I have no excuse, really, but here's why I haven't checked in much lately

I fell one of the first nights here and spent several hours in the emergency room. It cost me a new pair of glasses, and I hate them. They are not adjusted snugly enough to stay on my face or straight enough to keep my vision clear. I need to get back to the optometrist shop to have them adjusted again. Actually, this would be a good week to go; not much on the calendar except Thanksgiving. I guess I'll make every effort to do that.

There have been no interesting pictures of the side yard this week. It has either rained or snowed most of the week and the side yard has looked pretty shabby. Men have been down there, looking around in the rain and working the one day there was no precipitation and the mud was more stable. A great long trench has been dug way to the front of the area. I'm waiting to see if they lay more drainage pipes or more footers.

I am gaining a reputation at bingo, and it's not good, I fear. We play three times a week, twice for quarters and once for weekend script to the bistro. I've collected close to ten paper dollars to spend on pizza. The quarter game may be the death of me.

We play several games for a quarter a game per player, winner takes the pot. The last game is "cover the card" and costs five dollars to play. I have won at least one bingo game every week and I've won two "cover the card" games in the four weeks I've played. I've lived here eight weeks, but was flat on my back sick for three weeks and busy straightening up the first week.

There was plenty of chatter when I won the second big pot. Eventually I remarked I needed it to refill my quarter jar, a little jar that filled to the top holds about twenty dollars in quarters. That isn't what they wanted to hear. All over the room people raised little containers, shaking the quarters. "I had ten little medicine bottles of quarters when I moved here, five years ago, and now I have one!"

I promised to sing the same sad song when I began losing!