Bridge Blog 1072: Under the Weather

Winter in Buffalo has a way of making bridge an uncertain pastime. Today, Wednesday, Jan. 30, for instance, has dangerous wind chills, a foot of snow and a travel advisory. By the time I wake up this morning, Airport Bridge Club manager Bill Finkelstein already has canceled today’s game.

This follows a week in which I was under the weather in the other sense. A week ago today I succumbed to one of the nastiest upper respiratory ailments I’ve ever had. After five days of decongestants, it went into retreat, but it still hasn’t disappeared completely.

So not only did I miss two days of club play last week, but I also had to cancel on my partners for the first two days of the Buffalo Winter Sectional Tournament. I finally rallied for the Swiss teams on Sunday.

Until that happened, it seemed like I was emerging from my post-Gold Master slump. The Swiss teams game, though not spectacular, yielded three wins for 0.78 of a point. A 52.78% game Monday with Usha Khurana produced another 0.92. And even a sub-par 47.50% game with Ruth Wurster on Tuesday was good for 0.57 of a point.

That makes nearly 11 points for the month, but it may be the end of the story for January. My Thursday partner already has bowed out because of the weather.