Last
week I had two experiences that ended with opposite endings to what I
normally expect.
I went
to the Rivers Casino here in Pittsburgh. I’m not a gambler. In the
many years the casino has existed this is my third trip. The first
was when it opened, just to see this new addition to my city. The
next two times for the buffet (which is a different type of gambling,
I suppose). I play low stakes poker with friends occasionally, but
I’m far too intimidated to sit down at a professional table with
strangers. Slot machines are hungry beasts that have never been my
friends. But I was there, for the food, because on my previous trip I
had been given a coupon for a free buffet. Twenty dollars worth of
free is a good thing. I tipped my waitress five bucks and then walked
through the casino to go back to my car. On a whim I stuck a dollar
in a penny slot machine. Fifteen cent bet, no luck. Second fifteen
cent bet... ding ding ding, lights, and sirens! I hit for $6.70.
Pretty good return on a fifteen cent investment. I cashed out because
quit while you’re ahead, right? So I left, full of buffet and,
minus the tip, $1.70 more than I walked in with.
A couple
of days later I made a trip to the library, which I do a lot of. I
read a lot, and the library is free. I still need to occasionally buy
books for my collection, but the library has saved me thousands of
dollars in my lifetime. I had a book on hold, The Crow’s Dinner
by Jonathan Carroll, one of my favorite authors. It’s a large
collection of his short blogs, most of which first appeared on
Medium.com. I followed it for years. While there I stumbled across a
new book about David Bowie called Forever Stardust. Within
five or ten minutes of reading each of them I knew I needed to own
them. They cost more than the dollar seventy from my casino windfall.
I can’t
help but feel I still came out ahead.
