Second Wheel on a Unicycle

Monday February 21, 2023 part 2, and we were hanging out in the room, not losing (except on Keno tickets).

Even though it is but a shadow of its former bustling self, we went to Main Street Station to play this and that.

I was excited to find out that Rambo is a card carrying Sapphire at Boyd properties!

I'd meant to eat at MSS if anything was open, but we got involved, and next thing it was after 4:00 pm and we were headed back through the walkway to the Cal.

Sign says it all. Hope those Boyd MBAs got paid a shitload for their pandemic strategies.

The Quad Queen wasn't hungry and gambled while I went to eat at the Market Street Cafe.

I ordered the Chop Steak, primarily because it was covered by the Aloha coupon. I don't know why it isn't Chopped Steak. Or Chopped Beef Steak. Or Beef Chop Steak. Or Beef Chop. Why Chop Steak? Why not Steak Stir Fry?

Chop Steak

The Chop Steak was tasty enough, and I had enough fries on the plate to feed four people. It's ridiculous to think that anyone could be piggish enough to gobble their way through that trough of oily, greasy potatoes.

I waddled outta there and we played lots of nickel triple play Super Times Pay. Ultimately, we lost. We never got that 'killer hand', which is what you need if you are going to survive on this game.

We went back to the room to regroup and rethink, because we were so down. As you've seen by the lack of jackpot photos, nothing but nothing much was hitting today.

The Quad Queen wanted to do a quarter Boner Deluxe Strict Rules of Parlay session. Honestly, I had no stomach to lose any more and the day seemed futile, so I gave her the rest of my stake to play.

I would ride shotgun, and play one hand every 4 minutes. And that's what I did.

Mrs. F. got from quarters to 50 cents, 50 cents to dollars, looking for that big quad, but then had to de-parlay (per the Strict Rules of Parlay), and then de-parlay again to quarters. And the quarters ran out.

The big quad scores we've gotten so many times on Boner Deluxe dollars were nowhere to be found.

The QQ checked out a machine she was considering playing, and I noticed a ticket sticking out of the one next to it. It was for $11.25, from 12 minutes prior. We hung around, waiting for the owner to come by, but they never did.

This time the angel on my right shoulder beat out the devil on my left, and I turned the ticket in. The floor person referred it to Candy, the floor manager, and I confirmed that she could find the person who owned the ticket if they had been using their card.

And no, I wouldn't get the ticket if they couldn't find them.

That was good enough for me, and I stored even more flashing sparkling karma stars in my little 'me me me' piggy bank. If you do a thing, thinking you'll get karma payback, are you really doing the thing for someone else, or yourself?

When we were all out of cash, we stole money from Admin to buy two Keno tickets for the next day's coffee.

I checked for messages and there were a few waiting for me that explained the impact of my secret mission efforts had on Mandy and Kathy's family.

It was significant, given the circumstances in which they found themselves.

As I read these messages, I was touched, and glad that I had done a good thing.

The posts on this blog go out, and I'm never sure how they are received. I measure success by the number of views each post has, and by the comments or feedback I get. But for every 500 page views, there are one or two other specific interactions that let me know I'm on the right track. And occasionally there are one or two nasty-grams.

Sometimes I look at these numbers and wonder why they aren't larger, and why more people aren't reading, and is it worth the effort?

And just when I think it doesn't matter, something like this happens and I realize that the seeds I throw out into the wind matter, and some might grow bigger trees than I would ever know. And this has happened a number of times in the years that Royal Flusher has been recounting his adventures.

Just when I think I might as well quit, something like this happens, and I find out I am actually making a difference, albeit small, in someone's day. And I'm encouraged to continue to write.

I read all the messages to the Quad Queen and told her that she can take half the credit for any Flushiepants goodwill karma we generated today, because she thinks up so many of the interesting things that end up in the blog. 

Furthermore, people like her and like hearing about her, and I think they are more interested the Quad Queen than me.

It's ironic, I'm the more needy one, the one that craves the attention, and everyone wants to know about her.

I told her all these things, and she responded, channeling Joe Pesci, "It's all about me. I'm the one that's important here."

"Yes, I feel like the... 18th wheel or whatever it is. The second wheel. Yeah, I'm the second wheel," I replied

"Yeah, the second wheel on a unicycle."

"You did it again. That's going straight to the blog."

QQ Day -$500 Trip -$2300

RF Day -$500 Trip -$1140

Combined -$3340

The numbers don't lie, this trip was in big trouble.