I’ve mentioned previously that Bonnie and I play at the Eldorado in Reno. Although we could drive, it’s easier to fly. One time, when we landed at the Reno airport, we took a shuttle to a casino I’ll call the Alamo rather than taking another shuttle to the Eldorado.
A little more than a month before this incident happened, I played for the first time at the Alamo. My goal was to get mailers at both the Alamo and the Eldorado. If we’re going through the expense of flying, it makes sense to have two or more stops once we get there rather than one.
Because of this play at the Alamo, I got a mailer with some free play and $100 worth of food. It wasn’t enough free play to justify a separate flight to Reno, but as a brief stop on the way the Eldorado, it was well worth the time it took. It’s possible my future mailers would be larger at the Alamo if I skipped picking up this first offer, but I didn’t figure that out until later.
While the benefits of playing at the Eldorado are sufficient to keep us going back, and the high-end restaurants there are excellent, the midday meal options there leave a lot to be desired. So, we decided to use the entire $100 food comp from the Alamo. We’d eat what we wanted and take the rest “to go.” We carried three bags of food with us when we left.
From the Alamo, we took a Lyft to the Eldorado. We could have taken the Alamo shuttle back to the airport and from there caught the shuttle to the Eldorado. Given the uncertainty of the shuttle schedules, this could have easily taken an hour or more. A $15 dollar, 15-minute Lyft ride seemed to be a good investment. On this particular trip, we brought along one suitcase, one backpack, and a walker. I don’t absolutely “need” the walker, but I tire more easily than I did when I was younger and I’m often glad I have it.
We went to the Gold Room at the Eldorado, which is what they call their VIP check-in area. Since the door to the Gold Room is heavy and we had our hands full with luggage, I went in alone while Bonnie waited outside “guarding” our stuff. After checking in, I returned. We gathered up our stuff and went to our room.
After a nap, I went down to the casino and played several hours. When I returned to the room after midnight, I discovered my backpack was not in the room. My laptop was in the backpack. The backpack is entirely black and apparently just didn’t see it when we were gathering up our stuff. With the three bags of food, it seemed like we had our normal amount of luggage. I was exhausted and decided to wait until morning to deal with the problem. If the lost and found had the backpack now, they would have it in the morning. We had left it behind 10 or so hours before and there was no chance it was still where we left it. I didn’t sleep well. While I have my computer backed up, it’s a hassle and I wasn’t looking forward to it.
At 8:30 in the morning, I called the operator and asked to be put through to lost and found. The operator refused. She told me to go to the Caesars.com website and fill out a form. I didn’t want to do that. I played the “hapless senior citizen” card. “I’m 78 years old and not good with computers. Please let me speak to a real person.” The operator refused so I continued, “There is medicine in the backpack and it’s important I know whether it’s lost or not.” While this was an exaggeration, it wasn’t too far off the mark. I have a daily pill regimen, and pills for two days were in the backpack, but skipping these for a few days would not be a disaster. Still, I sensed that emphasizing the medicine might be my best bet to talk to a human. Eventually, the operator relented and transferred me to a security guard in charge of lost and found.
They indeed had the backpack, including the laptop and everything else, and I was greatly relieved.
There are more and more similar incidents as I age. In the past few years, I’ve misplaced cell phones, keys, driver license, glasses, and departed a few slot machines without taking my TITO ticket with me. I’ve inadvertently left the garage door open when I drove away. Sometimes I’m fortunate and get my possessions back. Sometimes I don’t. While I occasionally lost things when I was younger, it’s happening more frequently as I age.
Bonnie, who is a few years older than me, loses things too. Probably more than I do. We each do our best to help the other, and we’re both glad we have each other to deal with these things, but sometimes it seems like it’s a case of the blind leading the blind.
While I’m still very glad I’m alive, there are more and more of these aggravating situations we need to deal with — at a time when we are less capable of dealing with them than we used to be. Someone suggested that this doesn’t seem fair, but to that a wiser man than me asked, “Compared to what?”
