Tropical Storm & Trivia !

Yesterday was a rainy day. Tropical Storm EDOUARD rolled right over Houston. We saw heavy rain with some pretty good wind gusts but nothing major. As one person put it, "I guess they're naming Thunder Storms now ?". Well, actually there was a little bit of excitement later in the afternoon as a large portion of a Pecan tree fell between the garage apartment where I live and the house in front of it. It was quite impressive. My first reaction was Cool ! My second reaction was Wow ! That's a big piece of tree ! My third reaction was,"Damn ! I'm glad nobody got hurt !". The tree portion fell about as perfectly as it could between the house and Garage. The house sustained a little bit of cosmetic roof damage but not much. Everything else is fine.

By evening the the storm had pretty much moved out so Tuesday night Trivia was still on. There's a group of us from my running club, The Bayou City Road Runners, that meet weekly at the Harp Pub for Trivia. The club tradition was started by a world renowned Scrabble Genius (no joke) Avi who happens to be a member of the running club. Avi abandoned us all one day and now resides in the foreign country of Louisiana but his legacy lives on weekly at trivia. Occasionally he still appears out of nowhere and then mysteriously disappears again.

The format is teams of 5, 4 sets of 10 questions, and 5 bonus questions. The questions are based on just about anything. World events, pop culture, geography etc. etc... The whole deal takes about 2 - 2 1/2 hours and the top 3 teams place. First gets Money (all participants contribute $3 which goes towards the winnings), 2nd and 3rd get schwag (beer glasses etc.). I'm not for certain but on average there's probably 15-20 teams.

The big problem with trivia at the Harp is that very few stupid people hang out there. It's a smart bar comprised of professionals, nerds and a few runners.... There are a few people on the running club who are quite good at trivia. I've been lucky enough to be teamed up with them on a couple of occasions, however, I quickly developed the reputation for being remarkably convincing when I really didn't know what I was talking about thus I got the boot. That was with team "Valhalla". I then decided to form another faction known as "The Bayou City Thinking Society". After a couple of sub par performances a fellow teammate, Lara, suggested a name change with, "The Short Bus Society". Seemed fitting for the time so that's our current team name.

I have learned many valuable life lessons playing trivia..... 1 - When I don't know what I'm talking about its best to keep my mouth shut. By doing so, people will assume I'm smarter than I really am.... 2 - One or Two beers increase mental function. Anymore than that hampers thought processes. This is often realized in the results of the final bonus round.... 3 - Just because I'm absolutely sure I'm right doesn't always mean I am right. This is a very important fact. On several occasions I was positively 100% sure I was correct only to find out I wasn't. This realization threw me into an retrospect introspect of, "How many times in life did I think I was right when I was wrong ???"..... 4 - I need not take trivia too serious ! After all, its more than likely just a bunch of useless information taking up wayyy too much space in the brain..... Most importantly its all about hanging out with friends and having a good time.

Last nights team was a Combo 5. Three from "Short Bus" and two from "Valhalla".

Photo Above - L to R.... Matt - University Professor - Math wiz ; Kathy - Phd research Biologist ; Me at Center; Penny - Stock Broker; Jeff - Financial dude for Qwest. Yes, Matt and Kathy are "Team Valhalla" members....