Backyard Patio

[mountainman]

Guy who did my basement and garage, a consummate pro-very meticulous, proposes to put down thin foundation of concrete and THEN lay pavers on top.

[mountainman]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

They start right up.

Hey, dude.. with Mahoning now plagued by strangles AND (the more ominous) herpes, wholesale scratching sure to ensue has me thinking golf tomorrow. 75 and sunny here, and I love time with Chris and Craig, my constant golf pals.

I just will not play with guys I don't know. Around those boys I can relax, let my guard down and say ANYTHING. They are that loyal and I've known them that long. In fact, along with my brother Gary, Chris and Craig are the only guys that get my completely unfiltered version. But isn't that what golf is for?

[ElKabong]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

Unlike our resident retired mailman I have no reason to run around and call people liars, but now I am starting to question your honesty. I have been around some women that blew my mind with their behavior, some good, some bad. First I was skeptical of a petite woman highly skilled at construction trades. The few I knew that were like that were far from petite and feminine.


Now you are claiming a petite DIY woman is also a skilled chess player? I am sure I have know more women than most men as many used me as fly repellent in health clubs. I probably have known the personal details of 1,000+ women, their likes and dislikes. I would say 4 had or could be taught DIY skills.ZERO of them played chess. You are telling me your wife is highly skilled at both? get the f**k out of here.

I'm just now getting around to reading this. Are you serious?

Look, I posted a photo of our tournament last may. My wife and I ran it at her school. I've posted about our chess classes and tournaments for years. You can believe it or not, I don't care

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

I'm just now getting around to reading this. Are you serious?

Look, I posted a photo of our tournament last may. My wife and I ran it at her school. I've posted about our chess classes and tournaments for years. You can believe it or not, I don't care

I was kidding, I believe you 100%, WTF? I am sure you will agree women playing chess is rare. I never accuse anyone of lying I am not Cliff Clavin. I was going to send you a PM but it did not come up as an option when I clicked on your screen name.

[ElKabong]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

I was kidding, I believe you 100%, WTF? I am sure you will agree women playing chess is rare. I never accuse anyone of lying I am not Cliff Clavin.

Sorry, my sarcasm meter was INOP

[ElKabong]

Two more photos of our May tournament. Wife is in the blue shirt.

She's really not a great player (very good tho) but her specialty is teaching and coaching. In 2003 she coached a middle school team from the Valley (McAllen, TX) to a nat'l title in Sacramento. She knows the guy that created the s/w Think Like a King. We have the University version.

In Dfw we had a pretty busy full time schedule beginning in 2016... 13 classes per week, 10 tournaments per yr, 6 summer camps. My wife retired in 2017 and thought she'd be busy. Got bored with 40 hr work weeks in chess and went back to teaching + our chess load. She's like my grand daughter. Motor runs 24/7/365.

Dave Schwartz contacted via pm 4 yrs ago when one of his friends was trying to start up on line classes for chess. I advised against online classes but they were very popular during covid, esp after the movie Queens Gambit came out. We did ok online, business wise, but our in person classes were huge with the Asian Indian community in Dallas and Denton counties. We miss it but we don't miss DFW or the traffic or politics. Here in deep east tx our classes are small. But fun

My wife went to help a guy in Tyler run his tournament Saturday. She was a hit (they were new) and wants to get back in the tournament game again. There goes my saturdays

[ElKabong]

.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

Sorry, my sarcasm meter was INOP

Seriously you have to admit a petite DIY chick that plays chess is very, very rare, especially at a high level. Like I said the best DIY woman I knew was a 5'9" 170# ex college softball playing lesbian, and she did have some knowledge playing horses, she did not play chess. In fact I would have been the Jr. High chess champion but could not get past my mom to walk to school
with a very high fever. I had an in progress game to finish and I was two moves from check mating the guy, nothing he could do. I ended up having to forfeit and promptly took my second place ribbon home and burned it.


That being said there was not a single girl in chess club in junior high. I have probably talked to more women than most guys as other than a boxing gym and power lifting gym, I went to coed fitness centers sometimes 6 days a week for 20+ years. I would strike up conversations on the stair masters to pass time, I had women who would tell me anything, some used me to vent their problems and others used me as fly repellent. Back in the day in the coed joints I was usually not the biggest but the strongest guy in the place.
If some dude was creeping on a chick they would often point to me and say I was their boyfriend or husband to get them to leave them alone. Most guys are terrified of someone stronger than them.



