Slice of Life Challenge for March 1, 2025 (5:00 a.m.) by Barb Edler

It’s not 5:00 a.m. It’s 6:31 CT. My Ethical ELA friend, Kim Haynes has convinced me to take a new approach to “The Slice of Life” challenge this year which I accepted. I know she has invited Glenda Funk and Denise Krebs, too. Knowing Kim there are a few more writing their blogs based on a specific time slice of one’s day. I’m not much of a blogger. I think I’d rather hurt myself most days than write about myself or a blog post about anything. Hey, but I’m here so I’ll share what happened today at 5:00 a.m.

At 5:00 a.m. I woke up. Literally. How weird. Kim’s blogging spirit was most likely playing with my head. When I wake up at 5:00 a.m. I usually head to the bathroom and then go back to bed. Yes, that is exactly what I did.

Early morning bedtime is kind of my best part of the day. That’s kind of sad to say, but it is the time period when I indulge myself by playing games. I am a gamer. I grew up playing games and there’s truly nothing I’d rather do than play a game. I play Knotwords and Wordle and Strands and the Mini to name a few. I also play a lot of cards online. Hey, I have to have virtual friends and experiences to connect with people more and more.

One of the very first games I will play tends to be cribbage. I did not learn how to play cribbage until I was in college. I’d rather play with someone one on one than on the screen, but it’s kind of hard to get someone to play a card game at 5:00 a.m. The Cribbage app I have invites its users to play against Brutus. It’s the “Daily Challenge”. I tend to lose often to Brutus although I think I have a three to five day winning streak.

Later today I will be participating in a euchre tournament. I have an amazing history with euchre. My husband and I generally play twice a week at the Southside Boat Club, but if we wanted to, we could probably find a tournament every day of the week around here. Hey, it’s the Midwest. We have to entertain ourselves somehow in a landlocked state.

Anyway, today is the first day of the “Battle of the Bars.” The SSBC vs. JoDees, a bar in Ft. Madison, Iowa. We play ten games today and then next week at the SSBC. Whoever hosts the tournament provides food. We begin the tournament at 1 and break at 3 and hopefully, it will be over by 5:00. Actually, that’s enough cards for me by that time. My husband remains my partner for this tournament. I know how he plays, but we don’t always play that well together. The main thing about euchre is that you need decent cards to succeed. I’m hoping today that “The Cards Will Be with Me!”