Another Night In The Castle

 There is frost on the pumpkin this morning!!  That makes my morning cup of coffee taste even better!!  It's a lovely 45 degrees, heading on down to the 30's later in the week.  Winter has apparently decided to sneak in like a lamb.  I'll remember that since I absolutely FROZE last night at Bingo.  

Yessirree ... it was once again Tuesday ... a night of unrest and fighting in the Castle.

The Knights met up in the turret to gird their loins against the peasants for yet another night of Bingo.  The smart ones disappeared to attend family celebrations of Thanksgiving.  Little did we know, those of us left wouldn't be all that thankful for this night.

Really, it wasn't all that bad.  My Fairy Godmother showed up early and had everything set up.  She who must be first in line did not.  Thank you for small favors.

We always expect it to be a slow night before Thanksgiving since most of these elderly folks are the ones cooking Thanksgiving dinner.  That means they have to buy a turkey unless they were lucky enough to win one of the ten given out the week before.  Although I heard about a couple of sales, turkeys were running around $2.50 a pound, compared to the usual .99 a pound.  You know who to thank for that.

And slow it was.  Our usual numbers run around 120.  On this night we barely hit 72.  That means the payouts are smaller for ten of the games.  We actually play 22 games throughout the night.  

We were cruising right along until one of the Knights came to tell me there were two people playing only two cards.  Minimum buy-in is two PER PERSON.  Seems the second guy didn't have a receipt, meaning the lady bought two books, giving one to her partner to play.  Thats a no-no, and everyone knows it.  

Chaos erupted when he got a Bingo!  If I have to buy two books, YOU have to buy two books.  Lucky me, I got to sit back and watch the melee.  I called over the Head Knight since the King was out of the country.  Too late.  Someone slipped the winner a receipt.  I'm positive that guy did not go through my line and buy books, but what can you do.  It always surprises me what people will do for a few bucks.  It was only $25 since that pot had to be split four ways.

There were a few other spats throughout the night.  We have three callers of the numbers, and some people don't like the way they call.  I don't know ... you just say the number, but sometimes they are too fast or too slow.  It's always something.  We were very shorthanded since most of the Castle volunteers were off visiting other castles.  

At long last I got to leave after counting on my fingers and toes for 30 minutes.  It seems the Castle does not carry backup batteries for my calculator. 

It was a long night of nightmares, so I'm thankful I have four days in a row with no Elks duties.  I do have to cook the turkey for Cooper and I to share, so I'm glad I got all the smoke alarms fixed.  And since I didn't get home until 11:00 (having risen at 3:30 your time), I'm a little drug out this morning.  Maybe a nice walk in the cold air will help, after which don't knock on my door because I'll be busy holding the couch down.