The greatest invention in the history of mankind

The two hour nap is the greatest invention in the history of mankind, with the possible exception of the pizza oven. I got off work a half hour early today and I decided to celebrate this windfall by investing it in a nap. Two hours is the ideal time for a nap, the best way I know to turn two hours of your life into a tropical vacation without the plane fare. It's particularly effective if you have a cute girl in tiny blue girl underwear to nap with, but the nap works either way. You'll wake up larger and more full of hope and energy, and a lot of your small problems will have solved themselves while you sleep. It's not they go away; it's just that they won't matter as much when you're not dragging yourself around nap-deficient. I highly recommend leaving work early and taking a two hour nap, particularly if you begin it by making love to your wife. Take the nap, wake up slowly and put on your loosest and most comfortable pair of summer shorts, and take her out for pizza by the slice. You can work out tomorrow. I promise the gym will still be there.

Thank God for Winco. When I got up I walked the four blocks to the grocery store, taking the short cut through the bank parking lot and the old North's Chuckwagon. Probably lucky for me the all-you-can-eat buffet closed down last year. They're turning it into a strip mall and condos. We certainly need more of those, although I would have preferred unlimited Sunday morning bacon. Anyway I got to Winco and called Marie on the way. Austin's birthday is Thursday. It was a lovely night but you can really feel fall in the air, the long shadows, a cooler breeze, sunsets full of color. I haven't noticed that the leaves have started to turn but they soon will. We talked about ten minutes and I told her I loved her. She loves me too. Now that's a good phone call, and T-mobile didn't drop it this time.

At Winco I got two bags of food for $16: fruit, carrots, Skippy peanut butter and a nice loaf of whole grain bread, a deli sandwich, one can each of albacore tuna, black beans, and Stagg's chicken chili and four bottles of water, lunches for the rest of the week and dinner tonight and I spent less than 20 bucks. I love Winco. The clerk was even nice.

I went home and ate my sandwich and listened to some music. I played uninspired poker tonight, lost four dollars, made a couple of poor decisions, both reflected a lack of clarity--you have to have a reason for what you do when you play, there has to be some internal logic and a realistic assessment of the total table situation. Both times, I was just tossing in chips and hoping to win, and that's a recipe for disaster. Patience, clarity and focus, you absolutely can't win without them. Although some people seem to.

There are some more games available but I think I'm done for the night. I'll come back tomorrow after a good night's sleep and a good workout, and I'll pick my spots better.

Poker takes a lot of time, and sometimes I wish I had something better to invest it in. Tonight half the country is watching tv and eating potato chips, so it's not a complete disaster. Still, the energy and attention I give to it could really amount to something if I applied it elsewhere. Maybe I should start a blog about Pac-10 football or write another book. I'll have to give some thought to this. Right now I'm not in a decision-making mood.