Our group at the top

When I spoke to one of the rangers that works for the BLM, this was his reasoning for the new change. Red Rock Canyon has a couple rules that most abide by and they are as follows in regards to needing a permit to hike:

1. group is charging a fee to have their members hike
2. group is a large group such as http://www.meetup.com that is accessible to anyone online

The rangers hadn’t really been paying that much attention to the 2nd rule until we had some individuals that were refusing to carpool and taking up the limited parking spaces at the trailhead. That wasn’t the back breakers though that ruined it for us. Those individuals that insisted on posting hikes knowing full well that they might have some that might not finish before the loop closed were the ones that ruined it for everyone.

Here are the new limitations for ANY organized group that wants to go hiking at Red Rock without a permit:

1. There are to be no more that 10-12 people in a group at anything above 5000′ elevation so that includes Turtlehead Peak.

2. There are to be no more than 15-20 people in a group at anything below 5000′ so that would be Calico Tanks, Sandstone Quarry, Ice Box Canyon, and La Madre Springs.

3. No more than 20-25 at the Calico Basin hikes

There are arguments for both sides as shown here: Las Vegas Hiking & Outdoors message board.

As you can see, the majority is on the BLM rangers side. They think that having smaller groups makes for better conversation and getting to know one another better. Then, there is the gentleman who thinks the BLM is infringing on our 1st amendment rights by limiting us. In my eyes, that is taking things a little too far. I don’t see how limiting a group is infringing on anyone’s rights.

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Today Las Vegas produced the biggest veterans’ parade west of the Mississippi and the second largest in the nation. The Scintas kicked it off by singing a harmonious, rousing version of the Star Spangled Banner. The parade was dedicated to the Wounded Warriors Project. A group of those soldiers marched ahead of their band—nothing beats a military band for raising goose bumps—and was seated in front of the stage. Thereafter every military group stopped in front of the stage and formally thanked the soldiers for their service.

Wounded Warriors Color Guard

Oscar-Goodman-the-Happiest-Mayor walked the parade route with Eugene Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon. I missed him because I was surrounded by so many impressive military men and women. For example, on stage that plain looking guy, beard, black sweater, sunglasses, is the Commander of the famous Seal Team 6, standing next to a Medal of Honor recipient, and the most honored marksman (battle tested sniper) in Viet Nam. One female soldier marching in uniform, name withheld (I cannot guess why), is now 91 years old. Can you spot her?

Is it still a secret that every weekend and every holiday is a free party in the Fremont Experience? Tonight the military vehicles, old and new, will be on display, along with live music. I am hoping for some John Philip Sousa, but country and rock are advertised.

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If body language is any indication, Garth Brooks and Steve Wynn are in perfect synch as they announce Brooks' new concert series at the Wynn resort

Putting his retirement on hold, Garth Brooks is coming to the Wynn showroom where Danny Gans took his final bow. Steve Wynn joined Brooks on his new stage today to make the announcement of Brooks’ upcoming concert series official. Tickets will go on sale October 24th at 8:00 a.m. As part of an effort to thwart scalpers, ticket purchasers will be asked to present identification. Tickets — one price only — will be $125. Performances begin December 11th, and the show will run for fifteen weeks. There will be one show on Fridays, two shows on Saturdays, and one show on Sundays.

Garth Brooks responds to questions from journalists

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Last weekend some friends went camping near Sandy Beach at Lake Mead. It was a guys’ get-a-way–days of water skiing and nights around a campfire with beer and roast beast. A relaxing good time. One day a herd of 50 or more Desert Big Horn Sheep grazed their way through the terrain. Nature’s rock climbing commandos at their ease. What a sight!

Photo by Steve Murphy at Lake Mead

About 200 sheep live in a territory that covers the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and a chunk of Arizona. The Desert Sheep are slightly smaller than Rocky Mountain Big Horn Sheep, but every bit as majestic.

You do not have to climb a mountain or even go to Lake Mead to see these elusive legends of the West. There is a little residential park where the sheep habitually browse. From Las Vegas, drive south on Boulder Highway. Continue on Interstate 93 to Boulder City. Turn left at Ville Drive. Look for the neighborhood playground about half a mile down the road on the right. There are usually about 20 sheep grazing and a small, hushed audience watching.

