Nothing Keeps Mrs. HM Home On MO Money Monday. Nothing.

Have you heard? Mrs. Hillbilly Mom enjoys playing the lottery! Yes. It's such a well-kept secret...

The last Monday of the month has been dubbed MO Money Monday by the Missouri Lottery. That's when they release new tickets. You never know for sure which denomination, unless you check out their official website after midnight on the Sunday before MO Money Monday. Sometimes you can get a glimpse on their Facebook page the week before, when they have a giveaway for a random person who comments. Mrs. HM doesn't do that. She's not on Facebook.

Anyhoo... I was all excited to go get some new tickets on Monday. I've had some extraordinary luck over the past week. So there's money to spend. Imagine my dismay when I turned on the news at 6:00 a.m., and saw loads of traffic accidents, and reports of ice-covered roads! That's no way to usher in MO Money Monday!

I waffled all morning. Should I risk a trip to town? Wind chill in the teens. I could slide off the road and die. Even worse, I could slip and injure myself and miss out on the Oklahoma gambling trip we had planned for Tuesday!

Farmer H told me that the lettered highway was clear. And that most town roads were clear. My sister the ex-mayor's wife also told me that.

"We drove over to Bill-Paying Town, where Ex-Mayor says they never take care of their streets. It was pretty bad. But we're fine over in Sis-Town. Even the road in front of our house is clear."

Let the record show that it's a blacktop rural road that curves around and goes nowhere. I'm suspicious that it was clear because... oh... I don't know... maybe... THE EX-MAYOR LIVES ON IT!

Farmer H looked across the moat while he was at his pharmacy, and told me that the Gas Station Chicken Store's parking lot was spotty, but clear by the building. I asked him about the Liquor Store.

"It's covered! But while I'm looking, somebody just came out to sprinkle salt. I don't think that's gonna work."

"What about Country Mart?"

"I don't go there. But I would imagine it's clear. They usually take good care of it."

Anyhoo... I also had two prescriptions ready to pick up. So the lure of town was too much. I told Farmer H my planned route. You know, because he won't get out of his recliner to answer the phone should I call. So if I didn't return, perhaps he could come looking for me. I put T-Hoe in 4WD, and headed to town. 

I took the alternate route, like when the bridge is flooded, because the hills are not as steep, and there's less traffic. The lettered highway was NOT clear! But it was clear enough. I made it into the Gas Station Chicken Store to cash in a $100 winner. I got a new $30 ticket, which won back my $30. And a $20 ticket I'd been wanting, knowing they'd just started a new roll. And it won $100! The two new $5 tickets I got were losers. But I came out pretty good! Doubled my money.

Over at Country Mart, I found out that Farmer H was wrong again:

Of course I didn't park way out there! I got this picture as I was leaving. They had part of the sidewalk cleared, down on the left end. So I got in and out without slipping. You can't plow sleet off a parking lot, and the salt won't work with temperatures in the low 20s.

The new $5 ticket I bought from the machine was a loser. I got three of the $3 tickets. Two lost, and the other won $9. So it was worth the effort to play. I picked up a new $30 at Orb K for what I owed The Pony, and got him a new $5 ticket just because I love him. No word yet on if they were winners or losers...

On the way back to the Mansion, I got a picture of the road coming down towards Mailbox Row:

There's the turn onto our gravel road.

Which was covered, but not so deep that you couldn't get traction on the gravelly bits poking up through parts of the ice.