I had a very interesting family, to say the least.

My next youngest brother raised me as my parents were always working.

He was very bright and very concerned with his homework. I was a hyper active child and difficult to deal with, at best. He must have had the patience of Jobe, I suppose.

He was very analytical and became a professional gambler among other things. He received his degree but found working in the normal world uninteresting and uninspiring, I suppose.

Who doesn’t feel that at one time or another.

Once he received a gift from my father as a young boy of all of the complete casino games in one convenient box. I think that sealed his fate as far as gambling was concerned.

At one point in time, he became transfixed with horse racing and that became his lifelong career. He was determined and very successful. Our family had little and the only way for us up. Taking risks was what our father often did and it was in our DNA.

As a young adult, my brother traveled the circuit of the horse race meetings in California as they moved much like the fairs do. He would rent an apartment in one location and stay for the months that the races were running and then move on with them.

As a gambler, he saw the world a little differently than most people do. He saw the angles and the way to the finish line through a different prism.

Once while watching the workouts at a racetrack, he realized that if he had painted a line on the back wall of the track, he could time the distance covered and have an edge on the competition. He would know when each horse faltered or got a second wind.

My sister was traveling with him at this time and was in on this “little escapade.”

They donned overalls and walked out on the track with a bucket of paint, a brush and a ladder. No one asked them for identification or the proper paper work.

They stepped off the correct distance that they wanted and painted the line at that point. It was really a simple matter.

Obviously as “normal” people, this idea would never occur to most of us. But he was a gambler and this was just another angle to work to his advantage. Nothing more and nothing less.

So at the next workout my brother knew exactly how fast the horses were covering the distance as he watched. No one else had that information. It gave him a slight edge, which is all a gambler is looking for or needs to often win his bet.

That line may still be on the fence today. It remained on the wall for years after they had painted it and no one was the wiser.

Just remember that we are not all the same and we all have different desires and dreams and think of different ways of reaching them.

If you don’t have a dream yet, get one before you runs out of time.

Don”t forget to read the first chapter of each of my novels here on my website. Be careful, you might have some fun.