Friday Night Laughs

I'd like to write about a couple of things tonight, one serious, one funny.

I worked only a half-day today, so that I could go over to a local medical center and visit my beloved sister, Kathleen.  You see, I have never written about this, but Kathleen has been battling cancer for 2 1/2 years now, and sadly, the cancer seems to be winning.  She has been in the hospital now for 8 days, and hopes to be able to go home on Tuesday next week... but will now be retired on disability, and will need home health care going forward.  Kathleen (not Kathy, Katie, or Kate) is a very private person, and does not like to have people crying and fawning over her, so my biggest job is just to pray, pray, pray.  I did have lunch with my brother in law Bob, and we had a good talk over some good food at a Cajun restaurant near the hospital. I was so glad to see with my own eyes that he is coping well, and holding up.

When I left the hospital, I headed home to do chores. 

For two hours this morning we had heavy snow coming down.  Of course, it was 70 degrees yesterday, so the ground was too warm to keep it.  Freaky weather.

This is Rambo and Nugget; some of the birds came out to have a treat of bread when I got home.

Here is the beautiful Speedy, the Old English Gamebird tiny rooster.

This tiny little hen is Suzy, who is a part OEG red pyle hen.  I've never thought she was purebred, but she was sold as purebred.  She is so old her red coloring around her neck has faded.

She is a good example to show you an older hen... see how bleached out her facial features are?

Younger hens have very bright red facial features.  As they get older, and have laid longer, they become bleached.  She is still laying every few days.

I took at least 8 pictures of Boots, the Mille Fleur rooster and he was moving in every single one!  He is never going to win a show... but he is a beautiful little rooster at any event, and I hope that he, Muffy and Bitsy, the Naughty Girls, will have some beautiful babies this spring.

That's George behind him, I still have two partridge cochin bantam roosters. 

On my way home on the highway from the hospital, I took an exit far out in Wyandotte County, near the Kansas Speedway racetrack.  While I was in the exit lane and stopped, waiting for two trucks to clear me on 110th, a young man came up the ramp, must have thought I was moving, and rammed the back of my car.  Instead of calling the police, I called Keith, whom I knew to be fairly close on his way to get groceries.  He came and prounounced the car good to go, so we asked the young man to be more careful in the future and told him goodbye.  I have an observation to make, though... of the hundred or so cars that came around the off-ramp while we were sitting there waiting.... only one couple stopped and offered to help.  We both had gotten out of the cars (in case someone else wasn't paying attention) and some actually honked at us in anger.  Just an observation... but a sad one. 

God works in strange ways, which you will see in a minute.

Because of all this going on, and the fact that Keith must go to Harveyville again tomorrow to help with the town's recovery from the tornado this week... we decided to go to dinner.

We drove towards the Legends shopping center, which is ten miles from us, and has many restaurants.  When we got close, we decided to try the new Hollywood Casino, which opened last month.  So I drove into the garage and parked, and we went in.  We had heard they had a big buffet restaurant, so we asked where it was and made our way back there.  When we found out it was 19.99 PER person to eat, we asked where the other restaurants were, and we headed for a sports bar at the top of an escalator.  We proceeded to order sandwiches, and had quite a little wait while we watched huge projections of sports events on the walls.  After our dinner, we headed out.  We had NOT locked up the chickens.  However, we stopped at the bottom of the escalator, got caught up in the bell ringing, etc.... and decided to stay for a bit.  I headed for the penny slot machines, and Keith for the gaming tables, agreeing to meet at 8:30. 

I had 20.00 to spend, so chose a penny slot machine and asked an attendent how to put the money in.  (We don't gamble very often, and these machines were very new and strange). Once it ate my twenty, I sat down.  No, I never understood the way it was played, really, but I won and lost and won and lost. Finally, my 20.00 was down to 13.58, and I decided I had better get out.  I hit "pay tickets" and nothing happened.  Finally, I asked the gentleman sitting next to me, and he told me to press a button that called an attendent.  I did.  About that time, a person came on the announcement system and told everyone that the gaming system was down and "Don't Hit the Payout" button. Uh huh.  The machine locked up, and they soon made other announcements that someone would come around and pay each person individually.  Keith wandered over and told me he had won 105.00 playing blackjack, and found out I had to sit and wait.

Here is the stupid thing... I waited for an hour for 13.58.  Keith, in the meantime, went back to the blackjack table and won another 550.00!

I finally told the gentleman next to me he could have my 13.58, and I got Keith and after he cashed in, we came home.  No chickens had been killed by possums, and the dogs were very glad to see us.

Daddy Warbucks is banking his money in savings, but had a good crow to me on the way home.  You see, the last time we did this (five years ago at least) he won 450.00 and got us our yard cart the next day. 

I wish it were always so easy! 

Here's Muffy on top of the fence to greet me when I got home tonight:

Naughty, Naughty Girl!