Next, Bryne and I got another lesson about why you don’t do business in Florida. I called the Bingo place Friday to confirm they had the equipment. We got out to 4602 SW 26th Terrace to find it a complex of 400 rental units with no numbers on the doors. We finally found it, no thanks to them. It turns out they “sold the last one” on Friday and didn’t call me, but they did have an electric bubble machine that required a car to move for $142.00. Mind you, the lady did phone another place, 6001 Stirling Rd, that had a small kit. I bought cards and markers, but also a set of $5.00 bingo cards. Like a deck of cards, you shuffle them and call the numbers. Just in case the other place was also lying, since you can’t go by addresses in Florida, nor would the place tell you if they were closing in ten minutes. Already in a rush, we were half-way there before I noticed the first outfit, Bingo King, didn’t give me the promised $5.00 discount.
Now we find out the building numbers match the street numbers right up to 60th Avenue, whence they skip the Micosuckee Casino, and start up again on 66th. We hadd to drive the road twice because the people giving directions were too ignorant to mention the staggered numbers. Typical Florida bastard-rat mentality. The bingo cage was $49.95, making me short exactly the $10.00 between the bingo cards and the missing discount. I had to pay the ripoff ATM rate next door.
So you know, the primary difficulty of running a business in Florida is this kind of ignorant, lying, uneducated people. It took an extra hour because they could not be bothered to do things right. Thus, Bryne and I missed our appointed coffee break and I owe him an extra $10 for diesel. But I have all the gear and am about to test it. It looks okay, but again, this is Florida.
Don’t think you can avoid it all by taking the proper precautions. Said precautions would be so obvious you would just be tipping them off you are up to something. They are like my family, very quick to notice any productive activity on your part. An extra letter in the mail, a slight change in daily pattern, that unopened package you take elsewhere to open. Then they start swooping in.
Even so, my estimate of $85.00 to set up a decent bingo game came in under budget at $82.99. But only 24 people can play tonight. Here’s trivia. Whenever you have a computer system, there is always one chokepoint, a spot that slows down everything. It is called the “gating factor”. My gating factor is the number of pink markers I could find.
In music, I gave a complete listen to “Come As You Are”, a tune the Pat-B plays. There was a nagging wrong note that every musician I’ve heard plays. It nothing really, but that’s the challenge. It took me two hours to find it, mainly because it clashes with the root chord. Lessons teach us not to play two notes a semi-tone apart unless you are “The Doors”, but I’ll be danged. Another tune that is 99% played wrong is the Beatles classic “Can’t Buy Me Love” but that’s where I come along. In case anyone knows what part I mean, the note is G, not F. Because you’re playing the chord, not the note.
Later, the new bingo was a success. Not much money traded hands because a football game cut us short. But the concept is solidly proved, oh ye of little faith. Very few people walk out of a bingo game. It was comical how earlier I biked across the casino lot with my gear lashed on my bicycle, their investment being some ten million times greater than mine. I’ll bet they didn’t make the margins I did tonight. Next week, we start an hour earlier.
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