Archive for April 2022
Bit of Excitement Here . . .
. . . being so close to where the winning ticket was sold for the $473 million Power Ball winner announced t’other day..
A bit of Googling revealed the simple tax answer is IRS takes 25 percent right off the top, although fed top rate is 37 percent so more will be due at tax time. Then comes 3 percent state levy.
Instead of choosing an annuity of 30 payments over 29 years, a lump-sum takeaway in this case would be about $280 million before taxes.. Simple “rule of thumb” is the winner walks away with about one-third of the announced total.
The ticket was sold at the Qwik Trip convenience store/gasoline station a five-minute stroll from the front of our building. Don’t know when it was sold or to whom. The selling store owner in Arizona gets 6.5 percent of all lottery ticket sales and $50,000 prize money.
Local news sources will probably set up a 24-hour watch schedule because the winner has 180 days to claim the prize.
Got a Memory Outing . . .
. . . on tap today to the Mesa Swap Meet.
This is a permanent shopping complex where Bev and I made several fun visits.
Last attendance was before pandemic with a Canadian snowbird photog buddy I worked with eons ago at a daily newspaper just an hour from Toronto.
It’ll bring back a lot of memories and, who knows, I might even buy something.
You Can’t Hide . . .
. . . from the sun.
So slather on sun screen whenever you go outdoors
to avoid being harmed by UV rays that pour down,
even through clouds,
and are reflected by water, pavement, sand and other smooth surfaces.
Made A Discovery . . .
. . . on a shopping trek today.
After prowling through Kohl’s, Dillard’s and Macy’s
on a hunt for a couple of all-cotton T-shirts in colors I don’t have,
I unearthed the inescapable truth:
there’s a cotton shortage in our current world.
Every Tee I dug up had to be bolstered with polyester,
as much as 40 percent of the total garment,
to make up for that shortage.
Chronicling the Goings On . . .
. . . at Sunrise of Gilbert, Arizona, could get exceedingly interesting — and perhaps depressing — over the next few weeks and months.
Sunday and today there was no one from management in the entire facility.
Executive Director Alberto Golia is helping out at another Sunrise facility in California for the next two of months when he’s really needed to help here. His 2IC Logan Watts was off. Mary, who held this place together for the past four-plus years left a week ago and there is no replacement on the horizon. There wasn’t a decision-maker anywhere on the property.
And the desks in the hallway adjoining the entry lobby are barren of placards reminding everyone of upcoming activities and events because no one is printing them out . There is a note saying the Sat morning shopping trips are suspended until????? because Bo, our backup bus driver has quit. Annette, Jason’s all round maintenance/problem-solver backup has quit because of Sunrise’s COVID-19 regs but and has been retained to fill in part time on the front desk.
And this is just the first six days since Mary left.
Got Through . . .
. . . biggest yard/garage sale of my life over the past two days.
Raised more than $500 from “donations” for stuff sold that will enrich the Sunrise of Gilbert employees’ fund. They’ll have a big Christmas party.
But there should have been more bucks flow in because there was a mountain of goods sold and much of it was quality goods — much better than any yard / garage sale I’ve been to. High ticket items ranged from golf clubs to wall hutches to music keyboard to silk scarves to filing drawers to floor lamps to etcetcetcetc.
But I was busy and had fun and will sleep good tonight.
When You’re Told . . .
. . . to put two and two together,
you’d better ask
if they want you to come up
with 4 or 22.
I’ve Never Received an Adequate Answer . . .
. . . whenever I hear
that some people are such a lovely couple,
and I have to ask, “A couple of what?”
Learning the Ropes Early . . .
. . . as a young reporter
helped me throughout my newspaper career,
because I was never, ever tied down.
He Who Laughs . . .
. . . has finally figured out
that this big world all around us
is just God’s little joke.
Mature Life Features 