I have been playing bridge since 2005. I mentioned to my mother-in-law that I would like to learn the game, and shortly thereafter I was invited to substitute in the Wednesday night game at Luther Acres, the retirement village in which she lived. As it happened, she was the organizer for the Wednesday night group. I bought “Bridge For Dummies” and proceeded to read it. After four years I am still reading it. I suppose I didn’t stumble too badly, although I felt really stupid by the time that first evening was over. All I could do was hold the cards and follow suit. I also was the dummy in more ways than one. Even though my mother-in-law has been gone for three years, I have been invited to “substitute” almost every week since then. Bridge is a very humbling game. Whenever I think I am beginning to get the hang of it, I run up against reality. Experts tell me one never stops learning about the game, and I believe them. I read the daily bridge column in the newspaper, and about half t...
My alarm clock goes off every morning at eight, except for the few times when I have a breakfast date. Usually I wake up about an hour before that, or at least I partly wake up. It is important that I remain in a “not quite awake but not quite asleep” state, because I consider that time as the germination period for whatever seeds happen to have blown into my head.