I'll be the one with the happy butt...

In case you have been living under a rock, please be advised to log on to InternationalPoolTour.com at 5pm on June 24 for a most excellent evening of pocket billiards. The "main" match will be between Karl Boyes (U.K.) and Alex Pagulayan (Philippines) playing some 8-ball, but the "undercard" match is what I'm really interested in: Mike ("The Mouth") Sigel vs. John ("Mr. 400") Schmidt playing the best pool game ever invented, 14.1 straight pool, race to 125.

The only thing better than watching this match, Live, on your computer is being there in person, in the very small audience, one of whom will be me!

And the only thing better than watching this match in person, will be sitting in the most comfortable seat in the entire event, which I will be. How can this be, you ask? Isn't it true that the bleachers are made of the hardest materials known to man, and that they get increasingly more painful as the hours pass, as I personally experienced at the last month's match? Yes, true indeed.

However, I will be bringing a secret weapon in the war against butt pain. Ok, not so secret now, but nonetheless something which will completely eliminate all pain, and guarantee that I am the only one smiling (except for the two winners) when the matches are over. What could it be, you ask?

Ok, here's the story. When I sold my software company in '92, I decided to do something I had always wanted to do, ever since I was a little kid: fly. So I bought an open cockpit biplane, and learned how to fly. For the next 7 years, I went flying, all over the USA and Europe, and did some of the most outrageous things that can be done in an open cockpit biplane, many of which were then, are are now, at the edge of (and beyond) what is allowed by the laws of the land, and/or good common sense. It was great fun.

"The Spirit of Adventure #1"

In the fullness of time, about 7 years after I started my flying adventures, I quit one day after a brief discussion with a duck. (Of course, that's another story, and you can read it here.) I put my beloved biplane up for sale, with only one stipulation: that the new owner would have to provide his own pilot seat... I was keeping the one in which I had experienced so much joy and terror. At the time, I had no idea what I would do with the seat, but I just knew that I could not part with it. For the last 8 years, it has just sat around FastMikie's Fun House, without any real purpose, until now...

It's just the perfect size: one skinny butt wide, and yet quite well padded with shock absorbing foam (capable of +/- 5G's), and finished in burgundy leather, to match the trim on the biplane.

While all those other people you see on the live streaming video are suffering on those hard bleacher seats, there will be one person smiling away, reliving his flying days while he enjoys some great pool.

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