Dreadful, Sleepless Night At Thunder Valley

Am I on a roll? Am I not on a roll? Only one way to tell.....

Once again, a Saturday night at Thunder Valley, playing blackjack. I started losing, first the $500 in my pocket, then $500 from the ATM. Then I got a credit card advance, but mistakenly asked for $1000 rather than $500. No problem, soon they had all of that too, save $100.

I grimly forged ahead and tried to tough out the nausea. 10 p.m. 2 a.m. Stasis.

I decided that it was time to dance. The music was bumping at the Falls Bar. I could see two cute women who had had a cute "Night At The Roxbury" little dance routine worked out at the blackjack table a couple of hours before. Maybe I should join them....

But I discovered, as I stomped through the bar, that I was extremely tense: so extremely Richard-Nixon-During-The-Worst-Days-Of-Watergate tense that I could tell I wouldn't be able to persuade anyone to dance with me, short of carelessly discharging firearms in close quarters.

So, back to the fickle tables....

Then abruptly, a five-minute, $1000 winning streak at 4 a.m. Again, at 5 a.m., a ten-minute, $1000 winning streak. I was even again! But could I win?

Departed at 6 a.m. Went to bed at 7 a.m.

Win: $3142.50, minus $51 credit card fee, minus $3 ATM fee, minus $50 E. stake, minus initial $2,000 = $1,038.50.

Filling up at a Roseville gas station at dawn, a man mistook my evening wear for Sunday best. "Last Sunday evening, my preacher called my home, asking me where I had been that morning," he said. "Is that right?": I replied. As he rolled his eyes, he said, "I told him I had to work overtime, in order to make an extra big donation to the collection plate today."