Photo by Steve Murphy at Lake Mead

The Lake Mead Area staff caution visitors to remember the sheep are not tame. They butt heads at 50 mph with 2400 lbs. of force.

Do not get too close.

Do not feed them anything.

Photo by Steve Murphy at Lake Mead

To get acquainted with Big Horn Sheep before sight seeing, go to:
National Big Horn Sheep Interpretive Center
Endangered Peninsular Big Horn Sheep
Desert USA, Big Horn Sheep
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Species Profile
Animal Diversity Web

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I’ve been a professional, licensed massage therapist since 1982; in Las Vegas since 1990. By far, the most interesting clients I’ve met have been here in Vegas. I’m not exaggerating when I say I’ve worked on billionaires and busboys. I’ve worked both in spas, offices, storefronts, and have provided outcall service everywhere from the Villas at the Mirage to the crapiest weekly motel rentals. Why not just stick to the high-end clients? The ones in the beautifully appointed hotel suites that are often more square footage than my house? Or the posh gated homes on multi-acre estates? Well, for starters, the money I’m paid by either end of the socio-economic spectrum is redeemable at the same institutions. And Countrywide doesn’t accept “I was not comfortable working in that environment” as an excuse for missing a mortgage payment.

I have a semi-regular clientele, but they don’t provide the bulk of my income. For that, like many Las Vegans, I rely on visitors, who come in all shapes and sizes and from all reaches of the globe. Last Sunday, for instance, I was worried about a dollar amount I wanted to appear in my checking account by the following Friday, but my appointment bookings didn’t support that figure. So when the phone rang at 4 PM, I was happy to book a double-client hotel call appointment.

The voice on the phone sounded foreign. It took me a minute, but I was thinking Middle Eastern or that general region. The client asked for a session for two of them in the same room and didn’t mind that I would be doing them back to back, rather than simultaneously with another therapist (better for me, but not always agreeable when they’re pressed for time). After going through my screening process (as it turned out, they were also wary of me), I determined they were looking for legitimate massage and not just a cheap thrill, so I headed for Circus Circus. Mentally, I was almost trying to talk myself out of going. “It’s going to be a hassle… it won’t be worth the energy… they’ll be obnoxious” were a few of the excuses running through my head.

Now I hate to be a snob, but I think we all know that Circus Circus is not a Mecca for high rollers and celebrities. But I wasn’t prepared for the level of dinginess that I encountered when I pulled into the parking lot of “The Manor” area of Circus Circus that afternoon at 4:30 PM. It’s not the main building, but a three-story older group of buildings out back. No valet parking, no elevators. But plenty of “street life” in the parking lot, if you catch my drift. Three teenage (?) girls sitting on the pavement, drinking beer and swearing a lot. A couple young guys with baggy jeans congregating around the dumpster, and a bike cop circling the grounds.

I’d been in this particular area of the hotel only once, back in 1992, and thought it was dated then. I doubt any redecorating has been done to it in the interim.

I unloaded my equipment and called my client to ask him to escort me into the building, which required a key pass. He quickly obliged; a thirtyish, long haired Indian man in bare feet whom I knew on sight was the one I’d spoken to on the phone. He helped me carry my massage table and rolling cart up to the second floor (normally I do this alone through an elevator). Along the way, we passed a young couple parked on the second floor stairway. Why they were loitering, I have no idea.

Because foot massage is part of the service and he’d just dirtied his on the entrance, I asked him to shower. He said he already took on that day, but I said I thought I was advised anyway. He went along with my request. While he was showering, I sat there fuming that life was so hard! Seriously, why am I, at my age, still going out to flea bag hotels? Why can’t I get all the nice, pleasant jobs, etc? All the negative thoughts were weaving knots into my own muscles.

All massage therapists are somewhat apprehensive about being alone in a hotel room with an unknown client not obtained through a proper referral, even though we sort of have the upper hand just by being fully clothed and standing above them. But I was quickly put at ease by this young man, who told me he’s from NYC by way of India, and working in as an I.T. professional. He behaved exactly like I’d hoped, and although the room and hotel were not the best I’ve worked in, he could not have been nicer and more gentlemanly. His traveling companion was equally polite. Both gave me an unexpected tip, and a promise to post a favorable review of my business on the internet site on which they discovered my ad, and to refer their friends, who had warned them not to try finding a legitimate in-room massage in Las Vegas.

