Baseball – A season of Hope for my Metsies?

Every year at about this time of year,  Major League Baseball Teams come out of spring training and start off at a record of  0 – 0. I’ve been a Mets fan (yes there are many of us out there),  since as far back as I can remember.  I can remember when I used to take the the bus to Shea (now Citi Field) and sit in the nose bleeds for a general admission of $1.50.. Yes I go back that far! By the way that was in the Mid 70’s (the 1970’s not the 1870’s!).

Since my dad and brother were Yankee fans, I went solo to Shea.. I enjoyed every one of my trips.. In the 70’s the Metsies were really really bad, but you couldn’t go wrong for $1.50 and when you got  a doubleheader for that price, it was even more special!

So I heard that this year the Met’s management slashed the ticket prices.. The Mets are also for sale (or at least 25%) of them and their ownership is involved in multiple lawsuits. With all this going for the Mets, I truly wonder if there is anywhere for them to go, except to languish in basement of the National League East.

Did you know that for $1.50 you can’t even get to CitiField in NYC from downtown Flushing via the “7” train! BTW,  I remember in the 70’s the bus/train  fare (even in two fare zones), was 75 cents for each ride!

After the past few years of the Metsie’ breaking my heart, I’m finally at the point where I’m seriously thinking of defecting to the hated Yankees. I guess this is also because my younger daughter is a Yankee fan. The more I think of it, the only reason, I disliked the Yankee’s was because of the late George Steinbrenner and his pusuit of championships by buying talent! Over the past few years, I’ve gone to more Yankee games then Mets Games! I guess that can be attributed to my younger daughter being a die hard Yankee fan! Yes another generation where I’m the only Met fan in the house.  With my girl, I’ve gone to a few Yankee games in the past few years and have gone to ZERO games at the newly built Citi Field.

I think this may be the year where I change my allegiance to the team with the pinstripes.. Nah.. Once a Mets fan.. always a Mets Fan..

So this year, my beloved Mets don’t have much of a chance of making any post-season and forget about the World Series! Yet, I’m sitting here thinking, what if? Reyes stays healthy, Beltran’s Knee holds up? Santana comes back in Mid season? We finally get a decent catcher and second baseman? What if we get a decent pitching rotatation?

On the other hand! There’s always Next Season!

So how many games are the Mets going to win this year? How many of my followers are Mets Fans? If you have any thoughts on these pressing matters, let me know!

Millionaire Dreams squashed again!

For the past 2 weeks, I’ve been watching the Mega Millions Jackpot go up to almost 320Million in the NY/NJ area! I normally don’t play ANY lottery or instant lottery games, but I figured what the heck, maybe lightning would strike and I’d win the mega lottery which balloons up to the hundreds of millions every month!

As you can guess, I didn’t win last nights $320 million drawing. So I’m still not a millionaire and still have the same chance of winning the $12M lottery on Tuesday that I played with my winnings (all of $10)..

Yet for the past few weeks, I was having these dreams and I was walking around thinking that by some strange fate or luck lightning would strike and I’d win the big jackpot. I even started planning my course of action of going invisible when I did win!

I was talking about this with my daughter while we went to see if I had won anything. We even layed out a detail project plan in our minds:

• I’d change all my phone numbers
• Disable all my email ID’s as well as my wife’s.
• I’d get a high priced lawyer and accountant and sign a confidentiality clause with them.
• Not come forward for a few weeks, while I walked around being a “quiet mega millionaire”.
• After a few weeks, take a personal day  and go to the Lottery center and to claim the prize an NOT have my name revealed.
• Claim the lump sum payout (taxes taken out).
• Take another day off from work and sit down with my lawyer and accountant and plan my next move
• Would I quit my job? I really don’t think I would.. I’d be much more pleasant at work, but I don’t think I’d quit..
• Pay off my all my debts and own my home outright.
• Buy some investment properties.
• Donate a substantial sum to my temple. After all God is the one that blessed me with these winnings!
• Maybe buy a new car (Lexus or Beemer of course!). Good bye Oddessy!
• Go back to work and just keep my mouth shut (of course, knowing my nature, this would be the hardest thing for me to do)

Even with all the planning above, I knew full well that me winning the lottery was almost microscopic.. but hey I’m allowed to dream..

So I diligently played about $40 over the past few weeks and I actually won at total of $10!

