Bridge Blog 698: Non-milestone

          Last year, as part of my two-month celebration of my 70th birthday, I decided to treat everybody to a free evening game at the Airport Bridge Club. And what a wonderful evening it turned out to be – one of the high points of my whole birthday bonanza.

          This year I still wanted to treat everyone to a free evening game – do something twice and that’s how traditions are born. But this wasn’t a milestone birthday and, what’s more, the Airport Bridge Club isn’t doing evening games on Thursdays, the day of the week that July 18 fell upon. Closest I could get was Wednesday.

          OK, it’ll be an un-birthday, the last day that I’ll be 70. And, unlike last year, when people brought all kinds of things to eat, there wouldn’t be any of that this time around. I discouraged several ladies who offered. Instead, club manager Bill Finkelstein and I rushed around from big box store to bakery to supermarket Wednesday afternoon before finally settling on some cheesecakes and other sweets at Walmart.

          And it all turned out fine and just enough lower-key. Last year there were 12 tables. This time, 11. Last year there were all kinds of cards and gifts. This year there were still lots of cards, but only a couple gifts, including a little package of books that Paul Ganley published. Didn’t know he was a small-press guy.

          The big improvement was in my game. Last year, playing with Celine Murray, I had 46%, well short of earning master points. This time, playing with Selina Volpatti, who came over from Canada for the occasion, we had a 54.09% game, third in the B strat north-south, fourth in B overall, for 1.07 points.