So far in parts 1 and 2, you have discovered I am an older disabled man, collecting permanent disability, who is way too obese and seriously needs to do something about that, and who, after his bills are paid each month, currently has about $221 a month left over to take care of playing poker tournaments, both online and live, miscellaneous expenses, if any, and anything, and everything else that might come up each month.
What you don't know is what is it I want to do going forward. What are the dreams, ambitions, and aspirations I may have. I may be 58 years old, disabled, and physically limited, but that doesn't mean I don't want to be doing things, that I don't want certain things to happen, or I don't have certain things I would love to accomplish. Maybe mundane, maybe lunacy, maybe impossible sounding, but you can make up your own mind on what you think. You can't begin to chase the stars, if you don't first reach for the moon. The things that I want and desire would have to come from potential poker earnings, because, let's face it, with the amount of money I have left over each month, if I were to try to save up for this and save up for that, it might take eternity. I'm going to let you in on these wants, plans, dreams, aspirations, desires, or whatever other words you choose to use, so let's get to it.
The first thing is going to be moving expenses and furnishing a one bedroom 55+ apartment from the bottom up. Since I moved to Vegas 10 years ago I've always lived with roommates, or rented a room in a stranger's house. Because of this and the fact that prior to Vegas I've spent a time wandering around state to state, relationship to relationship, before I met my wife, and after she passed away, I went right back to what I used to do before I met her. The truth is, after she died. I was lost and had absolutely no direction. The bottom line is being a traveller and a roamer, and renting rooms and living with roommates, you do not exactly accumulate a lot of furnishings and knick knacks, as one might imagine. However, I would like a place to call my own, but to move into a one bedroom apartment, not only will I need the money for the upfront costs, I'm going to have to furnish it, not to mention every other thing you put in an apartment. All the things you find in the kitchen, a bathroom, and all the other rooms with the exception of a bedroom as i've already gut, the bedroom set covered. It's definitely gonna take a few dollars. I figure $5000 for the upfront costs, furniture needed, and moving costs. Hopefully $5000 will be enough for all the rest of the stuff, bringing it to 10 grand for the kit and caboodle. Obviously, I will utilize whatever tournament profits, if any, I can make this year, and try to build up to that 10 grand or at least a significant portion of it, so we shall see what happens. I'm glad you decided to come along for the ride. Hopefully, it will be enough to hold your interest.
The great thing about a 55+ apartment is that my neighbors are gonna be people in my age group and also several of these places set aside a few units based it on income. An example of what I could be facing as far as rent looks rather delightful. I've got 10 different complex information sheets saved in my Galaxy notes. The income based rents range from $573 to $609 per month, a few with all utilities paid, and the rest, you pay, gas and electric or electric only. My roommate, who is one of my closest friends, is a woman named Michelle who is also disabled so we kind of watch over each other. We are like squabbling siblings, but I love her to death, and I always will. Get your minds out of the gutter, lol, as we have always been strictly platonic. She's like my little sister because I am 10 years older than she is, but she acts like my older sister's wereas to this day, i can be somewhat reckless and impulsive. Anyway, as far as electric bills, go for my own place NV Energy has this thing called the Equal Pay Program, also called Average Payment Plan you can utilize and like the name insinuates they average out your monthly bill. As an example, Michelle's average bill comes to $76 and we have the AC on constantly, as we both would prefer to be chilly than hot. So you don't have to face the $300 and $400 electric bills in the summer. Even if I had to pay an electric bill, I could handle something like that relatively easily even with my limited available funds. All in all, when the time comes, it'll be a great setup.
Once the apartment situation is all settled and I'm moved in and have all the things that I need for it, what I would love to be able to do, is actually twofold. First, I would love for poker to be able to pay bills and expenses each month, making my disability payment pure monthly spending cash while having a seperate tournament bankroll of 200 buyins. Yes, I know, wouldn't we all? I didn't say this would happen, it's what I would like to happen. If you think that's a little strange, you ain't read nothing yet. The second part of this I've only told three friends about, and for all intents and purposes each one of them was ready to have me institutionalized.
