Austin City Limits

Talking points from a long weekend in Austin for TRASHionals 9:

-- Flew Southwest for the first time, having to go from Birmingham. The 2 1/2-hour ride from Atlanta to Birmingham was fine (first time in Alabama, shockingly), but the adventure parking was amusing because the airport still had signs for "Long-Term Parking," but the lane for it had a few extra speed bumps and a cone moved out of the way. After navigating that, I realized the machine wasn't working and I had to back out and into the "Daily Parking" lane (which is exactly the same price, etc., except that you don't realize that until you see a tiny sign mentioning price right at the gate to the parking deck). That confused both me and another guy with Georgia plates trying to come in. At many airports, there are three levels of parking, so blocking out that third (and usually cheapest) option just confuses the hell out of everyone.

-- I guess Southwest is like a bus or train since you invariably have to connect at least once no matter where you go. Going to, it was Birmingham to Nashville to Austin. With the layover and then delay in Nashville, I probably could've driven to Nashville and taken the flight to Austin. On the other hand, my friend Keith flew out of Nashville but through Houston to get to Austin, so who knows.

-- Austin is a very nice town, although the highways right around our hotel were a bit of a labyrinth and the map provided by the rental car company didn't help. I'd like to go back when I have more time to experience the city without other obligations. I did get to see the newly opened Blanton Museum of Art, though, on Sunday.

-- Congratulations to Phil, Tim, Rick and Josh for taking two straight games from Craig, Mike, Anne and Julie to win their first TRASHionals title. Some very exciting, well-played games in the finals. I was a bit relieved to see that the teams I had designated as top seeds (at least unofficially) did reach the final playoff group. Although it could say how predictable some of this could be. On the other hand, I was impressed with the Matt Levine-Simon Fraser combination finishing as high as they did.

-- The O'Reillys did well even though I read for three of their four losses and that one of their top players was missing to "spend more time with his family." (Congratulations, Brian and Christine, on the birth of their first child Lillian.)

-- Actually, as I'm putting this together am I realizing some of the better things that happened over the weekend. Unfortunately, most of my initial musings from the tournament were negative, and even worse, that seems to be the only way I can come out of running these events anymore.

Rob and Alma have already expressed their problems with some of the questions, for which I am immensely embarrassed, even though I didn't write any of the questions at issue.

And then there was an issue with another team (who I'm used to dealing with down here) who decided to rip me in front of any other team that was in the same food court as us for Saturday lunch because I didn't sufficiently address their protest when they came up to me with it as we were heading over for lunch. A combination of factors regarding that situation (that I won't go into here) got me very frustrated.

Then there's the array of bad or wrong questions that come up that we should've caught ahead of time. Unfortunately, it seems like those are the only things we hear about instead of questions people actually liked. Yes, we need to figure out where to improve, but after a while, I sometimes wonder if we do anything right. Maybe I take it harder since I do a lot of the little stuff that people probably don't realize I do for TRASHionals.

(I will say, however, that Kilby did tell me afterward that it was his favorite TRASHionals to attend -- unfortunately, I never got to read for him, and that it seems reactions like that are few and far between; although I'm not exactly soliciting them.)

-- But given some of the issues over the weekend, plus some other factors I am loath to discuss here related to all of it, this is my last TRASHionals (at least for now) in an official capacity I suppose I'll still be around to read and eventually play one of these days, but I think it's time to walk away. I do apologize to some of our regular players and customers, but sometimes you do have a take step backward before moving forward.