Progress report

Let me start out telling you about bingo. A while back I ran out of quarters. That's the euphemistic way of saying my wins did not cover my losses. I blamed it all on not locating that original card that was a winner a couple of weeks in a row. I bought two ten dollar rolls of quarters.

I steadily lost those eighty quarters. I said to the room that I would give up the game if I did not have enough quarters to play. We play for an hour, a quarter a game and four quarters for the jackpot game. Four dollars generally is enough to cover the cost.

Mary Lou has been winning steadily. She sits to my right, and we've become buddies. One time she was so tied up with physical therapists she was out of breath when she arrived for bingo and worse, had forgotten her quarters. It was game time; too late to go back to her room. "Sit down, Mary Lou, I'll stake you" I said, and put four stacks of four quarters in front of her. She made enough to repay me at the end of play. She loves to tell how I fronted her bingo money.

Mary Lou generally comes out even or ahead. Lately she has been way ahead. Sadly there were jeers from the other tables, criticizing her good fortune. She won almost every game, and come time for the jackpot game wondered if she should sit it out. I told her to ignore the sourpusses and play. She did, and she won. She was ashamed and embarrassed by the not so good natured ribbing.

One of the ribbers was the Mary Lou at my dinner table. I took advantage of her proximity to tell her how upset her table made my Mary Lou. She didn't really believe my Mary Lou was that upset; however, since then I've heard her shut down the other three at her table when their ribbing began.

So to return to the story, last Friday I was two quarters short of the four dollar stake to play bingo, assuming no wins. Mary Lou was so upset; she would give me the two quarters. I refused; it was time to quit. But on Monday I bought a new roll of quarters, and showed up, to Mary Lou's great delight. I only needed two more quarters, for crying out loud.

I'd tried out several different cards over these losing weeks, never coming up with a winner. Monday I picked a card that gave me a couple of wins. Wednesday I picked a card that gave wins like the very first week I'd played. I think I lost two of the first twelve games. 

Then come the jackpot game. It's cover the card, with a marker on the Free Space and on the lucky numbers. This time they were 7; cover every square whose number ended in 7. The game began. I covered and covered as the numbers were called until one number remained. Pretty much the story of my previous games; I waited and waited, and it was not called. Someone else won the jackpot. I asked the caller if the number 67 has been called, and she said it was a lucky number, to be covered at the outset. My mistake, my loss. The winner wanted to split her jackpot with me but I didn't. I lost fair and square.

My daughter Beth belongs to a group that holds an occasional, very popular white elephant sale. She volunteered to take my towels, and took every one I had woven. After the sale she texted me the recap of my sales. I read that I would be receiving over $1,000. Woo-hoo, that would pay my taxes.

Tuesday I took the car to get new front end brakes. Because the towels made so much, I paid cash for the brakes, $400. When Beth came with a huge box of towels to return that night, I knew something was wrong. She does accounting backwards from me. I was only getting $400, which won't pay a $1,000 tax bill.

Fortunately, it won't be paid before April 14th, so I have ample time to decide which Peter is robbed to pay Sam. Bingo could stay very lucky, especially if I remember to cover all the lucky numbers.