The Magic Kingdom

 It was a less than exciting day in California at Buzzard's Roost.  In the early morning hours, I checked the critter cam to find some lady with crazy wild hair looking into the camera saying COOPER!!  He knows the boundaries of the back yard and decided to test my eyesight.  Otherwise, there was absolutely NOTHING on the video card.  

That's disappointing and exhilarating.  Sad there were no kitties or foxes, but thrilled to see NO skunks.

I spent some time in the sewing room trying to pick out the next quilt to make.  SO many pretty patterns until you open the package and look at the directions.  What looked easy turned into mathematical nightmares, which turned out to be a preview for the night of bingo.

At the appointed hour when the clock struck two, I was off to the land of grumpy peasants.  I can't blame them, because sometimes I'm grumpy too!!

My Girl Friday and I spent the next two hours setting up and making note of everything we were short of. Nothing brings out the pitchforks faster than running out of Bingo cards or blue dobbers.  It was nice not being serenaded by screaming and banging on the back door.  I guess the players are finally resigned to waiting until the bewitching .... I mean the opening hour.

It went pretty well on this night with a record 20 volunteers showing up to help out.  We usually run at about the number 15.  Amazing, right?  It causes a little fuss now and then when they aren't familiar with the rules and get scammed by a player or two.  They all say if you cheat, you NEVER win, but there are always those who try.  

Here's our first section caller who already has a headache after the first ten minutes.  That's my Girl Friday sitting there.  She's the luckiest person on the planet.  She wins EVERY SINGLE WEEK.  

While some players spend ten minutes at my table going through every single card for the "magic" numbers, she just grabs four off the top .... and wins.  I wish some of that juju would rub off on me.

Amazingly, it was pretty quiet most of the night.  There was only one problem that returned from last week.  There were no pitchforks involved, but if I had looked her in the eyes, I would have been turned to stone.  

If you come in at our regular time, the first two packets are $20.  Any extras are $5 each.  Come in really late and only play the second half, and those two packets are $10 ... half price.  Any extras are $5 each.  This gal caught me when I was busy and insisted she only pay half price .. $2.50 .. for extra packets.  I said no, but the Knight sitting there said "okay, what the heck".   I knew that would come back to bite me.

I checked with the King who agreed with me.  Sure enough, she came back last night for extra cards.  She spent the next five minutes arguing with me and asking ten times if I REALLY checked with the King.  If looks could kill, I'd be dead.

Medusa emerged faster than I could blink an eye.  Off she went to see the King, since I obviously wasn't telling the truth.  She never returned.  You've got to admire their tenacity!!

About halfway through my card counter brought out her grandson's latest math lesson, whereupon we put my old math brain to work.  There were a few cobwebs in there, but alas, I was able to solve some fraction problems for them.  I don't remember doing anything quite like this until I got to college.  I think this is maybe 6th grade?  Show 4.45 as a fraction.  Yikes!!

At the end of the night, the infernal machine tried to act up by saying I was OVER in my cash box by $300.  That's good, right ... but ... well ... not right.  I finally figured out the problem ... corrected it ... and balanced.  YAY!!

And so ended another exciting night in the dungeon.  Maybe one day it will all go perfectly with no problems ... but I'm not holding my breath!!