On my way home on the bus

What is it they say about the best-laid plans? I've been over to my friends' house and had a good time. We watched Kim Possible videos and played a card game called Gloom that was fun. Now it's almost dark, and the sunset, like most over the last few days, is beautiful. I guess it has something to do a with the wildfires out west.

It is somewhat a challenge to blog on the bus, given the bumpiness of the ride and a Swype keyboard, where the beginning and ending of the words are determined by when you place or raise your finger.

I'm on the combo route where the Woodhll and Richmond bus routes are combined into a longer way, going out Woodhill and back Richmond. Fortunately it goes out to my stop.

I did get some things at the farmer's market, including some great tomatoes, and I bought a lottery ticket on a lark at the gas station nearby. The price has gone up from a dollar to two. Then the multiplier is another, so the ticket was $3. I doubt if I'll do that again for awhile. It amazes me how people play every day. I know it's chasing a dream, but some people seem to spend way too much on a regular basis.

Okay, I'd better go, it's almost time for my stop.

PS I had to go back and edit this; the autocorrect made a couple of mistakes that I still didn't see after proofreading three times while on the bus. Like I said, it's a challenge sometimes to blog on it.

I'm afraid I'm not a mulit-millionaire

although I did succumb to Mega Millions frenzy by buying a ticket yesterday. But it was nice to dream about what to do with $640 million for a little while. Surely someone will win this time. But I'm going to feel very bad if my work buddies, who went together in a pool that I declined, win, although of course I wish them luck. :)

Oddly enough, my birthday came in as two of the winning numbers, so maybe I would have been better off if I'd have picked them rather than doing a quick pick.

Ah, well, I guess it's back to work Monday. :)

Saw this yesterday on the news. Unbelievable.

You know what else is unbelievable? The number of people on YouTube commenting on how her taxes on that lottery win more than paid for any public assistance she's been (and continues) to be given. That's not the point. Public assistance is for those who need it, period. It doesn't matter if you don't get your money from a job, what matters is that even after cash option and taxes she had $500,000 to her name, and that's not poor. I think she can pay for her groceries herself and let others who truly need it use the benefit as it was intended.

Oh, and let me just add that I think food assistance should be used for, well, groceries. I worked in a gas station for five years and heard so many complain that we didn't take food stamps. I understand that for some neighbourhoods, a convenience store really might be the only place to get bread and milk with limited transportation, but the vast majority of the complaints I heard came from people upset for having to spend money loading up on cokes and candy, and then there were those who put those back so they could afford their cigarettes. Not saying everyone does that, I'm just saying that is what I often saw.

Waiting for a ride

to the bank and then to work today. It's still gloomy, cool, and rainy outside, as it has been for days. We needed the rain, and it's a relief considering we had heat indices in the triple digits this weekend, but my, I'm sick of the rain.

I'm listening to 'Distant Early Warning' by Rush, off my favourite of their albums, Grace Under Pressure.

Tonight I'll need to work on the house a little and then maybe get an early start on the game notes.

Yesterday I did something uncharacteristic, something I've done only a few times before. I bought a lottery ticket. I had an overwhelming desire to help a couple of families I know going through very hard times, and I wanted to be able to help them as much as possible. Guess my intentions were good, but the ticket was a bust. Still, it's chasing a dream, and as long as you don't do it overly often, I guess it's not a bad thing. But it was fun while the dream lasted.

By the way, I had some good fortune

It turns out that I won $12 on a Powerball ticket I purchased (I just had the Powerball, but I played the Powerplay, so my winnings were quadrupled). Needless to say, I took the money and ran, rather than playing anything else. That means I've recouped all the money I've every laid out for lottery since I started work at the store 4 1/2 years ago (what can I say, sometimes I catch the fever). I may not have won $260 million like someone did, but I made enough to pay for the ticket and the goat puppet. Yay!

A fellow pagan has good fortune

Ticket holder believes in magic: Wiccan says Mega Millions prize will help him focus on spirituality

...and he believes checking out the library to learn more about religion is better than just checking out the Internet. :) All in all this article did pretty well in explaining Wicca and Neo-Paganism, too. Lottery winners constantly bring up their faith in God--it's kind of nice to have someone crediting the pagan Gods with their win for a change. (And yes, YKWIA, there's a picture of Bunky Bartlett in the article--I know it scares you.)