Dear Folks,

Wow! Wow! Wow! and Wow!

If this were fiction one would say it is to surreal and too over the top to be believable. All I can say…….What next???

January, 2006 started off rather nicely at the Casinos. I won several jack pots. In one week alone, I won $7000. Not to get to excited. Like I told my Ron; It probably cost me $10,000. to win it and then I probably spent $15,000. thinking I was rich. Sigh… Only people that suffer with; “Manic, Compulsive Behavior”, personality disorder, can really understand. But, it happens. Lord, knows I can testify to that!

Living between two Casinos is very conducive to contributing to the problem. All and all I had a pretty good run up until August. Then nothing! Until last night.

I had stopped by the Casino to cheer myself up after visiting my precious White female Mini-Schnauzer; “Holly” who is in the Animal Hospital. She developed a mysterious, life threatening ailment called….

“Hemorrhagic Gastroenteritis” {HGE} in dogs. it is an air born virus. She vomited clear bile on Thursday, then had bloody diarrhea through the night. I had her to the Vet at 6:00a.m.Friday.

It is so traumatic and frightening. I am not suppose to lift more than three pounds with my broken back. But, back brace and cane I struggled in the door with my sick little treasure. Ron had an appointment at the Ranch with a repair man. So, he could not leave. We had been with out water for three days because of a broken part on the well pump. If you have ever gone without water, for three days, ect; ect;, …

I am taking Morphine and Vicadin for the pain of my back. Which causes short term memory loss. Plus, I cry like a ” Weeping Willow Tree”. Do they even cry? Somehow, it seems to fit my image as I stand, swaying and weeping at every little breeze. Just this week I have burned up two pots on the stove. Ron has had to take a leave of absence from work to care for me and the animals. He follows me around and literally puts out fires. Thank God, we do not use the wood stove to heat the house any more. I am sure I would have burned us all up.

Holly, is progressing nicely. I could not bear her absence anymore, so in spite of Ron’s fear of my driving,{ another repair man that had taken three weeks to get the appointment}, I drove over to the Vet Hospital to visit her. I hobbled in and they got me a chair next to her kennel. I managed to disentangle her enough from the tubes to put her in my lap. I cuddled her and we had a long talk. She assured me she would be well enough to come home on Monday, as she licked my tears from my face. I think she knew I was in as much distress as she. I could sense her trying to cheer me up. And she did. I felt much better when I left there. So, I stopped by the Casino. I won a couple of hundred dollars and the Casino Hostess came over and gave me two tickets to see “Little Anthony’s” concert next month. They treat me like a “High Roller”. Perhaps, I am some what of a “Whale”. That is a Casino term meaning a big spender. Let’s see now; Weeping Willow Tree and Whale.. this does not conjure up a pleasing image. Must join that Gym next week. Anyway, they give me lots of comps. She ask me if I was coming to the drawing that night and reminded me I had thirty three tickets to put in the drawing. The top prize was $5,000. and several smaller prizes. I said, I probably would be to tired, but I took the tickets.

I went home and went to bed, Ron woke me at 6:30 p.m. and I said okay lets go ahead and go down there and have dinner and put the tickets in the barrel. I have never won a thing in those drawings. One time I actually had 1,000. tickets, hired some kids to fill them out for me, put them in the barrel and ; Yep!!! You guessed it, I did not win a thing!

Anyway, we get all the way to the door of the Casino and I discover, I did not have my wallet with me. No I.D. Short term memory loss. I never go anywhere with out my wallet. But, Ron was driving and my keys are on my wallet. We both said we never win anyway no sense going back home for it. Besides, we were hungry. The very last drawing….. “Mary Smalley” from Oroville, $1,000.00 . No picture I D . No prize. Even the Night Manager knew me. He felt worse than we did. But, rules are rules.

What was neat was Ron and I laughed all the way home. “Can you believe”? Why didn’t we go back and get the wallet? How lucky we are that not winning the money won’t really make that much difference in our lives. How blessed we are that we have each other and our wonderful critters and the Ranch. How truly rich we already are.” Ect. Ect Ect. We laughed and laughed. Now, that is amazing! I think we had more fun out of not winning the money than if we had won. All of this while, Ron is out of work, I want to buy an expensive dog, our truck needs new tires and Ron needs an Air Compressor to go with his new nail gun that I got him for Christmas. Ha, Ha, Ha, . “We didn’t win”. We are a bit nuts.

Now, the other big news! Ron and I have been together going on 21 yrs. We finally did it.

Friday, we decided to go get our marriage  license. We  married on Valentines Day.