I left much more relaxed than when I pulled into the parking lot, and with a better attitude. Two hours after coming in, the same couple was sitting on the stairway. I offered the man $5 to help me carry my table down the stairs. He replied that he’d be happy to, and no remuneration was required. A lucky day for me on all counts.

Hired Hands Massage & Skin Care.

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I signed up to spend my summer stay-cation at boot camp, poker boot camp that is, here in Las Vegas at the Golden Nugget. “Poker is war disguised as a game,” forewarns the flyer for World Poker Tour (WPT) Boot Camps. These are elite training seminars offering prep for online competition and live tournaments where staggering pots of money await. Neophytes like me enroll to enhance leisure gambling skills. Champion wannabes come to hone strategy, ready an arsenal of odds, and ponder expectations–the mathematical kind. The fantasy that keeps us focused is the record of past graduates who consistently win on the green felt battlefield.

Our drill instructor, Mike Sexton, leads a congenial team of experts, Linda Johnson, Jan Fisher, Rick Fuller and Nick “Numbers” Brancato. A winning player and trophy bracelet owner, Sexton is familiar to TV sports and travel channel viewers world wide as the canniest announcer in the industry.

Boot Camp begins at a relaxed breakfast enlivened by Sexton’s charming tales, with I a rapt audience. But I soon move from tales to “tells.” Poker players do not merely socialize, they “read” people, and toast-crunching future rivals are all around me.

Poker stars become famous in tournaments. At cash games, casino tables where anyone can sit or go at any time, professionals make a living. This Boot Camp is a cash camp. Our first lecture addressed the differences. In tournaments, with both ability and luck, a few contenders win the prize pool. The field, who fund the winners’ loot, manages escalating antes and blind bets which force marginal plays until challengers achieve the definitive short stack, zero chips, and are out. On the other hand, your whole life is a cash game with a buy back. Success depends on patiently folding secondary cards and courageously betting premium cards, while calculating the difference between your chance at triumph and pot odds, to attain a positive expectation. Math to English translation: Chips incoming! To illustrate the impact of cash versus tournament structure, assume a hand with 66% favorable probability (average lose one hand and win two). You can exit a winner in cash games. But, one hefty tournament loss makes you a bystander on the rail.

Boot Camp is a course for professionals and beginners, but the material could be overwhelming for those unfamiliar with the fundamentals. At $2,000 per course, it is best to know the basics before starting class. For two days I immersed myself in stack management, street strategy, tilt-free attitude, probability and other mental calisthenics. We did not play at poker. Bank management was covered, along with when to increase limits and pay yourself. Not soon enough for me. Some recruits, pre-adapted to the calculating mindset, already saw the world in terms of “X” to “Y” against. Warning to simple fun seekers: These warriors have a lethal advantage and the expertise to extract a sizable entertainment tax from your cache.

I had to learn poker speak to communicate. In Texas Hold’em every hole card combination (first two cards) has a nickname; every level of experience an animal label; and any jargon can become a menacing verb in the mouths of frustrated opponents. So if I start with pocket rockets (Ace, Ace) and finish a felted fish (new player with nothing but felt where my chips once sat), now I can commiserate with others who understand bad beat gasping. You suffer a bad beat when your high hand loses to a higher hand, as in life.

Playing random hands with Sexton analyzing each step created my memorable moments. I also played 20 prearranged hands in a software program which compared students’ decisions with instructors’ choices. Although I wanted to match the experts, in live play there is no such tactical comfort zone. Players must vary strategy or become “readable.” Although it is said poker is the hardest way not to work for a living, they did not sweat the optimism out of me.

It is astounding that anyone can watch the World Series of Poker at the Rio up close and personal. For free! The prize pool is the sporting life’s largest dollar happening on the planet. More money changes hands in the cash games surrounding the WSOP. With that inspiration, we campers are set lose on Las Vegas, primed to win back our tuition. And take prisoners!

