We played poker Friday night as usual. It was a good time. My brother Jeff came into town and I am totally booked for almost every second until 2 weeks from now. Luckily, he plays poker and he came along so I got to see him. He is loud and obnoxious just as all we Morgan men are but there was a moment where I realized Jeff pushes the edge further than I do.
Whenever I get around Jeff, I end up using “language other than the King’s English” more so than usual (and that’s a lot normally). I was kind of poking fun with Teresa whenever she’d utter a foul word after a bad hand, most of the time under her breath but sometimes at the top of her voice. So, it got to the point where I realized it was getting ugly, a regular swear-fest. So I told Jeff, “Dude, you’ve used up all the swear words, I’m all out of them!” Being the kind, caring individual he is, he decided to share some with me. “Here, you can use one of mine… XXXX!!!!!” As he screamed out the foulest of fouls, it was that moment in a busy room where everyone is quiet all at once. Had it been ANY of the other words, it may have been rudely funny, mildly amusing. But he yelled out the one word that even I don’t use, except about one certain person, and even then never around mixed company. I just sat there saying nothing. There was nothing to say. The rest of the night passed smoothly but at that moment, I was freaked out.
The rest of the night may have passed smoothly but it was not without incident. It’s a $5 buy in and I ended the night with $7 in chips and came out with $2. How? Because I’m an idiot. Teresa and I are the bank and we break out the chips. I count out the chips and Teresa takes in the $5 as I push out the chips. The last 2 times we played, we came up short at the end of the night. It was always and even $5 so we figured we somehow forgot to get someone’s money. This time we were very careful to make sure it was done right and we still came up short. Then we all saw how.
10 white(5c), 10 red(10c), 10 blue(25c) and 3 green(50c)
I was giving out $5.50 in chips!
How this happened I don’t remember. One day we were all figuring out the best way to sort the chips. Of course all the addition was in our head because it was SOOO simple. We must have made the mistake then and never recounted or questioned it since. I feel so stupid. My Father was right, if I don’t master mathematics, I will make less money in the real world. That much was proven on the poker table…
BUT, I have another story that makes me happy and makes me really not care about the poker money.
Yesterday, I went on my first “galaxy dive”. Wade and Dianne have been talking about it for so long, I was hoping it was as good as they say… It was better. It was one of those things that you can NOT describe to someone else. But I will try.
We took about 12 glow sticks and cut them open. Dumped the contents into a water bottle and shook it. You end up with a huge glow stick. Wade stuck it into his belt and we dove down into the cavern at Ginnie Springs. It’s between 40′-45′ to the bottom and pitch black without our flashlights. We all got into position. I was lagging behind a bit because I was having minor clearing issues. Wade was at the grating where the spring flows in. Wade, Steve, Walker and I all turned off our flashlights and Wade pulls out the bottle. It was very bright in the darkness. He pulled the cap and swished it around in the flow. The “glow juice” came out and it looked cool. Kind of like a nebula. Impressive. Not the amazing coolness I had heard about but still, very cool. Then it started to separate. The glow juice split apart and formed little droplets that went in EVERY direction. Imagine being in the very middle of one of the big Disney mortar fireworks. I couldn’t believe how awesome it was, truly awesome. I was struck so hard, I yelled “Holy Shit that’s awesome!” with my regulator still in my mouth. Later, Wade told me that was the first time he not only knew who was talking, but what they said, while underwater.
After it split apart, we swam into it. With the weightlessness, it really was like floating amongst the stars. You couldn’t catch any of the droplets because they just slipped through your fingers. That gave it more of that elusive feeling; you can’t hold the stars in your hand. Eventually, they started to settle, falling into the ridges and lines in the sand.
It really can’t be described. Teresa said she’d never dive and I told her I’d never push it but this one experience makes me want to get her diving.
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