Anyway, since there was so much snow on Saturday (February 5th), it was a good day to be inside and play Monopoly. Since Lynn went out, it was just Richard and me. Perhaps she passed up the opportunity because Richard usually wins. His winning ways were honed by reading a book (that I originally bought) that revealed the secrets to success (at Monopoly).
My strategy was simple: prevent Richard from obtaining all the properties of one color, and especially Boardwalk/Park Place. This approach was going well and Richard was begging me to make a deal. Finally, I made my fatal mistake and gave in. I thought he only had 1 green property and traded him my 1 green property for cash plus a property that I needed. However, I failed to realize that he actually already had 2 of the 3 green properties. Once I realized this, I knew my days were numbered.
While I was collecting rent in the tens of dollars, Richard was putting up houses, then hotels on the green properties. I managed to survive my first stop on one of these by mortgaging virtually everything. But it was inevitable that I would land on exactly the same property again. That was it. I had to liquidate and the game was over. Richard was the winner again!
Addendum: From where I was sitting, I could look out the dining room window (from Lynn's 3rd floor apartment) and see a dozen or so yellow clad figures shoveling snow off the flat roof of the Armory Building a block away. They were working the entire time we played Monopoly.