Orange Aphelandra

I had lunch today, with the Perma-Bear. My former coworker is still on the job, even as more of our colleagues depart. Some like me have retired, while others move on to greener pastures and a better job. He filled me in on who has left.

We both updated each other on the doings of our respective families. I got to regale him with my travels. We both skated close to, but neither of us ventured into the abyss that separates our two sets of different political views. This duel self reserve combined to produce quite a pleasant luncheon. It was good seeing him again.

After lunch, I swung by the store to buy lottery tickets. On Saturday, when the Mega Millions’ jackpot hit a billion, I bought my first ticket of the year. No one won that drawing, so today I doubled down. I bought another Mega Millions that now has a jackpot of $1.6 billion and a Powerball ticket that has a jackpot of $620 million. These two lotteries have a combined payoff of $2.2 billion. Winning both games would make one, one of the richest Americans, #368 on the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans. Near the bottom, but still on the list, but it doesn’t really work like that. After a lump sum payout and taxes the cash that you would receive is about half. I hope that someone wins this time. I’m getting tired of buying tickets.