Shot Glasses, Playing Pool, and a graded Comic Book

Tuesday happened to be a good day. My friend in the hospital had a successful procedure, my Father offered to watch either Captain America or Green Lantern instead of our usual Wednesday morning ritual. I am here right now sitting here on the couch with him and we picked Captain America. And I probably played the best games of pool I ever played.

I left for practice earlier than I should have, in other words I should have slept more. However, being there benefited me. No one else had yet arrived which gave me additional time to practice. At first I threw the balls on the table and practiced making random shots.

Eventually a member of another team (this other team member is on a Monday night league with a member of my Tuesday night league team so at least I knew him). He asked if I would mind practicing with him for a bit, after all it would be a better practice. We played three games.

I don't know his (Ace) rank, I only know that he is ranked higher than mine. The first game Ace won by the sinking the eight. I met the challenge taking my first win by doing the same thing. The tie breaker was among us. I felt confident. The third game gave me my second win even though it was an early eight. He still had a ball on the table and while going after it missed and the cue had enough speed bumping directly into the 8 which was pushed into the pocket. A win is a win. We shook hands and he parted. I was still waiting for my team to arrive.

I occupied my time by practicing my break and runs. The first break, one ball. On my second break I dropped four, two high and two low; on the third I dropped the eight, an instant win. I was so glad that Joe (the bartender) was watching for my bragging rights.

When the rest of my team got there we practiced a bit more. I was still playing well but knocked out after the first game. I was OK with that since I was already warmed up. The opposing team showed up and took their practice time.

Every Tuesday night I play 8-ball (Thursday night is 9-ball) and we play a total of five matches. There are eight of us on the team so not all of us get to play. If I play I am normally entered in one of the first two matches. We start a little before eight and I have to go home to get ready for work. The team captains tossed the coin to put up first. It was me.

I didn't know the level of my opponent and if I played like I practiced and if he played anything like he practiced (he was one of the ones I watched) I was confident that I could take him (a feeling I never felt before). My skill level is a three (consider it a 4.5 CGC grade) and so was he (even though I didn't know it at the time). It was to be a race to two games.

I lost the lag giving my opponent first break. In three innings I won. I broke the next game and after nine innings we shook hands to my 2-0 victory. I stayed and watched us win the second match and the third before I had to leave to get ready for work. i found out later we won the next two innings giving us a 5-0 night. This will be my second 5-0 patch and the thing that started off this really great day was finding out what my Amazing Spider-Man #129 with not only Stan Lee's signature but now John Romita's was graded.

Thanks for Reading

Tnerb

Oh by the way it was a 9.4 Off White to White pages...I can live with that.

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