Today's thoughts are not about poker, or hand reading, or my thoughts on analysis or the Mini UBOC which kicked off with a decent start for me (lost KK to AA in Event #1 for a top 5 pot, but played very well), 2 was a disaster (but you will see why in a minute) and I almost cashed in #3 (finished 91 with 81 paying). No todays thoughts are around a second chance and hoping someone uses it right. For those who don't know, Thursdays are a weekly day off for me because I ride a weekly EMS shift as an EMT in my town here in NJ. Part of the deal with the ambulance that I ride with is every 6 weeks you have to do a 24 shift from Saturday night to Sunday night (guess which weekend it happened to be 🙂 ). This weekend actually started off a little odder than most, we didn't do anything until early Sunday morning. My weekend partner is different than my normal partner, but he is a great guy. We have been together riding now for almost 4 years and have quite a history together, so much so that his nickname is Dr. Death. Together we have done more CPR calls (and coincidently have more saves) than any other pair on the squad, but it does get a little scary knowing that when we are together, bad things happen. Anyway, back to the relevant story. This shifts run from 1800 Saturday to 1800 Sunday and this time we got to 1700 hrs on Sunday and then it happened. We were sent to respond to an unconscious and unresponsive patient. If you aren't familiar with emergency medicine that is the politically correct radio terminology for dead (or at least we think their dead). So we go screaming down and meet the police. We end up finding a 20yr old patient who is clinically dead (there is an actual clinical definition for it, being no heart rhythm and no breathing) which is scary. A very very long 15 minutes later we were bringing a now alive person to the hospital. What happened you ask, the long and short of it was heroin overdose. So why do I bring this up. Not as a brag, not as some self righteous act. I think it is important to share stories like this, so that people know that if something bad happens to them there is always someone out there to help you. More importantly for this particular patient, this is my wish. I with the help of several other courageous individuals have given you a second chance at life. You had your crack and you blew it. You were dead. Gone. No longer amongst the living. We wrestled with death and we won for you. No it is your turn to do something with it. If you waste it, you will never know how hurt I will be. We gave you a part of ourselves to give you this gift, don't screw it up.
asdfads