Bingo

After a couple of deletions and a few corrections and additions I have committed Friday night to the blogosphere. Now back to the dirty work.

In Denver again (about 1985) I continued working on Word Salad and the chess program. Then came a family tragedy: (delayed boom) we were babysitting Charlie (our grandson) one day when he told me about a conversation he overheard with his mother (Kathy) and an unidentified woman. It was about another tragedy, the night I got drunk and threatened Kootch and Jenny. I was infuriated that Kathy would talk so freely about this 'family secret' (boom-boom, the queer upstairs is having fun) in front of Charlie and a 'stranger.' I over-reacted and banned Kathy. Jenny chose also to be banned. This was the end of my relationship with them all.

I think it was in '86 that I found myself in need of legal advice regarding a problem with the neighbors (tap). I knew one lawyer, the stalker himself. (At the time I did not yet realize he was the stalker.) I showed up at the Denver Chess Club looking for him. The very first thing he said to me was, 'So, you're back in town.' 

Bingo! Nobody was even supposed to know that I had left town (for Orlando), other than Kootch and the kids. Why did this sucker seem to know so much about me? Why was he keeping tabs on me? I began to suspect that this son of a bitch was my problem. I still did not know about the category of demented people called, 'obsessionals,' or 'stalkers,' so it didn't seem to make sense. Yet this clue was too big to be ignored, and over the next weeks and months I recalled and analyzed my 'history' with this person.

After the chess games were over and the players were leaving the club that night I chased the sucker down as he was heading for his car. 'Chased' is not a bad word in this context, because he was walking unnaturally fast in an apparent attempt to avoid me. I caught up and asked him to recommend a lawyer, which he did; one of the members of his law firm. (1:10)