What to do with a million dollars

July 25, 2009

Soon, we will be getting in the car and driving to the gym. Storms have rolled through Cincinnati this morning, so we have used that as an excuse to not go to the gym early. We did not use the extra time to read this morning's paper as the paper carrier did not watch the weather last night to see that it may rain. If he had, he may have double-bagged the paper such that it wouldn't have been a wet pile of black and grey mush. Since sitting in the car and throwing papers out the window is so time consuming, taking time to slip the paper in an extra bag may have kept him from getting to
White Castle a little sooner.

When I was 12 or 13, I had a paper route. I shared it with my brother at first and then had one of my own for awhile. I even had a route one summer when I came home from college. That was also the summer I had an addiction to soap operas for some reason. Anyway, I had to actually walk my route and put the paper on the front porch. When it rained, I had to put it inside the front door. I also had to do this if it rained the day before as the welcome mat holds water for a couple of days. I found that out the hard way one day. For me to say that my brother and I shared the route is an insult to my parents. Paper delivery starts around 5 or 6 in the morning. My brother and I handled this during the week ourselves most of the time, but my parents helped on Sunday. I can't imagine how exciting it must have been for my parents to get up at 5:00 in the morning on their weekend off. I suppose I kind of took that one for granted. Anyway, one day (the day after a storm), I delivered the papers to the front porches. I then went to school. My mother, who did not drive, apparently received some calls about wet papers after I left. She then had to walk up the hill to where my route was, on a bad knee, to deliver to the people who wanted a dry paper to read. Not one of my proudest moments. The only good thing about Sunday paper day, was that when we finished the route, we would go to White Castle for breakfast. When you are young, your stomach can handle a few sliders for breakfast. They were less than a quarter apiece back then, so we were really livin'.

Our gym plan for today involves driving across the river to Northern Ky. to an Urban Active over there. Yes, there is one 3 minutes from our house, but it is still expanding and is not as nice as the established one on the other side of the Ohio river. The Kentucky one has a track and the cardio equipment overlooks the river. My wife likes it there, so we will be leaving soon. I have readily agreed, because I saw a commercial that the Kentucky Powerball is up to 88 million dollars. We do not usually play since playing the lottery is just like taking money and throwing it in the garbage, but someone has to win the money right? Oh,and also, it helps the schools...right?

So the question becomes, what to do with that kind of money. I suppose the first thing would be to immediately delete this post so there was no evidence that I have money. While no one currently reads it, with my luck someone would stumble onto it and then also realize they were my long lost cousin.
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Okay, so we're back. We never made it to Kentucky. We did make it to the gym, but we went to the closer one as the need to do errands won out. I am not sure how my wife puts up with my son and myself at the grocery. She likes to take us since she desperately wants us to make suggestions about what to buy. We accommodate to a certain extent. We are not picky eaters, but we are also not passionate about what to get since we will eat anything (and love kids!!) Therefore, my son and I spend our time at the grocery eating samples (which were especially good today), drinking coffee (just me, he does not drink coffee yet), making jokes, and running into things with the shopping cart. The best time to do this is when he is on the back of the cart and there is a pole to run into. Big fun! We have never been banned from Kroger, but I was banned from White Castle a short time while I was in high school. Apparently, if you are in with a group of guys who drink beer, take hot dogs to WC, and then ask the employees there to fry you up some, you may also get kicked out. Sense of humor, I think not. Anywho, we made it through Kroger and actually even remembered to bring our reusable bags. The girl bagging our stuff set a new world record for how many groceries you can fit into two reusable bags. She even kept it semi-separated as I load the belt at the checkout in a pattern so it gets bagged together, thus, making it easier to put away. My wife and son mocked me a bit as I kept the dairy products together, the fruits and veggies together, and the meats and dry goods separate. At least I'm pretty sure they were mocking me as they tried to decide if the canned tuna was allowed to be near the fresh salmon. (Obviously, the canned tuna goes with the dry goods, duh!) The purpose of this forced segregation is for the put away process once we get home. My job is to put the groceries away, and this is more easily accomplished if the food is organized. Does this make me sound anal? No, I thought not.

So I guess you figured out that we will not be wining the Powerball. You do have to play to win, and we are not playing. Therefore, I do not need to worry about spending the millions just yet. I have been left alone at the house, so my PS3 time begins now. Good day.