Life Is A Game Of Give And Get

I had a run of good luck last week.

It started on Monday, after I'd spent a day off from buying scratchers, courtesy of casino. Where I did NOT come out a winner. Just putting that in there for the Truth in Blogging Law. Anyhoo...on Monday, I headed for Country Mart's machines, and something pulled me towards the one on the left.

That was a nice little surprise, 10X a prize of $10, which all of us math aficionados know makes $100. I also had some other winners on smaller tickets, so I was able to pocket (or gambling-purse) that win for CasinoPalooza 3, which is fast approaching.

The next day, Tuesday, I put some of the other winnings back into tickets, and got this little gem from the gas station chicken store:

I had given up hope until all at once on the last row I hit that 2X symbol. Yuh huh. Two times $50 is, again, $100. See? I not only promote the vice of gambling, but I also teach kids their multiplication. As with the previous day, I had some other winners, and stashed this one for my trip.

Wednesday was not so productive, only bringing in part of my money back, and not a profit. So I didn't get my favorite Golden Ticket, which is quite pricey, and instead got a $10 Frenzy ticket for my big one.

Yes, I was happy as a gambling-addicted clam to get to this next-to-last chance winner for $100. Sorry, kids, no math lesson today.

We were busy the other days, what with Genius's lunch and graduation, so I didn't re-invest any of my money until Sunday.

However, on our trip to have lunch Friday, I told Farmer H that I could take $20 of our house money (as opposed to my gambling stake) and get us each two tickets when we stopped in Steelville at Casey's for gas. He agreed, and even though he's quite a loser (where scratchers are concerned), he won $10, and I won $25. So we made a profit on our original investment.

Farmer H wanted to cash that in on the way home, but I persuaded him to wait until Saturday, when we passed back through Steelville on the way to Genius's graduation. I have these hunches, you know, and when I'm on a roll, I just go with what feels right.

I cashed those tickets in for more Sunday, and Farmer H had a $40 winner (darn him, glomming onto MY luck) and I had a $15 winner. So technically, he won and I lost, but still, we came out with $55 for our combined $35 investment that day. And it had all started with just a $20 out of pocket back on Friday.

Even Steven is just taking care of us. We gave a loan to one of Farmer H's family members last week, and a generous payment to HOS for his manual labor on the freight container garage, and for his wife to take graduation pictures of Genius.

Gotta have a balance in life. You give and you get. While I may crow about my scratcher successes, I must say the former is more satisfying than the latter.