IT'S HALLOWEEN ... ALMOST

 Another month has slipped by in the blink of an eye.  It's October and the weather has finally relented.  The good news is my air conditioning survived the summer, as did my checkbook.  I never really thought the solar would get me through painlessly, but so far I haven't paid ONE single bill from PG&E.  I'm guessing my heater will change that up shortly!

In the meantime ... IT'S HALLOWEEN!!  Let the decorating begin!  Here's my first set of googly eyes.  They actually stick to the windows OUTSIDE.  I'm hoping they stay put until I take them down, at which time I'm PRAYING they come off the windows.  I may have to do surgery.  There's more stuff to come.

Of course there will be candy.  I'm hoping maybe more trick or treaters since I still have 20 Snickers bars left over from last year.  A new box of 48 comes to $52 plus tax.  YIKES!!  I'm thinking rocking chair and scary witch!!  

In the meantime, I geared up for Bingo with a lovely sourdough grilled cheese ... NO tomato.  I almost think there's no better sandwich in the world.

And we are OFF!  Bingoland awaits!  I set up the calling desk, plugged everything in and began pulling the first 50 numbers for the Bonanza game.  Next ... turn on all the TVs and get them programmed to the right mode.  I always get to watch 15 minutes of baseball while trying to figure out the remotes.  

There are EIGHT televisions to set up that display the numbers already called and the next one TO be called (so they can get a head start).  Every single television is a different brand, with a different remote, that all work differently.  Hopefully one day I will get them down, because now I'm bothering the Club Manager constantly trying to get them programmed.  NOT as bad as the infernal machine, but CLOSE ... VERY CLOSE.

I set up the back room tables, guess which pull tab games to play and get them ready, before pulling out MY table and the cards for all 22 games.  That's when it all went south.  I was supposed to set aside 30 pull tabs from each game for a long time player.  I completely FORGOT!!  OMG!!  Nothing like starting out the night on the wrong foot!!

What felt like two seconds later, we let the players in the back door.  This is the pull tab line.  Let the running begin.  I collect their big bucks constantly, running to the back in order for them to have enough cash to make up the payouts.  We usually have trouble selling seven games, but this night we sold TEN.

And here we are playing.  If you could only smell the picture.  Two tables over there is an entire Mexican dinner being doled out to "special" people.  I stayed away ... one because I'm not special, and two because nothing makes for ruining a night more than someone's home cooking who may not be as ... how shall I say it ... CLEAN as my kitchen is.  

Add to that the smell of skunk weed, terrible body odor and WAY too much Chanel Number Five and you wouldn't want to eat anything anyway.

But I did ... a lovely corn dog and some carrot cake.  Believe it or not, I passed on the rest of this one.  I think I can make a better one and I'm terrible at carrot cake.

That brought up the contest of the night.  Let's see who can talk LOUDEST and say the most RUDE things.  My card selling cashier told the lady she could use her debit and/or credit card to buy food.  NO ... you cannot.  When told that while ORDERING food, the lady got way out of line.  Next thing I know, there are two people standing in front of me screaming.

I blame it on the cashier who gave out the wrong info.  I was very calm and cool as I called for the King.  It's his castle, he can handle it.  Unfortunately the backlash was epic and continued for the rest of the night.  Yada yada yada ... she this, she that, not to mention MY cashier who decided SHE should talk to the KITCHEN cashier about her attitude.  That started the SECOND fight.  STOP IT!!!!  

Luckily no one went home, whereupon I would have to take up ANOTHER job for the night.  And so here I am, guarding the Infernal Machine before getting an emergency phone call.  Oh gee ... I had to run upstairs.  Not really ... it was fake.  I just didn't want to sit there and listen to one more rehash.

Sometimes it the peasants, sometimes it's the Castle Crew that shoot flaming arrows and try to kill you with their eyes.  

Lucky for me, I'm not leaving on my short trip today.  I have an entire day to heal up, get some sleep and pack the rig.  Truly, there won't be much packing since I'm not going to be gone long, but I did hear about another place to camp that's not far from my destination.  I may just stay an extra day if they have room.

In the meantime ...  IT'S ALMOST HALLOWEEN!  Let the decorating begin!!