Morning Open Thread is a daily, copyrighted post from a host of editors and guest writers. We support our community, invite and share ideas, and encourage thoughtful, respectful dialogue in an open forum.
I’ve come to think of this post as one where you come for the music and stay for the conversation—so feel free to drop a note. The diarist gets to sleep in if he/she so desires and can show up long after the post is published. So you know, it's a feature, not a bug.
Join us, please.
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Mornin’ y’all —
I rolled back into Reno on Wednesday at around 3:00 am. I had spoken with the airline on the road and gotten a flight back to Atlanta at 5:00 pm on Thursday. That left me thirty-eight hours. I was bound and determined to salvage something, anything outta this trip, and if it had to be in this place, then so be it.
I checked back in to the Atlantis (same room, luckily enough) and laid down for a few hours. One does not really sleep in Reno — it’s more of a tentative and wary loss of consciousness for a few hours — long enough for the brain to reset itself while keeping alert for any sort of Nevada madness that might be creeping toward you while your eyes are closed. In the high desert, you learn your lessons the hard way.
I woke up at 8:00 am, climbed into a welcoming shower and went downstairs to eat the same breakfast I had two days before. Called the old man and chatted a bit — no way he was driving down here to get me again; he was absorbed in the recently installed and previously-referred to digital medial streaming platform that was installed on his TV. Never underestimate the power of “Narcos” on the human psyche. I decided that, my plans being shattered by a virus that in its infancy was just beginning to crawl its black way across the nation, I might as well throw some more money down and test what rotten luck I had.
I found a quiet bar by the elevators and ordered a Jameson & ginger. My luck turned out a little better than expected. Within two hours, this happened:
A quick $2,000 to make me feel a little better.
Not bad. That recouped the money I lost the other day. Whenever you leave places like this even, or a little ahead, you always feel pretty good about yourself. Had a couple more drinks, tipped the bartender handsomely and headed back to the room for another quick catnap.
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I awoke a little after noon with a plan. One of my best friends ever was still in this city, and I might as well make the effort to say hi. Hadn’t seen him in about 15 years. I called him up and agreed to meet at an Irish pub close to downtown at 6:00 pm. I’m always a little cautious about these kinds of meetings — the last thing I want is to have my predetermined notions of who my friends are shattered by a stark, surprising and eventually unsatisfying reality. It’s like the guy you used to run around with suddenly becoming extremely religious. Or something like that.
Went back downstairs to the same bar, had the same drink(s) and hit another royal (photo not available — $1,100 more in my pocket). I was ahead over a grand now and ready to tear Reno a new one. Must be the Jameson, I thought. Grabbed a sandwich, ordered an Uber and was off.
I got to the pub, Ceol (that’s pronounced “keel”), about 15-20 minutes early. I like to do this when I’m meeting people in that city. I don’t really have a reason — maybe it’s just some inherent paranoia of being set up. As I have alluded to, the Nevada high desert can be a trying place. Ordered yet another Jameson & ginger (seemed to be working, so hey, why not just go with it?) and sat with my back against a wall (obviously), watching the door for my friend to show.
I need not have been so worried. Mike showed up and was exactly the same as I remember him — large, hairy and blatantly Communist. A joy to reconnect while we listened to open mic night on the tiny stage, a couple of performers struggling their way through some early country classics on the banjo and mandolin. More drinks (of course I picked up the tab — I was flush and really enjoy doing that) and a decent few hours of laughter and reminiscence.
35 year friendship
After a $40 shot of whiskey (each), we bid our farewells (I think my back still hurts from the bear hug he threw at me) and I Ubered back to the Atlantis. My driver was a Russian immigrant extremely upset that the COVID-19 virus was affecting his business and wondering why we didn’t “do things like they do in Russia”. I didn’t know exactly what this meant and, frankly, was afraid to ask, so it was lucky that my ride was a mere 7 minutes.
I had been drinking all day, it dawned on me, and it would be a shame to waste such a nice buzz on my last night of vacation by sleeping it all off. I dragged myself to the same bar, ordered the same drink from the same bartender as last night (I’m a creature of habit, what can I say?) and broke out the wallet. Within 3 hours, I had worked the machine up to $1,250. Some days you’re on, most days you’re off. I was gonna ride this out as far as it would take me, but the drinks caught up. I stumbled to my hotel room at about 5:00 am and fell into a nice, alcohol-induced quasi-coma, blissfully unaware of any chaos that might be lurking in the hallways of the Atlantis hotel area.
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I awoke slowly around noon, easing myself up gently out of sleep. I knew this was my last day — I’d be on a plane back home in about 5 hours. Check-out was in an hour, so I better get my butt moving. Up, showered and packed in about 30 minutes and down to the registration desk, where they graciously held my bags until my flight.
Nothing to do for four hours. I looked across the casino and thought, well, why not?
Two hours later, another royal flush.
Can’t make this kinda stuff up, folks. That’s three in a 36 hour period.
So, I hopped on the hotel shuttle back to the airport with the $6,000 I took outta that casino, more than paying for the entire trip and a little extra for my missed opportunities in California, Oregon and Washington.
As I boarded the flight, wondering over all this, I thought “sometimes things happen for a reason.”
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Introduced to me by Mike, I played it at least a dozen times on my flight back….
Be good humans today. And be lucky if you can…
