And BINGO Was His NAME-O!

 GOOD MORNING FRIENDS!!  Too bad for us, it's heating up once again.  We will soon be back in the 100+ zone, along with 80 degree nights.  It's been wonderful this past week, but all good things must come to an end I suppose.  It's never been this hot in September that I can remember, but then again, my memory is not what it used to be.

SO ... let's get on to the Magic Castle of BINGO!!  And Bingo, was his NAME-O!  I say it every time!  With thoughts of good cheer, I was off to the Magic Castle.  Time for some camaraderie with the Knights and Tomfoolery with the peasants.  

Members show up early ... VERY early.  By 2:00 you will find them lounging at their favorite spot at the table.  That's pretty early considering the games start at 6:30.  The X on the chair is one they put there many years ago, with DEATH AND DESTRUCTION to anyone who dares sit in it.  

There was lots of discussion about that on this day because a problem has arisen.  One Member is now going around placing papers at seats in the room, SAVING them for ..... wait for it ..... NON-members.  That's a sin in anyone's book.  

I ignore it as much as possible.  It's not my job, if you know what I mean, but it brought out the MEAN girls in force.  I thought they were going to have a knock down drag out.  We tout NO SAVING PLACES and here's a member, saving places.  The King was notified as I snuck out the back door to safer places.  It was check signing day.

Once done, I creeped down the stairs trying not to be seen.  OH NO ... my Lady in Waiting is not here.  Who oh WHO is going to count all those cards?  I shanghaied one of the wonderful scullery maids from the back and we were off and running.  

It makes me laugh every time.  There's the LONG line of folks behind the glass doors just waiting for us to say OPEN.  The same one who lays out all the papers saving tables, has made herself the Queen of the Castle.  She has to be FIRST in line, EVERY SINGLE TIME.  I admit, I relish in letting someone else in the side door first.  BAD NANCY.  

This gal has bullied everyone else into letting her go to the front of the line every single week.  No, she doesn't win any more than anyone else because she got her SPECIAL cards first.  It's crazy.  We did get a good laugh out of it though ... one of the older guys came in the back way and stood on MY side of the door, waving at the line.  I'M FIRST he said.  You should have hard the uproar!!!  The flaming torches and pitchforks came out in a nanosecond!!!

BAD NANCY rang up two handicapped folks before she opened the door.  Oh the daggers!!!!!

Surprisingly, there was quite the to-do that RED TICKETS are no longer available.  They quit printing the cheap pull tabs, so no more of that tedious job of tearing up 150 tickets every week.  Wouldn't you know, folks still ask for them every single day.  Wait until they find out they are no longer going to print out SPEED game tickets.  We have two of those, with a total payout of $500.  There's certainly going to be some backlash over THAT!!

The night went well ... my Lady In Waiting showed up in time to bring me dinner since I can't leave the infernal machine.  We had a whopping 132 folks on this night.  Luckily there was only ONE snafu.  I can hear the caller say the number of players who won, which determines the payout I hand out.  It's simple ... $250 for the game divided by however many players win.  Sometimes it's one, sometimes it twelve.  

On this particular game, I heard EIGHT winners.  The Knights who usually hand out the moola, came and told me SEVEN.  Are you SURE??  Oh yes .... SEVEN.  And so I paid out $35 to each winner.  Fifteen minutes later they came back and said OOPS ... there was EIGHT.  I gave them what for and told them they had to go back and collect $4.00 from each and every one of the seven they had paid. 

Not really ... I just paid out another $35 so everyone got the same amount ... but it gave the infernal machine a bad stomach ache.  Of course I did NOT balance at the end of the night.  No biggie ... with that large of a crowd, we made plenty of cash to pay out the rest of the jackpots, and the players were smiling because they each got an extra $4.00!!!  What can I say ... it's BINGO!!

And so ended another night of frolicking in the Castle.  My arm wasn't happy and only let me have 2 hours of sleep before rushing off to the eye doc.  That was another experience altogether.  More on that tomorrow because even though I got a little sleep yesterday, the plan is to get even MORE today!!