Nice Little Party

What with me decamping to Florida we bros. and cuzzes have tried to have pre-Thanksgiving get-togethers the past few years. I usually go to Casper. This year with Richie's hip replacement coming on the 21st, we decided to meet at the Casino to play and have dinner today. Susie and Jim jumped the gun. Susie really likes to gamble and if I did as well as she does I would too. The original plan called for all of them to depart Casper about noon but they came earlier and Susie was up some $600 or so when we all converged at 2:30. I lost my obligatory $20.00 and I thought I would never get to the end of my investment. I was down to 3 cents and I would win another 4 and get down to 2 and win 8, but I finally lost it all. Jim was a little up, Rich was up a few, Val was up $20 something. The Casino starts its dinner menu at 4:00 p.m. and everybody was ready. We ate rather well. Prime rib and lobster tails for those who wanted them and the bill was still pretty reasonable. We had a chance to visit at dinner. Nice time and they were on their way home at a reasonable hour. As we age and realize that we are after all, vulnerable, the farewells have grown warmer. We treasure the face-to -face time even more. My dogs made out like bandits.