Wow. The winners of the $365 million lottery have been announced. The 8 winners from the Midwest sound like very nice people and appear to be close co-workers, if not great friends. Interestingly, it is a diverse group of people.
Here are more details from a US Today article. To say they are very fortunate people is an obvious statement.
Here is a related story.
On Saturday morning I receive a call from dad. Every now and then, he'll call me to run an errand for him or has some type of request that requires my assistance. On the very last day to purchase tickets before the great announcement, he asks me to take him into the city to buy lottery tickets.
He's a good egg. We haven't always been on good terms, but our relationship has turned for the better during the last few years. Also, his health has been slightly deteriorating in recent years. I'm not saying that he has a serious illness, but I have noticed that spring in his step has definitely slowed down.
Sometimes, it's difficult for me to watch him when I visit. Acting as a loyal son, I try to see my parents once or twice a month to see how they are doing. When I enter the house, I see him usually sitting on the couch in front of the TV in the family room. He rarely gets up to greet me. He usually has some kind of stomach ailment constantly irritating him. Quite some time ago, he had contracted acid reflux syndrome. With that, he is restricted from eating foods with any high acidic content, from fruits to vinegar-based sauces.Dad likes his foods.
Among other stuff, he has high blood pressure, high cholesterol, amid a few other conditions. But I digress...
The parental units live in suburban Northern Virginia, where the grand ole' commonwealth does not participate in the national lottery. Like other lottery game seekers, my dad as one of the other out-of-staters comes into the city to grab that golden opportunity to win the grand prize of millions.
Well, dad can get into those frenzied states where he feels lucky. He hasn't felt lucky in years. In fact, he hasn't bought lottery tickets in five or so years.
On most Saturdays, most DC area stores which sells lottery tickets are closed because they serve mostly suburban commuters during the work week. Automatically, I knew of one place, but I figured that it would be packed with other people rushing to buy lottery tickets at the last hour.
We end up at Union Station metro area.
After we park his car and before we actually go inside, dad pulls out his lottery tickets. I look at them, and they look old. We both agree that the current ticket types may not be the same as they were years ago. We may have to get new tickets and fill the numbers when we go inside. We enter the area. As we gather at the end of the line to purchase the tickets, we overheard an elderly woman using a walker, located in the middle of the line, complaining about the extensive line and how she could no longer tolerate waiting any further.
She is one of those determined, regular lottery players. I know them from first hand experience. Never get in the way of someone and their perceived winnings. That's why I no longer participate in the work lottery pool. It got to the point that over 45 co-workers were involved in the pool. You can guess how it can get complicated to gather that many people and gather their money on time for timely lottery purchases.
After hearing this woman, I drop my head to focus on a Sudoku puzzle.
While we wait in line, it grows. All types of people were getting in line from professionals to blue collar workers and from tourists to locals. Surprisingly, we got close to the front part of the line fairly quickly within the next five to ten minutes.
As soon as we got to the purchase window, we looked again at the line. People feeling the rush are running toward the end of the line.
Dad talks to the woman behind the window. I stand to the right of him. I listen to their conversation as I try to finish my puzzle in record time. As we suspected earlier, she tells him that he has the wrong ticket types. In order for us to get out of the line quickly, I thought dad would like some help to fill out the new forms.
As I was going to pull the new forms, suddenly dad says never mind about the old tickets, and I hear him say quickly, "I'll buy $100 dollars worth of random tickets."
I totally lose interest in the Sudoku puzzle.
I look strangely at him. Dad never buys that many tickets. Thinking to myself, he is feeling really lucky today or feeling really desperate. Standing at the left of my father is that same elderly woman who was complaining earlier, filling out her ticket forms. When she hears my father tell the ticket lady about the one hundred ticket request, she chirps up and yells at my dad, "can I marry you?".
Slight chuckles can be heard behind us.
That same woman who couldn't tolerate being in the line added with dead pan seriousness, "I first have to get a divorce, but I'll marry you."
Dad and I perked up and laughed at the latest remark.
It is quite interesting how money can change people's attitudes and sometimes make them forget about their pains.
Later this week, I visit dad and mom. As you already probably guessed, none of his individual 100 tickets contained more than two correct numbers.
I guess he won't be getting married again anytime soon. With my last visit with the parents, you may have guessed, he was sitting on the couch in front of the TV again.... But, he didn't complain about any pains.
I'm guessing he is still thinking about and laughing at that woman's comments.
10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some people, eager for money,
have wandered from the faith
and pierced themselves with many griefs.
No comments:
Post a Comment