I had one lady who I had as a work out partner later on who was the strongest clean no drugs women I ever saw. She was flat chested and muscular, at first glance you would make her out as gay. Seriously no BS talking to her for one of the first times I asked her if she had any hobbies besides working out. She flat out said she liked having sex and went into detail about what she liked to give and receive. She also said she wished her husband would decide if they are divorcing as she won't cheat but sees men she would like to sleep with. She was probably a 4 on a 10 scale, but damn, I felt like I needed to get the hell off stair master and take a cold shower before something embarrassing happened. I am pretty sure I was on her hit list.


I had another woman tell me she stood on her head after sex because she was having trouble getting pregnant. I had another women in her late 40's
when I was early 30's tell me she married young and her husband is the only one she has had sex with, but lately she has been attracted to someone and feels guilty. I was shocked when she said it was her dentist.
We were friends and even went to lunch together a few times I thought she was going to say it was me. I also has one chick pull up her top to show me she had no stretch marks from breast feeding and pull her sweats down to show her C-section scar was not visible. This was in a corner of a U shaped hallway free weight area.


Truth be told, if the ex softball playing lesbian or the flat chested muscular chick made a pass at me I would not have turned them down.


Ok, all these stories are true I don't even change names. My name is Bob, the muscular chick in the gym was named Lynn, the lesbian was Deb, and the flasher was Kimberley.


Sorry for being long winded, but I wanted to state my case that I have known a lot of women who would tell me everything.


Not a single one said I LIKE TO PLAY CHESS AND AM GOOD AT IT.
I still believe you . I swear your wife with being DIY and a skilled chess player, plus petite, she has to be like one of no more than a couple dozen women in the whole wide world.


P.S. I got one more, a girl named Ingrid who was like 19 and I was like 33.
She was average looking in the face but was a workout warrior who would often get drenched in sweat leaving not much to the imagination, and that was pleasing to the eye. She invited me over. As a recently divorced man in his early 30's getting asked out by a teenage chick was an ego booster.

The catch was she wanted me as a sparring partner for kick boxing, as she even sparred with men her weight who did not want her going all out.

She wanted to be able to land full power punches and kicks, and with how I looked and my background she figured I could and would take them.

I asked her what she figured to gain by using me as a heavy bag, she said
she wanted me to fight back just only at her strength. I told her she was nuts as I do not hit ladies.



I think I have had more odd encounters with women than most, I have plenty more odd true stories to tell, yet no women claiming to play chess.

Could it be being a skilled chess player for woman is taboo? Like if a bad ass like Chuck Norris liked to knit? So there are women who admit to standing on their head after sex, ask older men out on a date because they want to punch them, tell about 30 years with one man but want to sleep with their dentist, and ones who out of the blue tell a damn near stranger to walk them to their car and kiss them because Rico Suave won't stop hitting on them, yet they will not admit to liking to play chess.

[ElKabong]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

Could it be being a skilled chess player for woman is taboo? Like if a bad ass like Chuck Norris liked to knit?

Absolutely not. Susan and Judit Polgar are / were top level professionals. My wife knows Susan from the tournament tour (wife coached as did Susan when Susan coached Texas Tech). One of those Polgar sisters beat Boris Spassky multiple times. In their younger years the Polgar sisters were hot. As in attractive +

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Judit-Polgar

I had to check, there are currently 41 female GMs, few if any Americans. The thing that's easy to see when coaching, American born kids are far FAR behind bright kids from India, etc. Embarrassing.

It's all parental involvement. Parents from India especially are very much into total development of their kids. I've said it 1000x here, their culture is what I wish ours was. Integrity, hard work, competitiveness, honesty, etc. Success is expected

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...s_grandmasters

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by mountainman

Hey, dude.. with Mahoning now plagued by strangles AND (the more ominous) herpes, wholesale scratching sure to ensue has me thinking golf tomorrow. 75 and sunny here, and I love time with Chris and Craig, my constant golf pals.