With these winnings, I don’t have to do any planning and still can remain on the path to endless debt and normal life…

Yet.. in the back of my mind.. “I still want to be a billionaire, so friggin bad“. Oh wait, isn’t that just a song??

Well I want you foks to know with the $7 that I won today.. I bought more tickets to keep my dream alive!

How much did you spend on the lottery over the past few weeks?

Japan – tragedy that impacts the world

For the past two days, I’ve been glued to the TV set and watching with sadness another disaster of global proportions. I was watching the live reports on CNN and Fox News Channel all the live reports coming out of Japan. Was it a morbid fascination with the tragedy that the people of Japan are facing or just the empathy that I know I’m capable of?

Today I found the CNN blog – This just in and it shows the minute by minute replay of what happened.  This blog is just amazing with the content and video’s that are coming out of Japan.

The one thing that differentiates the Japan disaster to everything else (Katrina) is the amount of order that there seems to be in Japan. I have not heard of any looting, or violence in Tokyo or Sendai. Is this due to the inherent politeness of the culture in Japan, or is it that the people are just in so much shock and despair that they cannot do anything but be orderly?

The 1 – 2 – 3 punch of this tragedy is beyond comprehension. First the 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake, then the tsunami, and now the nuclear plants that are in possible meltdown. Only after 48 hours did the prime minister of Japan ask for help from other countries to help with the recovery operations. I don’t really blame him, most of the country was with out power and the basic amenities, so the communications between and in the cities is limited at best.

What I was fascinated by was that even though the cell phones and basic communications was was almost non-existent, Skype was used used everywhere to provide the world of updates of what was going on with the live reports that continue to be sent by the residents throughout the country.

This disaster is not just limited to Japan. The disaster also has impacted Hawaii (The Big Island), and other parts of the Asian Sub Contintent with Tsunami‘s. It’s not just a tragedy in Japan, it’s a tragedy of global proportions.

Perhaps it’s selfish of me, but I kept on thinking that what would happen to my house if a Tsunami hit my home. My home is only two miles from the shoreline of the Atlantic Ocean in Monmouth County, NJ. What would I do? Would my family and I survive?.

I’m sure that once the tallies come in, the loss of life from this natural disaster will soar beyond 10,000 and the property loss in the billions not just in Japan, but across the countries and land forms that will get additional tsumani’s and aftershocks from the earthquake.

To the people of Japan, I can only pray for their recovery from this disaster. You do not want this kind of disaster to impact any innocent life in the world. Words cannot express my sorrow when I see these scenes of destruction.

Please donate generously to your Local Red Cross so the citizens of Japan can find some solace in the help that the world can provide in face of this tragedy of global proportions.

 

True meaning of being content

Sometimes you sit and think, what can I write about today? It’s then you realize that your life is so monotonous that you have nothing to write about? As many know, I’m never at a loss for word and opinion, but I have to refrain from really writing about what is on my mind.

At times, my mind is pretty much full of nothingness. Yes.. I’m suffering from another case of writer’s block.

For the next week or so, I’m both Mr. Mom and Dad, as my wife is in NYC on a training session for her new job at Newark Liberty Airport. She recently got a job at Southwest and she’s finally done a full circle in her career. She started out with the airlines (Continental) and now she’s back at the kind of job that she really loves! I’m really happy for her, as she’ll be doing what she loves; working with people.

I gotta tell you when you spend time with your kids, it puts many things in perspective, you realize how important you are in their lives. I’m seeing every day that my girls, really like me! The more I talk to them, and just hang out with them, I find myself actually being interested in what is going on in their life! My girls talk to me and share the little things that are going on in their life and it just makes me so fulfilled. Yes I’m being corny, but as I get older, I realize my family gives me the most happiness. I’m truly content!

Be it that the older one tells me how boring her professor is or the younger one talking to me about trying out for the middle school talent show. I find myself truly fascinated at their daily activities. Today, my older daughter called me and just told me that she wanted to ‘change gears and just call me to say hi!” I was in the midst of multiple calls at work and when I got this call, I just looked at my cell phone and said “Wow!, life is good!”.

Later that same day, my younger one called me and wanted to tell me right away how well she was doing in school as she had just received her progress report.  She wouldn’t take no for an answer and insisted on sharing with me All of her grades and glowing about her success in school! Again I said to myself, “Life is good”.

I guess I’ve rambled on enough for today.. I need to get back to the movie “Titanic” that I’m watching with my younger daughter for the first time!