Green Spaces

I am amazed at all the green in mid-September.  By now the prairies are that famous dull yellow brown colour while here there are still daylilies in first bloom.  The weather has been a sultry 28 to 30 and even at Niagara Falls yesterday the thermometer hit 34 in the shade.  The trees don't yet even have a hint of fading to yellow, orange or red.  Yet there is a stillness about the countryside. No children are frolicking on lawns or in the fields, they are all in school.  Instead the seniors are out in droves, they are headed to the casino.

                This has been my first (and I'm certain my last) experience of a casino.  I am dazed by the vastness, by the lights and the noise of machines whirring.  People sit in front of the lights and as I look at the pictures I wonder "can anyone be this serious about this childish looking stuff?"  But they are, they really are.  I sit down because Jeanette makes me.  She says "try this one."  It's I Love Lucy.  I have no idea what I am doing, just press the button.  Now what?  Press it again. But what am I doing? Isn't there some sort of challenge, something to make this complex?  No, just press the button.  I win $3 and cash out. 

                However, after that I put $10 in another machine.  I lose it all. We go for a scenic walk and take pictures of the Falls.  Still, we have 2 1/2 hours to kill.  We go back to the casino. I lose, I win, I lose.  I think about Barbara Stanwyck in "The Lady Gambles" and I am not so quietly freaking out.  Jeanette thinks I am hilarious, I think I am a fool.  Worse, could I become an addict in the hopes of recovering the lousy $30?  Then I say, well, I only lost $27 because I still have the $3 from the first win.  $27 doesn't sound as horrifying as $30.  Oh the logic of it all.  I can see how addiction starts.

                No more casinos for me!