Rip Van Flushiepants

I feel like I've been asleep for 20 years in the Catskills, after huffing down some strange home-made hooch in a cave with a bunch of nine-pin playing Dutchmen.

For the past 30 years, I've almost always had a Vegas trip planned. It has been part of my being, part of my future, one of the things that's kept me going, the smoky booze-soaked gambling carrot hanging just in front of my nose. Usually these trips were a few weeks away, sometimes a few months.

For decades, I was either on a trip, planning one, or counting down to one.

There have been two exceptions to this. I survived a two-and-a-half year hiatus in the 90s when we were too broke to even consider going.

And this. This horrible 30 month pandemic, a never-ending dark winter of stress, fear, loss, grief, statistics, masks, and lots and lots of picture puzzles.

Last view of the strip, Dec 28th, 2019

Little things that happened from the last trip have fossilized into milestones and important memories.

Reading the news online in our room at Wynn, raising an eyebrow at a story about a virus that 'could be something new and dangerous'. I remember thinking, that ain't good, but I'm not going to stress over it now. It's probably nothing.

The last quad I got in Vegas, and actually, by design, the last video poker hand I played in Vegas, was again at Wynn on our last night, Dec 27th, 2019. Triple Double Bonus on quarters, I held three 2s and a kicker and drew for the premium quad for $500. 

It was such a good feeling, I decided to shut down the VP then and there. We had a trip booked for March 2020, we'd be back before long.

Wrong.

Our lives have changed significantly since then in so many ways (as you will know if you've read back a few blog posts), not all of them bad.

We're ready to return to Canada from our winter cottage at the Greacey Palms Senior Putt Putt Trailer Park here in Florida in mid-April.

What about Vegas? (I ask multiple times per day.)

It was never really a comfortable possibility - until now.

The next trip will be a solo one, for various reasons. Chippy is getting very old and can't do the Left-B-Hind Kennel (or any other kennel, for that matter). She's 13 and has about 19 bad hips and 7 bad shoulders. She's happy, but sore, and sometimes needs help with stairs. She has her own Power Vest complete with Power Handle to help in that department.

But there really isn't anyone in our lives that could stay with her, so it's either me, or the Quad Queen.

One or the other.

And yes, it is a huge sacrifice on my part, but I'm the one to have to go to Las Vegas.

Bonus - QQ's mother, who has been cooped up like an ankle-braceleted senior prisoner for the duration will be sprung and get to say with QQ and Chippy while I'm gone. It'll be a welcome visit for all, and a welcome break for her.

Consider my guilt firmly assuaged.

And I've finally got something to blog about again! Something Vegas!

Let the trip planning commence!

Good God, it's ON!!!