are everywhere for the pool addict.
I gotta try harder,
but there's this big pool table
right in the middle of my living room.

Maybe I need to go to a clinic and detox.

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