April 16, 1998
Dear Everyone:
Last week’s
Lottery topped at
$102 million before they had to shut it down because the computer was
overheating, or something.
22 people where I work each kicked in $5 to buy a total of 110 tickets
in hopes of matching the winning numbers.
And we won!!!
45 cents each!
While I was able to contain my joy at such a
windfall, I understand that “Ollie”, in the Library, was in a group that
garnered 71 cents each.
Clearly, I’d joined the wrong pool.
The combined winnings ($10) were turned in for ten
new tickets (with two bonus bunches of numbers) in hopes of winning
something in the significantly lower drawing the following Saturday.
Sadly, none of these numbers came up right and the entire
investment went down the tubes.
Sic
transit gloria mundi, which is Latin for, “That’s the way it
crumbles, cookie-wise.” So
much for gambling.
On a better front, I found out yesterday how much
of this year’s raise is actually showing up in my paycheck.
And I’m getting a nice refund on my taxes (thus offsetting the
increase in
property tax that showed up in this week’s mail).
All in all, life goes on.
“Jeannie” came down on Sunday, bought me breakfast, and we went
to a movie. On Monday, I
took the entire day off from work and spent it reading the book that
Mother sent me for my birthday.
In
City of Angels,
there are angels everywhere.
They are invisible to the average human being.
They wear long coats and like to hang out in high places, like on
top of skyscrapers and the
HOLLYWOOD sign
up in the hills. They also
hang around hospitals a lot.
So far, they resemble nothing so much as vampires.
However, their chief job seems to be to offer comfort to people
in trouble; or to redirect someone who was just about to step off the
wrong curb at the wrong time.
Vampires don’t generally bother with that stuff.
Nicholas Cage
plays an angel named Seth.
He is soon drawn to a surgeon (Meg
Ryan) who is grieving over a patient that she lost.
One thing leads to another and pretty soon Seth is wondering what
it would be like to be mortal.
With Meg Ryan. An
important note: Angels are
not good in the kitchen.
Since they don’t need to eat, they never learn how to use utensils.
This can be a dead giveaway when you’re dealing with an angel
(you can see them if they want you to).
This movie is not so much a remake of an earlier
film, called
Wings of
Desire, as it was inspired by a few scenes near the end of the
original film. It’s just a
nice, slow romance leading up to an inevitable conclusion.
We liked it. And
“Jeannie” doesn’t generally take to Nicholas Cage movies.
So there.
Love, as always,
Pete
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