Counting Down To Weirdness.

Less than 2 weeks now to the...I don't know what.

This is likely to be the strangest trip I've taken in 30+ of them. Last trip was awfully strange, with the deserted strip, minimal resorts and general dead vibe, but at least I had enough bars to fall back on to have a 70% normal trip. This one won't even be that, barring some last minute miracle of bar-opening-ness from our buddy Gov. Sisolak. Not holding my breath.

In any case I'm pretty much good to go. The wardrobe is set, have a couple new polos to improve the sartorial side. Money will be on point, will have probably $5100 cash and around $4K on the Mlife card to see me through 5 3/4 days. That's $850/day cash which really only needs to pay for gambling, taxis and greasing palms. The food, drink and whatever else is on the card. It was a pretty painless save as I still had over $3K in the bank when I came back from the last trip. Hopefully another stim check will bolster that later this month or next if the politicians get off their asses.

Going a somewhat different way this time on the playlist. I've struggled mightily to come up with a theme for this one. Tried a couple "disease" related lists, just not enough appropriate songs really to fill out a list. Songs on my theme playlists have to not only be topical but also be songs I like. Also tried a couple "upbeat, happy" lists but that didn't feel appropriate for this trip. What I've decided is to go with a list I created during the dog days of the CA shutdown, one I called "coronacore". It's all very downtempo and somber stuff which I love anyway, and it's 100 songs which means there probably won't be any repeats on the trip. Seems to fit the vibe of this one.

It's August, so it'll be well above 100° for the entire trip. That plus wearing a mask will probably mean plenty of taxis to go any distance on the strip. All my (many) forays to V/P will likely be cabs from center strip. From what I've heard the strip right now is a bit of a zoo with the "abnormal clientele" in town, so another reason to avoid any long strip walks. Interacting with poor rural peeps from Kentucky spending their unemployment bonus and coronabux on penny slots and Taco Bell - hard pass.

Was hoping to lose a bit of the corona 15 I put on during lockdown but doesn't look like that's going to happen. Doesn't really matter much to me at this point, I'm so used to being invisible to the opposite sex it hardly even fazes me anymore. Not having the interaction avenue of the bartops should make it even more impossible, aside from maybe being a hooker magnet. I'm not that desperate. The iPad's a lovely travel internet porn device.

I've been putting in my 100 hands a day on the video poker trainer. I pretty much have my strategy down now. I don't play perfect play all the time, I chase big hands more than I probably should but I figure that's the name of the game on Triple Double Bonus. Sure as hell not going to make anything on TDB chasing straights. Would love to see one or two more of the above pic happen on this trip and make it a no-stress money trip. Hell maybe even that elusive first royal will poke its head out. Can't hurt to dream. With no bars I'll certainly have my chance at it. Oh, all the vodka tonics I'll drink sitting at floor VP machines.

Points are all lined up, I'm less than 3K points away from Mlife Gold which should happen day one of the trip, then I can pump quite a bit into Cosmo Identity. Since I'm staying there I'll have the room points going on, and with a solid coin-in trip I could get well along to Gold and have the chance to get there on the Xmas trip. Also already have $70 in resort credit there so adding on to that could mean a nice meal somewhere during the trip. I'll probably go 70-30 Identity/Mlife on this trip and see where we end up.

So now it's just grind out a couple more work weeks and get to Vegas in one piece. We'll see what this odd trip will hold. Maybe it'll be strangely fun to be pushed out of my bartop comfort zone. I'm highly doubting it, but as previously stated, it's better than being at work 5 days that week.

10 days.