A Crystal

Maxine may sound tough, but I am betting if you had a gripe or groan, she would be the first to come up with a resounding cure for feeling sorry for oneself. Some days are better than others and once in awhile a bit of 'poor me' comes to the forefront and it is surprising as it catches you off guard. I had one of those days yesterday because I walked out and found that it is something I can no longer enjoy. I can walk fine and have my cane for balance so there is no big problem, but, there I go with the 'but' again, I wasn't satisfied with just a walk up to the store and back, I spend an hour walking all over the store looking at all of the incoming holiday items starting with Halloween 'stuff' on to Thanksgiving and even a bit of Christmas is starting to show. I can tell you now I wont be shopping at Freddys for the holidays, such lack of quality is astounding, makes me wonder who chooses the styles for us . . . believe me it is not 'us'. I came home and sat in my chair and turned to my bookcase to find a book to curl up with and rest my feet. I noticed the crystal sitting on a book and picked it up and memories abound.

I lived in Nevada where you can go out in the desert and find rocks, crystals, even an opal or two if you know where to look. This particular crystal was found in the Nevada desert by a friend's parents who were devoted rock hounds. The crystal sat in a basket on a shelf along with many others, but this one caught my eye. I was told to choose any one I wanted, even several, but this was the beauty and I chose it.

My friend and I were going up to Lake Tahoe to play the slot machines. On the way up I held the crystal in my hands, caressing it with my fingers, feeling the heat of the stone and wondered what stories lay behind the facets and sparkles within the crystal. When we arrived at our destination, I watched a lady playing two machines of a brand new game called "Quartermania" in which you put in two quarters and waited for the reels to come up with a combination of cherries, bells etc. When she stopped playing one, I asked her if I could play the one she gave up and she smiled and concentrated on her one machine. I sat down, put in two quarters and got bells . . . 10 coins . . . not bad for a start. I put in two more quarters and got cherries . . . got my money back. Then I put in two quarters and bells started ringing and I looked to see I had won the mini mania which I thought was three hundred dollars....yeah, how lucky, although the lady didn't really agree. When the payoff came, it wasn't three hundred, it was three thousand . . . I didn't know my hand could shake that hard as the hundred dollar bills were stacked up for me to take home. Of course my friend and I had an agreement that whomever won really didn't matter as we would split the pot. It wasn't easy to do, ha.....ha.....but it had to be done and to make my long story short, I held back the income tax money and a bit for St. Jude Thaddeus and lost a friend because I couldn't count right. Sad, but true.

So be careful if you come out on the high side of a win, just take your winnings and run. Make today a good one. We have sunshine and beautiful fall days here in Brookings. I am going to have a ride to Sporthaven beach and take pictures of the big brown pelicans if they are still there. A big fat hamburger at Fely's may cure all of my ailments today.