Thursday, June 26, 2008

Fields of flame

I was playing online poker tonight (Thursday) and had just busted out of the Riverchaser's tournament in 14th place when my pocket queens were elimnated by someone who held A8. We were all-in preflop, and the poker gods were so inconsiderate as to put an ace on the board.

lightning36 was the winner, so congratulations to him.



I was annoyed about being knocked out (I was a 67.5% favorite preflop according to Card Player Magazine's poker odds calculator), and I just happened to look out my window. The sky was on fire!


It looks like my subdivision is engulfed in flames, but there is a highway behind it. Past the highway is a rural area with a wheat field that had just been harvested. Farmers, who do what is called double cropping, have a limited window in which to harvest the grain and sow soybeans, or whatever their second planting is. Because of this, they burn off their field to get rid of the wheat stubble that havesting leaves behind. This practice is legal (with a permit), but is controversial. Farmers claim it eliminates insects and disease from their fields resulting is less herbicide and pesticide use. Environmentalists don't agree.

I grabbed my camera and took the photo above, then jumped in my car and drove over to get a closer look. I saw this:

And when I got very close, it looked like this:

You can click on any of the photos to see them full-sized.

3 comments:

  1. It sucks to go out on a three-outer, especially when you have a premium hand like Q-Q.

    You played a strong game, but sometimes things just don't work out. I was never in first, second, or third place until the end. Go figure.

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  2. Wow, that fire is awfully close to those houses! Geesh. But this explains why I have seen so many big clouds of smoke lately...it's the farmers. Who knew?

    So, what's the buyin for that Friday night trny at Harrahs?

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  3. Oh, I looked it up on their website. It's only 80 + 20. It's in my BR range! LOL I may go over there tonight.

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