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I would love to be able to travel around the country playing in different tournaments, tournament series, circuit events, and things of this nature, throughout the United States. I have absolutely no desire to leave the country and I will touch on the reason why momentarily. If it were financially feasible for me to do it, and it would take a hell of a lot of feasibility, when you consider hotel rooms, food, travel costs, tips for hotel staff, and things of that nature, there would be a ton of miscellaneous expenses, not even counting the tournament entry fees. If I were actually able to do it, the question would be how? In 1865, Horace Greeley said, "Go west young man, go west." In my case, it would be go Greyhound, old timer, go Greyhound, and that's exactly how I would do it, traveling the country by Greyhound bus. The reason for staying in the United States is I'm terrified to fly. While I've done it in the past twice, no more, no way, no thank you, and if you ever watched every episode of Air Disasters for 22 seasons on the Smithsonian Channel as I did, you would never even look at a plane again. Some years ago I took a flight from LAX to Boston. As we passed over the Nevada mountains we went through what they called turbulence and I called a near death experience. That plane was shaking so hard I swear the rivets were popping and the damn tail was ready to fall off. That flight and the flight I took when I moved to Vegas were the only ones and they were also the last ones. If I wanted to go to Paris for the EPT, for me it would require booking passage on a cargo ship, which would run $100 to $150 per day and would take 10 to 22 days so yeah, I'll stay put in the good old USA.
Amtrak would be a possibility, but Greyhound is going to be much better for several reasons. First off, they have rest stops every 2 to 3 hours and for a nicotine dependent individual such as myself that's vastly important. With Greyhound you get to see a lot more of the country, and I know this for a fact, because I took both forms of transportation, many, many times going from state to state in my younger days. Greyound layovers are a lot shorter. I remember when I used to travel by Amtrak, the main connector for going west was always in Chicago and it was always a minimum layover of 8 long, torturous, hours, especially for someone back then who was pretty much travelling on a shoestring budget. As for the potential blood clots, this is the only time having to travel in a mobility scooter will actually be an advantage. Ordinarily, when you're traveling in a Greyhound, and have to sit in a regular seat like a normal person, your legs are bent at the knee constantly on long trips. As a matter of fact, the 7 blood clots at the same time that put me in a coma for 10 days that I wrote about in part 2, was the direct result of a bus trip from Massachusetts to Wisconsin. However, since I utilize a mobility scooter, a few rows of seats will be removed and they will store them in the baggage compartment A lift will be deployed and will raise me up into the bus compartment.
With 2 or 3 rows of seats removed, so my scooter will fit, that means that's going to be an empty space probably 6 feet long so my scooter can be strapped in.
I'll spend the trip sitting on the scooter, legs extended a majority of the time, reducing the danger of blood clots dramatically. Not to mention whichever side of the bus, they put me on, I'm going to have at least one pretty large window to myself, which will be great for leaning against to sleep, absorbing scenery, and picture, taking of the adventure, or hopefully adventures. Of course, I'm sure this is years away. As mentioned, the apartment fund needs to be accomplished first. This will definitely take top priority, first and foremost, with potential tournament profits.
To wrap things up, the weight loss program I'm working on has a new official start date of January 11th. I screwed up on the settings that I did and it was allowing me way too many calories. If a person can exercise, that's one thing, but for a person who is sedentary, you've got to lower the calorie intake. So redoing the settings, starting on January 11th I weighed in at 417.2 and my allowable calorie intake has been reduced by 3500 per week.That ought to do something especially on the days I go a thousand less than the 2900 allowed.
That's all for now. I hope anybody reading this is having a great start to their new year and if you're a poker player, I don't wish my fellow poker players luck any more. I simply tell them to run hot and win a lot, so until next time, one and all, take care and be safe.
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