I used to have another life. Years ago. It seems like forever ago sometimes.
There's an older gentleman who comes into the pool hall everyday. He sits by himself and drinks his beer. He doesn't say much, but talks to himself on occasion. I've caught him more than once in a conversation half-heard. It sounds like something he regrets but I never quite catch the words. He's there every night, 7:30 to the minute. Sometimes I think about the line from The Hustler, "He comes in here every night, 8 O'Clock on the dot." Most people don't want to play him, he says, because they don't like to lose. Back in the day we had billiards and snooker long before anyone had seen a 9' table. That's what he grew up playing. Now, approaching 75, I imagine most people don't think of him as a threat. Then they watch him play. Rick runs out about every other table. With his background playing straight-rail and 3C, trying to safe him is a nightmare. He doesn't jump, doesn't believe in it. He can kick at anything, and rarely misses.
Then there's me. I was a young executive. I traveled all over, lived in 10 countries before I was 30. Like Randal, I weight lifted for a while until I tore the muscles in my right shoulder and upper back. Combined with an automobile accident that had damaged my lower back, it was too much to continue. I had what I wanted though; a wife, a good job, a home, and a baby on the way. Played pool since I was old enough to see over the rail, actually, my father had a stool for me although I don't recall it. But early on, my wife gave me the ultimatum; her or pool. So, being a good husband I chose her. That's why I vanished from RSB.
A few years later, I came back to pool. No good job, no wife, a gravestone, and a rental condo. FL had, by this time, ruined RSB. People said I should join AZ instead, so I did but there were so many new faces I didn't feel like part of the group anymore. In truth, I still don't. This group is a little different from RSB. So I don't have a lot to contribute other than the pursuit of the mental game, and occasionally to review something, offer a tip where I can.
I wrote part of Transport Canada's manual on Human Factors in Aviation and wrote for some smaller billiard magazines. I have signed my name on an aircraft, assuming full responsibility for all 110M of its' worth and all of its passengers in October of 2001. I've worked with the FBI and NSA on some internet security related issues. I used to do a lot.
But in the end I think I'm going to become Rick, without the ability to run the table so well. I will always love pool as a sport, I will always strive to become better at it. Even when I was told I could not play anymore it was on my mind.
The short, fat, hairy, bearded Canadian with the sippy cup is me.
