Pitchforks and Shovels!!

 B I N G O!!!!!  It's that time again.  It sure seems like it comes around more often than once a week.  Don't get me wrong ... I love getting out of the house to visit with friends new and old.  I admit, there are a couple of "different" ones, but they probably think the same thing of me!!

I put Cooper's collar on and fooled him into eating a tiny piece of pill to help him sleep.  After all, I was going to be gone almost seven hours.  

With no big traffic jam, I arrived in no time.  Up to the parapet I went with pen in hand.  I'm one of the lucky ones to sign checks at the end of the month.  LOTS of checks.  You would be amazed at the extent of this Lodges activities.  We just had a big Mardi Gras party (which I did not attend) and now the Big Kahuna Pig Luau is on the horizon and already sold out.  No one ever said this lodge was not an active one!

Add to that the parties at least three days a week for birthdays, anniversaries and funerals.  Whatever you have going on, we have the venue and the food.

I hobnobbed with the Knights until time to check out my setup.  I am SO very thankful that the Castle Lady in Waiting sets up everything for me.  All I have to do is show up and count the money.  There is that big blackish/grey infernal machine, just sitting there laughing at me.

All the funny colors are dobbers.  Any good bingo player has at least TEN that they carry with them to every game.  Yes of COURSE there are lucky colors!  Red, green and blue are the best ... and they will buy three of each to be sure they don't run out.

The cranky lady was back yet again, but this time she barged up to the front of the line and demanded service.  I really do try to be nice, but I had to tell her to go to the end of the line.  If anyone has the exact change and only wants one or two small things, I can accommodate.  But any more than that and the pitchforks come out all the way to the end of the line ... which is sometimes clear across the entire building.

We try to run them through like cattle through the chutes, so as you can imagine, I have lots of experience in that department.  Most everyone picks their own cards off the top of the pile, but there are about eight that must have that SPECIAL number.  They go through the packs one at a time until they find it.  The one that will WIN!!

Sometimes that takes awhile, since there are SIX piles of cards, some with as many as 200 sheets of paper.  It doesn't take long for the torches to be lit.  It's a sign ... because the pitchforks and shovels will be appearing almost instantly.  The faster they get to the table, the more likely they are to get the winning ticket for themselves.  I'm not sure how that theory works, but it happens every week.

There were no fights on this night that I know of, but when SEVEN people won one $200 pot, we came VERY close.  That only happens when we pull our boxes of cards out of order.  Never EVER pull them out of order.  It's a cardinal sin!!  I quickly went back and marked every one with a big RED number to be sure it didn't happen again.  

The good news is we weren't very busy on this night.  The two Hot Ball pots of $1199.00 each were won the week before.  Many people will not come play again until the hot ball pots are higher.  The lure of winning big money is huge.  

Not very busy also means it's the end of the month and no one has received their check yet.  That's bad news for me since it brings out the change.  Yessirree ... kiddy piggy banks are broken around the entire city.  I get mounds of change that I get to count.  In some cases $10-15 dollars in change.  That takes time to go through, but count we must, because they who break piggy banks don't know how to do it very well.  It's almost always wrong.

I also have to say that it's not just the women who have WET money.  This guy must have run around the block six times with that money in his front pocket.  I used a healthy dose of hand sanitizer until I had time to wash up.  It's okay ... it's like kids playing in the dirt.  It's good for your immune system.

Lucky for me the infernal machine, in spite of trying to fool me by running out of paper, balanced to the penny.  I raced out the door.

Mr. Cooper was sleeping when I returned, but the excitement made him itch all over.  So this morning I ordered one of those suits Dave was talking about.  Although it said deliver tomorrow, the final page said POSSIBLE delivery tomorrow.  I'm going for Benadryl this morning.