Ooh, That Makes Me Mad

Look, I love playing the lottery. Hell, I never win anything to write home about. It's just the chance at millions of dollars that keeps me playing, even if I know that realistically I have no chance in hell of winning a dime.

So, I get a dollar here, and two dollars there. Sometimes I MIGHT get lucky enough to win $5 or sometimes a bit more. It's never enough to write home about, none of it is life changing, and when I consider how much I play I have never come close to getting my money back.

Not hardly.

Well, the other day I went to check some tickets. You know, they have those scanners you can run your tickets under to check to see if they are winners or not. I scanned 15 of my tickets and came up with two that each won a dollar.

Woohoo! $2. 

I also had one winning scratch off ticket worth $2, and another one worth $5. So, all said I was going to cash in a whopping $9 worth of winnings.

I stepped up to the counter and told the cashier, "I'd like to cash these in and I will be getting a couple more."

Fair and well, nuff said.

I bought a new Illinois Lotto ticket, and my wife picked out 2 one dollar scratch offs. She likes playing the scratch offs. I am really only interested in the Lucky Day, the Lotto, the Powerball, and the Megamillions.

I'm in it for the big dough!

So, I had $9 to play with. I spent three. The cashier handed me my tickets and $3 cash. I folded up my money and my ticket and put those into my pocket and my wife and I set off to do our errands we had planned.

And then it dawned on me...

I only got $3 in cash back after I accounted for my $3 worth of new tickets. I was shorted $3 of winnings.

I could have went back. But to what end I figured. Was it really all that worth it to go back for my money? I mean, most of the time I am all about the pennies, so $3 is $3 and that still has value...

But I thought it just wasn't worth it and so I simply sucked it up.

Still, it makes me mad. I don't like to lose money—despite my playing the lottery in the first place. I keep thinking somewhere in the back of my mind, maybe that was my little contribution for the millions I am about to take command of.

We shall see.

Can You Believe These Gas Prices?

Remember just a short time ago when you looked at your fuel gauge with a little bit of panic? First thought...oh shit. This is going to hurt like hell to fill this tank. AND lucky if I can afford to go anywhere with this gas once I put it into the tank.

But here we are, and gas prices are under $2 a gallon! Granted, like anything, it is probably a short-lived thing. Enjoy it while we can is what I say. It is nice, though, to be able to fill up and not worry whether or not you'll need to mortgage your house to fill the tank—and hell, think of all the extra useless crap we buy with the money we're not spending on gas.

Ah, the wheels of the economy will churn much like the wheels on my car. And I have two of them to fill mind you. An F-150 and an Edge.

What with the lowered taxes and jobs a plenty, raises galore and bonuses galore, things are finally looking quite dandy when all is said and done on the economic front. Let's just hope that for whatever any of this is worth it can last a little bit.

I'd like to see gas stay at under $2 a gallon for as long as it possibly can.

A Walk Around the Flea Market

SO, THE WIFEY WANT TO TAKE A WALK AROUND THE LOCAL FLEA MARKET THIS AFTERNOON. Well, by the time you see this post that would have been yesterday afternoon. Not something I am looking terribly forward to, but she's the wife. She wants to go. I just need to make my best effort to show her that I am having so much fun walking around looking at a bunch of junk and garbage I really have absolutely no interest in whatsoever.

Oh well. Sometimes that's what life is all about. Making someone else happy. I suppose if I look on the bright side and keep in check with that old adage that if mama is happy, so is everyone else maybe there will be a silver lining to the little excursion.

More likely that not I think the real answer we will simply add to a useless pile of garbage that will eventually wind up in a future garage sale which are about as much fun putting on as it is going to these fucking flea markets!