It's In The Blood

Perhaps there is a genetic link to luckiness.

My grandma couldn't lose at bingo. She was always winning one trinket or another. The Pony can't lose (much) at those grabber games. He sat down at his first slot machine of Casinopalooza 2, right next to me, in a game I was planning to play next. In fact, he was right between me and the ex-mayor my sister's husband, on a row of three machines. I was having no luck, Ex-Mayor was having tepid luck, and The Pony could not have completed more than three spins when he said, "HEY!" His machine hit a red screen (that's a random bonus for the VGT slots in Oklahoma at the Indian casinos) and racked up almost $400.

Sis and Ex-Mayor left for Casionopalooza 2 on Saturday, while we had to wait until Sunday for the #1 son to complete his job photographing graduation at his college. Sis kept me updated along the way. They stopped at the Casey's where Farmer H and I always stop for gas and the bathrooms. Mainly, the bathrooms. Sis and Ex-Mayor did not stop there on their trips, until the original Casinopalooza when we were traveling together.

Yes, not even an hour into their trip, Sis sent me this photo:

"Steelville Casey's. $100 winner."

"WHAT! That's where I buy MY tickets!"

"You snooze, you lose!"

Let the record show that I do not buy that ticket on a regular basis. The odds of winning are only 1 in 10, compared to 1 in 2.83 for my usual Golden Ticket. BUT...if you're the ONE, you're gonna love this ticket. I've only bought about 7 of them, randomly, in my life. One of them won $100. But not in the last several months. And I wouldn't have bought that one anyway when we stopped at Casey's.

According to Sis, Ex-Mayor scratched the ticket and said, "Well, THAT was a waste of ten dollars." And tossed it aside to throw away. Sis grabbed it.

"He always scratches the whole line, but I do it number by number."

"Me, too!"

"So I got to looking at it again, and I said, 'Ex-Mayor, this ticket is a fifty-dollar winner!' And I kept checking, and got to the last number, and it matched for ANOTHER fifty dollars. So I told him, 'You almost threw away a ONE HUNDRED DOLLAR WINNER!' I had to send you a picture, since you are always sending me YOUR winners."

I told her that was a good omen, hitting a hundred on those odds. When Farmer H and I stopped on our way to Casinopalooza 2 on Sunday, I bought my usual Golden Ticket. Actually, I traded in a $40 winning Golden Ticket. So I paid nothing. I also got a ten-dollar ticket, which was a loser. But my Golden Ticket was not:

Sure, it was only a $50 winner. But still. I sent Sis the picture.

On the way back home, I cashed it in for another couple of tickets, but they were both losers. Don't you worry about Mrs. Hillbilly Mom, though! Because the day after we got back...I bought this one:

I don't know if you could call Sis "pleasantly surprised" when she got this picture. But she WAS surprised!