Mega Millions, Mega Millions, Mega Millions. Win a billion dollars, win a billion dollars, win a billion dollars. Three dollar ticket from the Red Apple in Forest and nothing to show for it.
Powerball, Powerball, Powerball. Win a billion dollars, win a billion dollars, win a billion dollars. Three dollar ticket from the Red Apple in Forest and nothing to show for it.
Great American Eclipse, Great American Eclipse, Great American Eclipse. Don’t look directly at it. Don’t look directly at it. Don’t look directly at it. Three dollar viewing glasses from Walmart, and nothing to look at but a gloomy, cloudy sky...or was it?
I’m not sure why I never buy a lottery ticket until the posted potential winnings are somewhere up around a half-a-billion to a billion dollars. There is no better chance to win then than there is when it is a measly million dollars and Lord knows I would be just as happy with a million as a billion I do believe.
Or, at least I should be!
There has been quite a bit of hype the last couple of weeks as both the Mega Millions and the Powerball lotteries topped the billion dollar mark. I didn’t, however, see longer lines waiting to take a chance on a fortune at any of the convenience stores I frequented. When I bought my one ticket for each drawing on separate days — I didn’t want to waste $3 on Powerball if, in fact I won Mega Millions which was drawn first — I was the only person at the counter.
I am aware of that because I still feel the need to look over my shoulder and see if anyone I know is watching me take a chance on the Devil’s game. Baptist upbringing I suppose.
I remember when casino gambling first became legal in Mississippi. We were at the summer convention of the Mississippi Press Association and the newly opened casinos along the Gulf were competing fiercely for gamblers. They were running shuttles from hotel to hotel and casino to casino. We called them the Devil’s Chariots, but we didn’t have a problem hopping aboard and giving up our hard earned pay to someone, somewhere, we didn’t even know.
These days, conventions are more often held inside a casino hotel than not, and we seldom wander onto the gaming floor. Those hard-earned dollars, it seems, are more hard-earned than ever before, and I’m more comfortable with them staying at home in my pocket rather than on the side of a Black Jack table or being gobbled up in a slot machine.
That said, I have no problem purchasing a lottery ticket when there is a billion dollars at stake and probably more than a one-in-a-billion chance of hitting the numbers. Not a million at stake, mind you, but a billion. Yes, I’ll do it for a billion and pray to win and then pray for forgiveness in the end.
Like I said, I didn’t hit it last week on either one and it takes a few months for the Powerball or Mega Millions to climb back up to my temptation range. I will have time to save me up three dollars for each. That is a total of $6.
I do always pay the extra dollar for the higher payout. I figure if I’m going to win, I’m going to win big. No skimping.
Gambling on a chance to get at least a glimpse of the eclipse on Monday, I wandered out into the middle of Smith Ave. in front of the office more times than necessary to decide and go ahead and give up hope of getting that glimpse as the doorbell on the front door chimed me in and out, and in and out, and in and out. I couldn’t even tell where the sun was supposed to be!
“I haven’t given up hope...yet,” I wrote back to my elementary school teacher wife when she sent a text message from her school telling me to log onto the NASA website, type in our zip code, and see what the eclipse would look like should we be able to look at it in our zip code area.
I didn’t want to see what it “would” look like should I see it, I wanted to see what it “looked” like through my $3 viewing glasses that I took a gamble on buying in hope, against all hope obviously, that the weather prognosticators were incorrect when it came to the amount of cloud coverage we would have in our zip code area. They are usually incorrect on most everything it seems.
They were correct, I thought, I was wrong and lost another three dollars, so I logged onto the NASA website, typed in 39074, and got to see what the Great American Eclipse of 2024 would have looked like had I been able to look at it out in the middle of Smith Avenue in Forest, Mississipi.
Then at the moment NASA indicated the eclipse was at its peak, I slipped back out the front door as the doorbell dinged and looked up to the sky, and all of a sudden there it was, a small break in the clouds and I laid my eyes on the Great American Eclipse of 2024 with just enough time to snap a photo.
I admit that I’m not good at gambling, but what I am good at is not giving up. Never give up!
Now if I go blind, there might be a different story to tell, because I left those $3 viewing glasses on my desk that last time that I slipped out that door into Smith Avenue!
