Tag Luck

Lucky chances

Michael 5 Comments

I don’t think they still do it but about 10 years ago, the people at BRAVO, put on a show called “Last Chance Kitchen,” that was a second chance for contestants knocked out of their Top Chef competition.

About that same time, Netflix was premiering a series called “Last Chance U” that followed the football programs at very small, community, and junior colleges, attempting to give the athletes there the chance at the exposure those at the major colleges receive.

A last chance saloon (in the wide west, not to be confused with the myriad cleverly named Last Chance Saloons scattered throughout the US and Canada, and the one in England (did you know myriad literally means a thousand?)) was supposed to be the saloon sitting in the border separating a “wet” territory from a “dry” one so folks could get that one more chance at a drink before it was too late.

All these last chances. You’d think Americans live by the “luck of the draw” system. I suppose many do, and even those who don’t, there is no mistaking the contribution luck or chance might have on our lives. That would be luck or chances. Nobody gets just one chance at anything. Really. Stop and think about it. I’m sure you can find a time in your life when you passed on an opportunity and then saw it come back around and sometimes even come back around again.

We looked at the chance of having a decided chance at things in this week’s Uplift, Try Try Again. As we said, “We cannot undo something already done, but we often get a chance to do something that was left undone.”

Non-Wishes for the New Year

Michael 9 Comments

Happy New Year! Did you wash your hair this morning? I do hope that wasn’t too personal. I ask only because if you did, you are pressing your luck. Just as you would be if you swept your floors this morning. Odd superstition those two are. You don’t want to wash away the good luck of the year. Or sweep your good fortunes outside. It’s equally odd “they” have no qualms with vacuuming or taking a shower, presumably while wearing a shower cap. What other bad luck omens should we be avoiding this New Year day?

On the good side of the omens, there are plenty of options for leveraging luck and prosperity. Are you wearing red underwear? Oh darn, there I go again. Too personal. If you have already selected your undergarments and they aren’t of that shade you can still almost guarantee good luck by having lentils for dinner or are you sticking with the old standby of pork and sauerkraut. Whatever you eat be sure to serve pomegranate for fruit course. And don’t forget to roll an empty suitcase around the house if you’re looking to fill the year with travel. Ah, travel. Where would I go? Where would you go?

Good omens, bad omens, good and bad luck. New Year’s, Halloween, and Fridays the Thirteenth have to be the most superstitious days on the calendar. The most superstitious superstition may be the least well known. A wish made exactly at midnight between New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day will surely come true. Most people are too busy looking for someone to kiss and trying to remember the words to Auld Lang Syne to worry about making wishes. The wish making doesn’t happen until hours later when many are wishing they hadn’t opened that last bottle of champagne.

It’s a terrible thing to know you might have had a wish come true and missed your chance. But that chance is a lot chancier than you might think. It must be made right at midnight, the magic moment. It’s the most chancy of good luck omens because nobody knows exactly when midnight is. That’s more obviously true this year than most. This is a leap year so we are more aware that man’s idea of a 24 hour day and a 365 day year are no match for nature’s more exact timing. Even our quadrennial intercalary addition of a spare day in February isn’t enough, hence the random “leap second” inclusions from time to time. The wish grantors aren‘t going to accept man’s claim of when midnight happens. No, it must be the one, true midnight, and even when that happens changes with every westerly taken step.

Perhaps it is just as well. Wishes are no way to go through life. I know. I’ve spent the equivalent of a lifetime wishing for a better life, not knowing then the one I have that was made by hope and faith and hard work, positive energy and prayer and meditation, beats the heck out of one built on wishing. Knowing wishes rarely come true, and never without exacting some price, has been freeing. Among other things, freeing me to find someone to kiss and to remember those darned lyrics.

Happy New Year. May all your wishes never come true.

It’s time to look back at 2023. Will you be wishing for any do overs. In the most recent Uplift we look at the perils of the redo versus the practicality of the refine. Read it here!

Blog Art 2

Numberology

Michael 13 Comments

Is it live or is it…you remember that. Everybody who’s anybody can finish that line. But how about, is it a number or a numeral?

The same internet search came up with these two answers:

  • “A numeral is a symbol or name that stands for a number. Examples: 3, 49 and twelve are all numerals. So the number is an idea, the numeral is how we write it.”
  • “Number is expressed with digits, while a numeral is a word describing a number. For example: four is an example of a numeral and its digit representation: 4 is a number.”

I’m not going to identify who said what because I’m a nice guy and I don’t want to start an internet war. But come on guys, this is a little basic math, versus arithmetic. If we can’t even figure out what makes a numeral a numeral, or is that a number, how can we hope to understand numerology?

Well, just because I really do have that kind of time, I ran another internet search and turned up this definition of numerology.

Numerology is the study of particular numbers, such as a person’s date of birth, in the belief that they may have special significance in a person’s life.

