The Universe mocks me with losers. Losing lottery tickets. A plethora of non-winners, for several days this week. But then Errand Day rolled around. And it got WORSE! Not only did I suffer just a couple of money-back winners, but I had trouble buying those losers!
Save A Lot was the first stop. I needed two kinds of dill pickles, the spears and the crinkle-cut slices. I love the dill pickles from Save A Lot. They also have a lottery machine. I stopped there a couple days this week on the way home from therapy. Didn't win. But I got tickets, and got to play. THIS TIME, the machine was out of my favorite blue Loteria tickets, and also my $5 crosswords. In fact, all but one of the $5 tickets were unavailable. Some said OUT, and others just had a - - - in that place.
At the Casey's, I went in without The Pony, who was waiting in T-Hoe to pump the gas when I pre-paid. It took a long time to pay, because the clerk messed up my lottery. I actually think his register did the deed, and it wasn't his fault. But I had to explain to him that I really DID owe him $5 more than what he was charging me. I had five tickets, and not four. He kept counting them weird, but I had two of the Loteria, which he didn't tear apart. However, I heard the scanner beep twice on it. But it didn't show up on the receipt. I finally convinced him to take my money! Then went back to tell The Pony that I had corrected my karma since that soda scanning incident at Country Mart a few weeks ago.
Speaking of Country Mart, we went there next. Neither of us needed groceries, so The Pony waited outside playing phone games. I pushed a cart inside and parked it, standing on my own two knees at the lottery machines. The first one malfunctioned like it did on Tuesday. Took the money, let me select a ticket, then locked up. After five minutes, it still had not recovered.
A worker gal walked by dumping the wastebaskets.
"Is this thing going to eventually work?"
"Probably. It's been doing that."
"Yes. I'll give it a chance. It's already been longer than Tuesday."
Dang. My knees were getting tired. I'd given up my cart/walker. A vendor came to the adjacent office. Then left. A manager guy walked out. Talked to some employees. Then came back.
"Is that machine giving you trouble?"
"Yes. I thought it was going to work. It seemed to, and let me choose another ticket. But now it's locked up again."
"Let me get the key. I'll give your money back."
He made it print a receipt, which looks like a draw ticket. "You'll have to take that to the service desk to get your refund."
Don't I know it! Same thing had happened in 10Box. This time there was an actual person working there. The trash gal. She cheerfully handed back my money. I hobbled out the door at that end, which was already halfway to where T-Hoe was parked. The Pony admitted that yes, he had been getting a bit worried.
Rather than giving The Pony lottery money this trip, as I always do, I had said I was getting four random $5 tickets. The Pony had two winners. One was $5, and the other had the 5X symbol! Which made it a $25 winner.
The Universe is rubbing salt in my losing wounds. I had more tickets than The Pony, including a couple of the $10 new crosswords. My total winnings were $35. Barely more than The Pony, with a lot more spent.
The Universe has made it pretty clear that I'm having a losing streak. At least let me buy the losers without incident!
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