Enjoy all of your writing. My spouse (we’re 67) started leaving things when we started lving and gambling in Las Vegas. Most notably the cell phone and players’ cards. I keep my cell in my pocket. But years ago I developed a system and I have used it for over 10 years now and it hasn’t failed me yet. I call it the “count to five system.” I stand up from the maching. 1. I pat for my wallet. 2. I pat for my phone. 3. Do I have my TITO? 4. Do I have my players’ card 5. Do I have my drink?
Hasn’t failed me since.
Sure like this one
At 77years old, I definitely can relate and empathize with your problems. Worse yet, I have no answers.
Mr. Dancer, you are a true legend. Although I’ve never commented, I’ve read your stories on and off for a long time. I wish years more of prosperity for both you and Bonnie. May all your flushes be royals, and continue to take care of each other.
I can relate. Bob named those ‘key’ (no pun intended) items: cell phones, keys, drivers license, glasses. When any one is suddenly missing, life gets instantly complicated.
What to do? Try as I might to assign ‘special’ places, spaces, mindfulness priority to those things, fate has a way of tricking me. More than once I’ve laid a cell phone down at a slot machine and walked off without it. More than once!! WTF? I know that sinking feeling when a credit card isn’t where it ‘lives’ in my billfold. Gas up the car with a cc, I get in a hurry and lay the card in my car console. Go to check out groceries and…ooohh, where is the card? Sudden power outage at the house, glasses get laid where ever I first took them off, not the usual place for them. Get in the car to go someplace, oops, where are my glasses?
Mostly it boils down to some form of distraction. Casino, airport TSA (a biggie IMHO), in a hurry.
Best wishes to all in this struggle.
It was just a few years ago when the walk to the strip from the Tuscany was nothing for me. Now it’s an ordeal. And memory? When I first visited LV (circa 1982), I could study the Sunday college football sports pages of the LA times on a Sunday for half an hour, my roommate would quiz me, and while not an eidetic memory, I could spit back ballpark stats for every game on those pages. Now, if I had a month and a cheat sheet, I couldn’t do it.
So we soldier on and hopefully recognize when it’s time to call it a day with various and sundry endeavors. All we can do is the best we can, try to know when our best is no longer enough, and appreciate/enjoy what we once could do. If we manage to be self-aware, hell, that’s half the battle.
People get on me for writing down lists of things I need to do, why I make a list of EVERYTHING I need to take with me when I’m travelling, why I insist on putting things in the same place every night at home. I explain that it’s to minimize the chances of leaving necessary stuff behind.
I still forget one or two things (out of about 70 to 80) every time I go on vacation. It’s usually nothing major, and I can fix the problem right away at my destination. Buying sunglasses or toothpaste is not exactly vacation-shattering.
Yes, I forget a thing or two once in a while. It’s part of aging, and aging beats the alternative.
I usually forget the list!
YEP= that’s me! 7 times over. Lost a couple of cell phones. At least I remember to put my pants on before I go out…
Stay well, Bob.
I think the key is to have a routine and do it every time. It sounds silly but it helps me. I have left the garage door open at home exactly once but I have driven back to check it maybe 50 times. My new routine for this is back the car out, hit the button, wait for the door to come down and say out loud, ‘The garage door is closed’. Yeah it takes a little longer, but previously, the non thinking task of closing it would not always register in my memory. Now it does.
I try to put things in the same place all the time. That helps me when i search for things.
When I get up from a machine, I check my pockets for phone, keys, money, TITO and slot club cards. My wife, whose memory is now significantly better than mine ( we were pretty close to equal in our younger days) would comment on it. I even gave it a name. Doing the Macarena. But it works.
We all get older and not as sharp as we used to be. I wish I didn’t have to do this to make sure I have my phone or TITO, but it is the current state of affairs for me. I could deny it, lose stuff and somehow try and justify the lost ( I was distracted, we were in a hurry, etc) or just deal with the minor inconvenience.
Oh boy, what I have to look forward to. Thanks for the great advice all!
Use to drive around the block to make sure I shut the garage door. Now I just check the WiFi camera and use the garage door app to close it.