FWD

That I know of,  FWD is not some Twitter/Internet shorthand for something like LMAO (laughing my ass off. See what I know). It is my own shorthand for Fridays with Dad.

Since I have two very adult daughters, and there are five week days in a week, I can expect a visit from the daughters on the day their schedule allows them. Susan on Wednesdays; Nancy, generally on Fridays. And since Nancy heard of my new found interest in playing pool and acquiring a two piece (not custom made) pool cue and case, she suggested that since my birthday was in January and she hadn't yet bought me a present, why doesn't she just buy me the pool cue rather than taking the easy way out with a gift card. I didn't object.

So, since I'd already window shopped for a cue at a local store, D'Angelo Sports on Wantagh Avenue, a place that sells baseball and all sorts of trading cards, darts, dart boards, flights, and pool cues, it was a easy trip down to D'Angelo's to pick out a cue, on a Friday, as in yesterday.

Baseball cards are big business, and so are trading cards for all sports, sports that when I was growing up did not have dedicated cards. Near the two revolving pool cue kiosks, there were hockey trading cards. And since everything always reminds me of something, I started to tell the salesperson about the photo I saw that morning in the NYT of Sarah Palin leaving Federal court in Lower Manhattan in connection with her libel suit trial against the New York Times with Ron Duguay in tow. 

Ron Duguay! A former NHL hockey player, who when he was with the Rangers as #10 and played with no helmet in the era I was attending games as a season ticket holder, you knew his flowing curly locks were a macho, sex appeal magnet to every young female hockey fan. He is now apparently squiring Sarah Palin.  Hey, Alaska is close to Canada, eh?

Duguay has been seen occasionally on some network analyzing games, looking obviously a little older, but surely just as desirable, perhaps to an older set of hockey females, but still advertising his looks. Palin described herself in court as being a single mom (divorced from Todd in 2020) taking care of a special needs child. Duguay is only referred to in the caption for the above photo. 

Ron has the appearance of a bodyguard, or a tough as nails P.I. in a NetFlix series, with his dark glasses and his open collar, towering over the diminutive Palin. Just friends? No matter. I digress.

I settled on a good looking 20 oz. cue with the look of highly polished maple from a company appropriately called Action. (I've always loved the scene in The Color of Money when Tom Cruise opens his case and refers to his cue as 'Doom.' I once flirted with naming some fraud detection software we developed also as 'Doom.') The case is a simple, black padded one, also from Action, with a shoulder strap, just like the ones I see the guys with who have their own cue at the pool hall, "where the bad folks all get together at night." My daughter Nancy, fresh from a trip to the ATM, forked over cash, thus no tax. I like this girl's style.

I can't believe that after all these years, and there are A LOT of years, that the next time I aim a cue ball at a rack it will be with my own cue. No more searching through the house racks. I really can't wait.

And for me, that waiting will be over sometime early next week when I descend on Raxx in West Hempstead, having the look on entry of someone who can play the game. The look will evaporate if someone spends five minutes watching me sink a few, then miss. Then miss again. I don't care.

If someone wants to play me for "split time" I'll tell them to come see me in six months. With any effort and luck, I can only get better, with my own cue.

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