B I N G O !!!

Just WOW ... another month has flown by as fast as me eating an ice cream cone.  It's already the end of July, speeding right down the track into August.  Too bad it isn't a little bit cooler, or I'd be out on the road with the kids.  

Lucky for my electric bill, the nights are still relatively cool enough I can open the doors and windows.  Not at night of course ... too many porch pirates creeping around not far from here ... but in the mornings, we are cool as a cucumber.

I spent the morning with the gardener who didn't have a very good day with his tools.  I actually have a huge front and back yard that requires big equipment to take on the jungle, and that doesn't include the flowerbeds.  I spent a couple hours weeding them since they were completely covered with that flat spreading stuff, whatever it is.  

At last I was headed off to the Magic Castle.  At least there were a few smiling faces and the AC was turned up high.  I started out by signing 50 checks for various things from maintenance bills to charitable donations.  I like that part of the job.  

I spent the next hour shooting the bull with the accountant and the secretary.  SO much stuff going on with this organization!  The best news however is that a diagnosis has finally come in on a husband (I won't name him) who has been in the hospital.  

He has Valley Fever.  You may not have heard of it.  It's spores in the ground that can be breathed into your lungs and set up housekeeping, making it very difficult to breathe ... and it's hard to diagnose.  I mean really, it's one of the things I would check FIRST ... but the doctors here are not the best in the land.  

Interestingly enough, they just tore up and completely redid the road by their house.  We figure that stirred up the dinosaur spores and he happened to be the one who breathed them in.  So far, no one else on that road has acquired it.  Lots of heavy drugs over a period of time, and he will be fine.  Weird stuff.

And then it was BINGO TIME.  The cash-back machine got a good workout on this night.  Two ladies wanted $500 cash back ... not kidding ... that they would then use to buy pull tabs, in the hopes of winning the $1199 pot.  It just amazes me every week because they do that EVERY WEEK.  

You've seen this before .... but on this occasion someone got a little too close and someone ELSE marked her cards when she wasn't looking.  Like kindergarten kids, they were separated by the Knights and both forced to sit in the NON-lucky chairs far apart.  

All went well for awhile until I began to get folks wanting refunds on some of their cards.  Ummmm why?  The excuses went from "oh they call those too fast" (well why did you buy it then) to "I'm not lucky at that game" (so why did you buy it?).  Come to find out, all they wanted was more money to buy pull tabs.   That was evidenced by the plethora of change I had to count at nights end.  No kidding ... we were down to PENNIES last night.  They literally spend their last pennies on Bingo.

There was lots of discussion about our speed bingo cards that are being discontinued.  That's two games we have to replace with something else.  So far, we haven't been able to figure anything out other than to buy something with two or three cards together, then cut them apart.  So .... anyone want to volunteer to do that?

Thats when I heard the scream so loud I jumped in my seat!  Some guy who sits in our small anteroom off to the side won $250 (after buying $106 worth of cards) and he let everyone know!  It was ear splitting!!

For the most part, everyone kept their pitchforks under the table on this night.  I think they were on their good behavior because we had TEN visiting water polo Moms from out of town who had never played bingo before.  How they heard about us, I've no idea.    

They were a kick in the pants and made us all laugh.  Folks like that make Bingo worth every flaming torch.  

And so ended another night of collecting money for charity.  The infernal machine didn't give me any trouble at all ... a miracle for which I was vocally thankful.

I would love to tell you what's on the schedule for today, but at this point I have no idea.  I'm tired from another night of no sleep (the snoring puppy next to me this time) and my brain is in neutral.  

It's a two cup morning!!