Extremes

PITTSBURGH -- Casino poker rooms tend to be cold. It's a side effect of the heat generated by slot machines. Also, the air has to circulate a lot to suck out the smoke (or die trying). But when the fans come on full blast near the poker tables, it can be like an arctic blast.

When we first moved to Austin Texas in August of 1985, the temperature was somewhere around 107 every day for the first week we lived there. But I couldn't believe how cold it was in every office building and shopping mall. It wasn't just that it felt cold initially, it truly was way too cold. Sweater weather inside. Isn't that a waste of energy? Does it have to be that gosh-darn cold?

An excuse to show a cute pix of my kid in Austin

Today was the hottest day of the year so far. My car said 93 degrees; my neighbor said 95 degrees. And yet, when Larry went to play in a poker tournament tonight, we had to figure out what he could wear so that he would be warm enough. He decided on a tee shirt under a long-sleeved shirt, and it seems to be working. He just texted "lousy cards, playing well, 20 left" with no mention that he's too cold.

Lots of poker players wear hoodies. You might have thought it was to hide their faces so they don't give away their "tells," but I think mostly it's so they don't freeze.