Sunday, May 10, 2009

Happy Mothers Day

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Day 34 in Las Vegas

The Red Rock Resort and Casino were packed with Mothers today, all standing in line to get their freebies: a rose, cookies, champagne, and other odds and ends. People, most husbands, were carrying around foot-massagers and kitchen items, including something that looked like a food-smasher of some kind. The line at the give-away counter was enormous, snaking around the casino amid the slots like a serpent wagging its tail.

I left.

Don't get me wrong...I love Mothers. I miss my own Sainted Mother terribly. But a casino full of hundreds of Mothers can be dangerous. The Fathers in the crowd all seemed a little perplexed, sad mainly, and you could tell most of them preferred to be on the golf course or watching the NBA playoffs. But on Mother's Day what are you going to do? Tiger Woods and Kobe will have to wait.

As I walked toward the parking garage I passed thousands of slot machines stacked high with all kinds of goodies. One lady was hammering away at the 1-cent slot trying to balance her roses in one hand, a cookie, a box containing a foot-massager, and her purse. Another slot had three foot-massager boxes stacked high on top of it, with Mothers nearby laughing and playing and drinking champagne.

I was never so happy to climb into my car and find a nice quiet Starbucks or Coffee Bean.

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