I’ve been having the oddest week. I’ve been actually
sleeping through the night. Remarkable. I’ve finally overcome the gnawings of
my guilty conscience.
I have to admit that tournaments like Voluminous Bronx do
take it out of you. The tab room is busy in the morning before the rounds
start, and we’re there working long after the rounds of the day are over. We’re
there before registration and we stick it through to the finals. Which is why
we are less than sympathetic to folks who come to us begging for time off. What
about giving me and the Paginator some time off? We’d much rather go
bar-hopping than, say, pairing round 4. Everybody okay with that? (Actually,
this impugns the P’s sterling reputation for sobriety: he’s quite the rock when
he has students in tow. This is the way it should be, and maybe why I retired
from coaching. I could only take so much teetotalling.)
After something as demanding as the Bronx—we started working
on it in April—it’s nice to have something as undemanding as a little CFL contest
at Regis tomorrow. 6 divisions of LD and PF, and if there’s a blackout we can
do it on cards and still enjoy Grandma Julia’s judge lounge. For a number of
novices, this will be their first tournament, but I don’t think there are any
first-time schools coming. So for the most part, everyone will know what to do.
We should get 4 rounds in and be out by 6:30ish. At least that’s the hope. On
our end, we’ll be training our auditor. We did have a big error at Grands,
despite myself, Kaz and JV combining our tabbing talents, and we want to avoid
that in the future. Everything else there is audited, so we should be too. If
we’re going to deport people to Sacramento next Spring, we want it to be the
right people.
Sacramento? Who comes up with this stuff?
Meanwhile, the Tiggers have opened registration, and we’ll
start clearing the lists Tuesday. We did get a complaint that someone
registered 15 minutes after it opened and couldn’t understand why they were
waitlisted. The many facets of this are very entertaining. First of all, 99% of
the people registered within a minute of opening, this being 2015 and
registration being online. Secondly, a slight glance at the invitation would
have removed some of the surprise from any of this. And third, if you’re going
to put in TBAs, it’s a little…sassy…to complain that we have a waitlist. Jeesh.
Anyhow, our standard wait-a-week policy is in effect, so that people don’t have
to sign up within 7 seconds of opening to insure slots. This worked well for
the Pups and Bronx. I think we waited longer for those than a week, though,
because of the summer opening, but a week is enough, even if the coaches are in
Papeete sipping martinis on the beach or whatever.
And then, after this weekend, two weekends off. Really?
Really. With no more MHL, big gaps have opened in the schedule. Which makes me
wonder what people with novices will do to fill that gap, but, well, I’ve laid
down the torch. I already picked it up once long ago when there was a void that
needed to be filled. Now I’m on my own metaphoric Papeete beach sipping
metaphoric martinis. Rebuilding and/or maintaining a local educational league,
if anybody wants it, is a job that is available. Honestly, though, the real
question may be whether anyone wants it, given the state of the MHL the last
couple of years. A good idea that ran its course, seems to be the truth of it.
So it goes.
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