If that’s the case, that it is “the study of particular numbers” then why isn’t it numberology? Hmm? There are sites on the internet that can give you a daily numerology reading. But I ask you, yes you the numerologists of the world, oh why, yes why, do I need a daily reading if my birthdate never changes? Hmm?

Who remembers dream books? Have a dream, look it up, and see into the future. The biggest draw to the dream books of yore were the dream numbers.  Aha!! Numbers again! Yes, have a dream, look it up, see what number it represents, and find out what number to play in the daily lottery. Of course everybody has different dreams and different dreams mean different numbers, but only one lottery result is announced per day. Just how do you account for that, numerologists of the word? Hmm? Maybe because they should have been playing numerals instead!

To be perfectly honest, I could case less about numerology but something rattled around in my brain a few weeks ago when I saw this on my dashboard.

ABFCA1A1-5418-4F52-94DD-E8500AAE858B

What was really significant about this was it happened right at startup, before I had the car in gear and out in traffic, when I could actually take out my phone and snap a picture of it. And I did! And I got to thinking, all those twos, or actually all those 2s must mean something.

Now as I said, I could case less about numerology but these were numbers. Maybe I was on to something when I brought up numberology. Who case what the numerologists say, what does the number mean? So I did some research and dug this up.

Number 22222 is a reassuring message that wonderful things are on the way if you maintain your emotional stability and keep your attitude positive.

Hmm. “Wonderful things are on the way.”

Let’s add a little context. As I said, this was a few weeks ago, actually a month ago, just about the time the PowerBall was sitting at $2,000,000,000.00. That’s a bunch of zeros but it starts with a 2! And the tickets cost $2. And I was staring at the number 22222 taunting me with “wonderful things.”  Now I ask you, what things are more wonderful than dollar bills when they add up to 2 billion of them?

So, I took 2 dollar bills out of my pocket, and then I reached in a second time and took out 2 more dollar billers, and I bought 2 tickets for 2 chances at 2 billion dollars based on the magic number reassuring me of wonderful things, 22222. And it worked! Yes, oh ye of little faith, it worked! On both of those tickets, those 2 tickets, those 2 chances at 2 billion dollars, were 2 matching numbers to the winning numbers drawn. Sigh. Two. Err, 2.

You know what you get for matching 2 numbers? A receipt for $2.

Twice.

Don’t wait for January to make resolutions. Resolve to do something positive right now, while we still have a whole month to get a running start on a Happy New Year. The goal is to remember there really are good things that happen to us every day, and then to remember them every day! Read more about this in our blog at ROAMcare.org. See you there!

Luck O’ the Irish

Michael Leave a comment

FIFTY-FIFTY! GET YOUR FIFTY-FIFTY HERE! FIFTY-FIFTY! THE MORE YOU PLAY, THE MORE YOU WIN!

Anybody who has been to a high school football game, band festival, or cheerleading competition knows that call. The fifty-fifty raffle has long been a stalwart fund raiser for these and other family-supported extracurricular activities. I remember some years ago being on the calling end for my daughter’s high school band and color guard counting up $300, $400, sometimes $500 dollars in the Saturday competitions pots. But you don’t expect them at the professional levels.

Last Friday I was at the hockey game and thought about buying a fifty-fifty ticket orpot-of-gold eighty. Yes, at the hockey game. A professional, NHL type hockey game. Our local team’s affiliated foundation uses fifty-fifty raffles at all of the home games to help fund their philanthropic activities. To date they have raised over $3 million for local charities. That means over $3 million dollars have been awarded to lucky ticket winners. I wasn’t one on Friday even with the special Luck o’ the Irish promotion of 80 tickets for a $20 donation versus the routine 40 tickets.

As I saw the total pot announcement during the third period ($57,000+) I wondered what the odds were of hitting that. There were over 18,000 people in attendance. If 10% bought tickets and the average purchase was 20 tickets that would be 1:36,000 odds of hitting the jackpot. Not bad when you consider similar odds in the Powerball (1:36,525 last Saturday) will net you only $100. Actually that will gross you $100. You’ll need to spend two bucks on the ticket. Sometimes even I spend those two dollars. With winning jackpots averaging about 100 million dollars, why not. Well, the odds for one reason.

The odds of winning the Powerball jackpot change with how much is played but you can figure they’ll be around 1 in 290,000,000 (that’s million). The Mega Millions is about 1 in 250,000,000. The odds of winning the Publisher Clearing House $1 million a year for life jackpot are one in 1.3 billion (with a B), but at least you don’t have to pay for one of those chances. Long odds but for big winnings. Still, not something you want to bet the mortgage on.

I have nothing against betting. I’ve already documented my big winnings (Confessions of a Lottery Winner, July 5, 2014) and even helped out at our state lottery drawing (Pressing My Luck, September 22, 2016). But even with the unfathomable amounts that are possible out there I think I’ll stick with the local band fifty-fifties. And if I ever should win one of them, I’ll probably donate my winners back to the kids.

