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Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Power Ball and the Art of Following Directions

Yes kiddies,,,,, Its POWERBALL night. Thought for today is "Ya gotta be in it to win it". I guess that means that you need to buy a ticket if you want to take that 292 million to one chance of being the only winner of 1.5 BILLION dollars.

So yesterday i went in search of a Lottery Machine. Now i have to tell ya, we don't play the lottery often. In fact, the last time was in NJ when they only picked three, yes just 3 numbers. That said, these new games truly baffle me. BUT never the less i was determined to get us a PowerBall ticket. Hey, it only takes one ticket to be a winner.
But the bafflement continued when i got to the machine. Lots of buttons to choose from. Lots of ways to lose money. Yes, lots of confusion on my part. Finally i see the Power Ball button. The choices are $2, $4, $10, or $20. So i pushed the $2 button and waited for the machine to do something. And waited. And waited some more. Finally i asked if i was supposed to put the money in first and then make a selection.
Have you ever asked a question and had folks just stare at you? You know, that incredulous stare that says "is this guy for real"? Or worse, in the south they look at you with pity in their eyes and say "OH, Bless your heart darlin'".

Well, that was what i was getting. Finally, after the internal hysterical laughing ceased (i know they were laughing,,,,, i could feel it) a woman said " Yes, just put in the money and make a selection".
OK. That seemed simple enough. Put in my money and i would push the $4 button, and get 2 Power Ball tickets. We would each have a chance of beating the 292,000,000 to 1 odds.

This is where the "read and follow directions" comes in. 
I only had a $20. So i put it in, and pushed the $4 button. 
Out poped a ticket with two lines of numbers on it. So far so good. 
Now i just needed my change from the $20. I waited. Then waited some more. 
Then started looking at the writing near the slot where i had put my $20. 
Directions. HHHMMMM!!! 
THIS MACHINE DOES NOT GIVE CHANGE
We now each have 5 chances of beating those 292,000,000 to 1 odds. Ill let you know tomorrow how this turned out. Grenville

11 comments:

William Kendall said...

On the really long shot that you do win, I suggest getting an unlisted number and ignoring that distant cousin who stopped speaking to you thirty years ago and suddenly is all buddy-buddy.

Emma Springfield said...

Good Luck! I guess I will have to split it with you since I bought my ticket yesterday. Maybe we can all meet in New York for dinner and a good play.

Gill - That British Woman said...

it's big news here in Canada. It'll suck if a Canadian wins though!!

Connie said...

Good luck! My husband bought tickets too. I'm not holding my breath. :)

Lynn said...

Hi Bea -

I always see you on Leonora's blog, so thought I would stop by and say hello.

Did you win the Powerball? I see there were three winners last night! :) I play with men from my office, but there was no winner in Georgia. Sigh.

I am always flummoxed by machinery like that, too.

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Hi Lyn, welcome to our blog spot. Many thanks for the visit and comment. Grenville will be checking his numbers later and I'm sure he will do a follow-up post. FYI we both smiled at the word flummoxed...it was a great choice! Drop in anytime again and we will stop in as well.

Anvilcloud said...

That's funny, and I know you have a good sense of humour. You folk are sooo advanced down there. I have never seen a lottery dispenser up here, but I have been known to muck up scratch types of tickets which I have been given at Christmas. Life is so complicated.

Anvilcloud said...

BTW when I do play on occasion, I am also a 1 ticket sort of fella.

Anonymous said...

Well kids, Not to worry about us "hitting it BIG". Thanks for all the great advise. Nice to know we are not the only ones that are "Flummoxed". What a great word.
Grenville

MadSnapper said...

i am terrible with vending machines. i embarassed myself by asking at the Y why they did not put the price of the drinks on so we knew how much to put in. it WAS really tiny writing. thanks for the headsup, but i never buy so will not use it. . to give away 1.5 billion i am wondering how much they collected? 8 billion or more" that sure would help our natl debt.

Clare said...

Wie habe ich meine verpfändeten und Steuerrechnungen bezahlt

Mein Name ist Kaia Hadley, eine einzige Mutter aus Santa Fe, New Mexico, ich bin sehr dankbar und glücklich für Priester Aziba für die Gewährung mir einen Zauber des Gewinns Lotterie-Spiel am 25. August 2017, um meine verpfändeten und Steuerrechnungen zu begleichen. Er hat mich und meine Kinder davon abgehalten, unser Haus zu verlieren. Diese Nachricht könnte von großer Bedeutung für Sie da draußen suchen eine Art und Weise zu gewinnen Millionen von Dollar in anderen für Sie nicht in falsche Hände fallen, mein Rat an Sie ist, diesen guten Mann per E-Mail kontaktieren: Priestazibasolutioncenter@gmail.com oder Http : //priestazibasolutioncenter.webs.com auch mit Kontaktnummer für Anruf oder WhatApp: +2348100368288