Ten Years and Counting: This Blog Has Seen It's Ups and Downs

Ten years ago today I began writing this blog. It began as a travel blog, chronicaling my way to Las Vegas in the summer of 2007. My idea was to unload all my belongings and hit the road. I was restless and needed a drastic change.

I was playing a lot of poker in those days, online and at a casino in Oklahoma just across the Red River. My goal was to move to Las Vegas and play poker and get a Nevada real estate license. I had been a broker in Texas for quite some time so why not take my act to Vegas?

As it turned out I lived in Vegas for a while then hit the road again, eventually landing in Carmel, California. Then it was back to Texas before moving for good back to California in the summer of 2012. This blog has always been there, although months would go by in silence. I was not a serious blogger in those days. I would write for while, then let it go for weeks at a time. On and off like a leaky water faucet, my blogging was not very consistent.

Here is an excerpt from my blog, ten years ago today, as I was planning my move to Vegas:

(Saturday, June 23, 2007) 

 Why am I moving? When it came down to it, I realized I could go anywhere and do anything. I have nothing to keep me here in north Texas. I can just pick up and go. So, I decided Las Vegas would be a nice change. I may not be there long. I could be there until the rest of my life. But I'll always be a Texan no matter where I live, so it really doen't matter. I chose Las Vegas for a number of reasons, not to mention: 
1. the opportunity to grow in real estate investing 
2. the weather 
3. the job market 
4. the card rooms
5. the opportunity to experience life in the world's biggest playground, with all of its evil and grace...a great place for a writer. 

 This blog will be my journey to Vegas.


What will the next ten years bring? Anyone's guess. I hope to do a better job writing about it, whatever happens.

I'm at a Starbucks in Albuquerque, NM, the summer of 2007, having left Texas for a road trip to Las Vegas.

Climbing Mountains, Taking Risks

I've been reading an early play by the great Tennessee Williams over the last few weeks. I often take a break from other books I'm reading and indulge myself in a book of Williams' plays. The first play I'm reading is "Spring Storm."


"Spring Storm"is a play written by Williams when he was twenty-six years old. He was studying as an apprentice and was attending the University of Iowa. "Spring Storm" received poor reviews and it did not receive its first production until 1995 in Berkeley, California. 

In the first act, the curtain rises to reveal a high, windy bluff over the Mississippi River. It is called Lover's Leap. Two old trees whose leafless branches have been grotesquely twisted by the winds are there, along with Heavenly and Dick, two young lovers. They are discussing their future together near the edge of a cliff. Heavenly begins to climb higher up the bluff while Dick urges caution. 

Heavenly's response to Dick is that climbing up the bluff will get her closer to Heaven, where she might even see God. Dick reminds her that people can also fall when climbing, and it might be too dangerous. When climbing up a dangerous cliff you might reach a higher plateau, or you might fall and break your neck.

So when do we take the risk? When do we choose to climb higher up the slippery slope and hope to see God? It takes courage to climb up and see something beautiful. What if we fall? 

The mountain climber Ueli Steck in his native Switzerland in 2015.

Ueli Steck, a famous mountain climber nicknamed "the Swiss Machine", died earlier this year. He was 40 year old. His rapid ascents of some of the world's most imposing peaks made him renowned as one of the world's best climbers. He died in an accident at a camp near Mount Everest on April 30.

Steck was willing to risk his life to climb the highest mountains in the world for his own private reasons. For him, the risk was worth it. Falling was always a possibility. But he climbed. For him the ascent upward was a life and death decision on a daily basis. 

For most of us, taking a risk to achieve something greater is not a life and death decision. It involves risks, no doubt. But our lives are not in danger. Want to write a book? Will you fail? So what? You won't die. Want to go back to school and get a degree? Will it be costly? Will you go in debt? So what? It won't kill you. 

Tennessee Williams set up the play "Spring Storm" in a terrific first act, with risk and danger and darkness on the horizon. Young lovers at odds over their future sets up a dynamic scene. Death, too, is present. What kind of life is it, to take no risk, to play it safe, to not ascend a mountain?