My Dad

Today would have been my dad's 87th Birthday.  He absolutely loved to play the lottery and did so each and every week.  He even won a few times (not big, but still).  He played every week because he was convinced that if he missed a week THAT would be the week he would have won BIG!  I have lost both of my parents.  My mom about 10 years ago and my dad almost 3 years ago.  I am an only child, so I have no siblings to fully understand their loss.  My kids were very close to both of them, so they help a lot.  They get it.  I do not like to celebrate their deaths.  I prefer to celebrate their birthdays by doing something that reminds me of them.  For my mom, I go out for lunch and go shopping.  For my dad, I buy a lottery ticket.  I am not normally a person who ever buys lottery tickets.  Until 3 years ago, maybe once or twice in my life.  Now I buy one per year.  That is today.  I send out an invite to all of his friends and mine to play too.  If you win, you have to thank my dad!  The lottery is too big of a risk for me.  I am not a risk-taker.  I am a play-it-safer.  I do not have a lot of money, but what money I DO have, I prefer not to squander on some one-in-a-million chance of winning a million.  However, once a year, I feel kind of lucky.  If I ever DID win, this would be the day to do it.  Everyone has a lottery dream and even though I never play, I still have one.  Seems silly, but I guess we all just like to dream about what life would be like to not have to worry about money.  Money stresses me out.  Paying bills stresses me out.  I am self-employed so one week I may make good money and the next week not so much.  Self-employment taxes are outrageous, so what I do make gets eaten up by taxes.  I could get myself a desk job, but I would hate it.  So I make it work.  Winning the lottery would sure help though.  The lottery to me is about luck.  I do not believe very much in luck.  I believe you win or lose because God knew even before you were born that you would win or lose.  It just is what it is.  God is in control of the good and the bad.  He is the only one who can extend to us Mercy, Grace, or Blessings.  Today, I guess was about Grace because I won $100 on a scratch-off!  Officially the most I have ever won.  Ha!  Until next year lottery ...