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I was on the phone to KNPR Thursday ready to make a comment on the healthcare debate; I was told I was next in line. Suddenly, host Dave Burns said something about staying tuned for a discussion on the housing crisis and the phone went dead. Damn.

So here are my comments: I am a former Benefit Services Director for a mid-size manufacturing company in Chicago. I got the job because I had written the benefits booklets and, due to several departures from the Human Resources Department, I became the on-site expert and eventually was given the Benefit Services job.

What did I learn?

Everyone deserves to have uncomplicated access to healthcare. Pain is pain, rich or poor.

If the decision were mine, one universal plan would be offered everyone. One plan speaks to “all men being created equal” and is easier to communicate than several. Being a realist, however, any progress would be appreciated.

Our company had a subsidiary in Canada and I visited there once. I remember talking to a bus driver who so proudly showed us his healthcare card. I can’t weigh in on all the talk-show comments being made today about Canada’s plan, but I know the bus driver was very proud to be a Canadian with a healthcare card.

I also learned that healthcare is a complicated subject. We spent weeks working with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois on booklet revisions. Can a 1300-page Federal document be passed quickly and be the best result? Probably not. On the other hand, to debate the subject to death would be a shame.

As my husband and I have gotten older and accessed the current “public” healthcare system (Medicare), we do see that money can be saved. In a perfect world, half the money Medicare has spent on us need not have been spent. We have also come in contact with a couple of wasteful Medicare policies as well. Examples:

My husband had “simple” arthroscopic knee surgery here and got a serious infection. The infection shouldn’t have happened, of course, but I believe Medicare is on that subject, threatening in the future to hold physicians and hospitals (not Medicare and patients) responsible for hospital-contracted infections. Nonetheless, the infection resulted in a second surgery, a hospitalization and a large “donut hole” expense for us to pay for six weeks of at-home antibiotics and at-home nursing and therapy visits.

We asked how “poor people” would afford such antibiotic therapy and were told that when a person can’t afford antibiotics and at-home care, they are sent to a rehabilitation center for six weeks and Medicare pays 100 percent of the cost. (At home, we paid a large part of the expense; in the rehab hospital Medicare paid everything? Something’s wrong with this picture.)

A diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes brings with it the ability to see a Medicare-paid podiatrist who monitors circulation in the feet, properly cuts toenails and provides once-a-year new athletic shoes with inserts. The people I know with Type 2 diabetes could afford their own athletic shoes, were it not for Medicare’s generosity. Dear Mr. President: Give the athletic shoes only to the folks whose feet are bad AND who can’t afford shoes. Not all old people are poor. If they can show up to a casino and lose $100, they can buy their own athletic shoes!

My own story involves a failed D&C and the recommendation to have a hysterectomy “to see what’s going on in there.” Stubborn that I am, I visited two more Las Vegas gynecologists who had no other answers. I then contacted UCLA Medical Center and made a two-day visit to California. A physician there said, “I’ve never had a failed D&C.” When surgery was scheduled, he had me insert a night-before cervix-softening pill. He easily performed the D&C, removed a simple polyp and took pictures to boot! (The polyp was benign.) In the meantime, Medicare and our supplement plan paid everybody with no questions asked. Bad results, multiple doctors visits and good results were rewarded equally. That, too, should change, Mr. President.

Yesterday, I heard a physician on TV say that private health care plans “interfere with my practice all the time, but Medicare never interferes.” That physician, therefore, favored one national healthcare plan. My experience tells me any future plan offered by the government must “interfere” to be cost effective. Yet, the President promises “Medicare is not changing. The government will not get between you and your doctor.” How can we have cost savings without changes in our current practices?

Is there any hope that we can be smart about all this?

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I just found a website that has been around for a while: Common Errors in English. If your writing bad heres the rite place by far and away, just between you and I, to nip it in the butt!

Seriously, this site should be in every writer’s bookmarks, if only for the entertainment value. Beginning writers should read through the list at a comfortable pace. Even seasoned scribes have questions about usage sometimes. Paul Brians’ comments are succinct and enlightening. (Out of respect for the author, I did not use the form “Brians’s.”) There’s also a book available, if you prefer reading a hard copy. Highly recommended.

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