That’s what I think. Really. How ‘bout you?

Have you ever hit it big in the lottery? Sweepstakes? Basket raffle?

If Not For Bad Luck

Michael Leave a comment

A recent Reuters news article reported that 65% of cancers can be attributed to physiological bad luck.  Some 22 of 31 identified cancer types were traced to unexplained, random cell mutations.  These cancers included leukemia, pancreatic cancer, and ovarian and testicular cancer.  The other nine types which included lung, skin, and colorectal cancers, could be attributed to environmental or hereditary changes.  One of the researchers whose work was examined for the article was quoted saying the real reason that people get cancer in many cases, “is that person was unlucky. It’s losing the lottery.”

Well, that’s a relief.  I thought I had done something wrong to earn my cancer.  Fortunately now I know that it was just plain old bad luck.  It was probably bad luck that I had a surgical wound open up after the operation to remove that fluke.  That was compounded by more bad luck when the infection popped up.  And let’s not forget the bad luck of the revisions to the original surgery that had to be performed, all of that keeping me in the hospital some six months out of the past eighteen.

And it was during those same eighteen months that the company I was contracted to sold off the facility I was assigned to dropping me into the ranks of the unemployed as well as those of the unlucky.  The unlucky circumstances thus continued when all of the treatments and therapies though quite effective in keeping me alive couldn’t keep me with enough stamina to work a full business day so I continue to be unemployed while searching for an employer compassionate enough to understand that someone who has been extremely effective can still be so while working only half days at a time.

Of course there was the additional unluckiness of not being a child, a single mom, a returning veteran, a celebrity, a politician, or a television or movie character that may or may not be based on an actual person.  Nobody was submitting my name to any foundation to cover the expenses of a trip to Pisa or to Punxsutawney while arranging for free housekeeping, a new suit, and an interview on the late show thus garnering enough new found publicity that the previous paragraph’s ill fortune was quite handsomely negated.

So now I spend most days filling out insurance forms and sweepstakes entries with about the same odds of success, job applications with even longer odds, or call an old colleague to see if he or she has any spare hours or opportunities with the longest odds of them all.  On the bright side, I have been catching up with my reading and writing.  Seriously, on the bright side…come on, seriously a bright side?

Imagine playing the lottery with a 65% chance of hitting.  Oh wait, the researcher said that was like losing the lottery.  I manage to do that every week, twice a week.  That is ok.  If I hit the lottery I’d probably just squander the winnings on things like food and mortgage payments.  What a relief that choice doesn’t have to be made!  And here I thought I was just plain old unlucky.

Sorry, not every post is going to be up-beat.  Just real.

Now, that’s what I think. Really. How ‘bout you?

 

Confessions of a Lottery Winner

Michael 1 Comment

Before the numbers are revealed everyone says “If I hit it big I’m never working another day in my life.”  After the numbers are drawn and someone actually hits it big, at the interview on television he or she says, “It won’t change me at all.  I’ll still live in the same house, drive the same car, work at the same job.”  After the numbers are drawn and someone actually hits it big, on the phone with his or her boss, he or she says, “Take your job and shove it!”

We don’t know how we’d react.  The biggest hit we can remember is He hit a state drawing for $40.  That allowed him to shove his job for about four minutes.  But, He has had some other wins.  Not counting the occasional silent auction or charitable raffle with a top prize of a questionable line drawing or an equally questionable wine vintage, he’s hit it big at casinos and racetracks even if the PowerBall, MegaMillions, and state offerings have let him down.

Big might be just a bit of an exaggeration.  There was one night at a local harness track when he had a hard time picking a loser.  But since most of the bets were of the pedestrian $2 variety and most of the winners were favorites, the winnings didn’t tally very high.  And there was one trip to Las Vegas that ended up as a break even trip.  For him, breaking even isn’t far from winning.  But then when one seeks out nickel slot machines and $2 tables, winning isn’t far from breaking even.

So when it comes to games of chance, you could say that he is pretty lucky.  But his luckiest was last summer when he really hit it big.  It was just about a year ago when he was in a hospital bed and his doctor came in and said, “All the tests are back and there is no cancer.  We got it all.”

Since then there have been other days in the hospital.  There have been lots of pills and tests and scans.  But no cancer.  There have been days at work when he’d rather have been doing anything but be at work.  There have been days off where he’d have rather been doing something more constructive.  But there have been days.  Days that might not have been.

So if every now and then we miss a Monday or a Thursday post (or both), or it seems like one was particularly short or another somewhat rambling, it might have been one of those days.

But at least there are days.  Even if there isn’t a big lottery winner, having the day is winning enough.

Now, that’s what we think. Really. How ‘bout you?