I just will not play with guys I don't know. Around those boys I can relax, let my guard down and say ANYTHING. They are that loyal and I've known them that long. In fact, along with my brother Gary, Chris and Craig are the only guys that get my completely unfiltered version. But isn't that what golf is for?

I did that a lot. After my parents got divorced when I was 12 and no way in hell I wanted to spend all day at the mall shopping with my sister and grandma when spending the weekend with grandma, I had grandma drop me at the local 18 hole par 3 on their way to the mall. I got on the starters list looking for someone who was willing to take on another to fill out a foursome. I played with lots of strangers.



As a little older with a driver's license playing longer par 72 courses I often only hit the course with only a threesome and many places wanted a threesome to wait for a 4th.



If it wasn't for playing with strangers I would not be able to brag as a long hitting young strong man I got beat by a guy 86 or 88, I forgot his exact age.


I have a lot of glory day memories, but I think the ones of failure are the strongest ones. I was deadly straight and accurate, if I would take a full swing, but due to a horrible short game I would shoot the same whether the course was 6200 or 7200 yards long.


We usually walked and we just had a threesome. The starter pretty much begged us to take this old guy with a cart as a 4th as others had refused that were short a person. Unlike most young people I loved the elderly, I saw them as a wealth of information, I wanted to pick their brains.



We let the old guy play off the ladies tees. It was a short course, I was a single digit handicap and usually smoked the friends I played with. Even playing off the championship tees the course was short. Off the ladies tees some of the par 4's were nothing but long par 3's. This old geezer's longest drive was 150 yards and that was down hill with a tail wind. I could drive straight and 300+ with a wood driver. This old geezer had a deadly short game, he was canning putts at a distance I hoped to two putt and not 3 putt from.


Toward the final holes he even starting talking shit, we were neck and neck. He said his wife is never going to believe that he beat a young strong long hitter like me.


He won by a stroke, I don't remember my score, probably the typical high 70's low 80's.


I remember a club pro at a Hemet Ca. course watching me at the driving range
saying if he had my distance he would be a top PGA Pro, I must say if I had that old geezers short game, so would I.

[Inner Dirt]

Originally Posted by ElKabong

Absolutely not. Susan and Judit Polgar are / were top level professionals. My wife knows Susan from the tournament tour (wife coached as did Susan when Susan coached Texas Tech). One of those Polgar sisters beat Boris Spassky multiple times. In their younger years the Polgar sisters were hot. As in attractive +

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Judit-Polgar

I had to check, there are currently 41 female GMs, few if any Americans. The thing that's easy to see when coaching, American born kids are far FAR behind bright kids from India, etc. Embarrassing.

It's all parental involvement. Parents from India especially are very much into total development of their kids. I've said it 1000x here, their culture is what I wish ours was. Integrity, hard work, competitiveness, honesty, etc. Success is expected

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List...s_grandmasters

Damn, I was kidding again, I am sure no woman who was a highly skilled chess player would hide it. I hope I don't need to add you to my " Do you
have any new enemies lately?" thread I started.



I believe everything you post.

[Inner Dirt]

Wasn't it Mountain man who said he almost got in a fight on a golf course?
Reading that I thought, what an asshole, Then I realized that almost happened to me twice. Not my fault of course.

[davew]

Originally Posted by mountainman

Guy who did my basement and garage, a consummate pro-very meticulous, proposes to put down thin foundation of concrete and THEN lay pavers on top.

This is probably a good idea to prevent little sink holes / ground settling making a few pavers drop a little and becoming trip hazard.

[ElKabong]

Originally Posted by davew

This is probably a good idea to prevent little sink holes / ground settling making a few pavers drop a little and becoming trip hazard.

Sounds pretty good, imo

[ElKabong]

Originally Posted by Inner Dirt

Wasn't it Mountain man who said he almost got in a fight on a golf course?
Reading that I thought, what an asshole, Then I realized that almost happened to me twice. Not my fault of course.

Happens a lot I hear, mostly the covid era new wave of golfers with no clue of etiquette. I played all through the 70s until I was 24, quit, then started playing when I fully retired and moved out of dfw. The game has changed so much. Lack of respect of other foursomes being one

Watching Mark on the mountaineer feed yrs ago I can see him taking no shit from "difficult personalities" on the course. Every course needs his type to level it all out