Thanking my Lucky Stars!

Some people are lucky, and some people are not. I spent the majority of my life never winning anything. Well, that's not quite true as I did win a record album from a radio station once when I was a teenager. That got me all excited, but I never did get it. I expected it to arrive in the mail, but perhaps I was supposed to somehow make my way across the city to fetch it. No such luck. I ended up more disappointed than if I had never won it at all.

My youngest son won a Mickey Mouse phone from an Ottawa TV show when he was about 8, and he managed to win a couple of summer camp trips too. I thought he had way more luck than I'd ever had. Perhaps it had just skipped a generation or something.

Things changed for me about 5 years ago when I suddenly had a winning streak. I enter contests on line and was doing rather well.  Then it petered out again and I was actually having bad luck for a while.

This year has been extremely lucky for me so far, though I expect that luck just has to run out any day now.

In February I told you about winning a big basket of goods from the merchants of Almonte. Since then the BzzAgent people sent me an Oral B Genius 8000 electric toothbrush to test. The thing is amazing as it works with my phone's blue tooth and actually teaches me how to do a better job of brushing while it gets my teeth dentist clean. It was worth about $200 but all I had to do was write a review.  I did that but it was nothing compared to the extensive review on electric toothbrushes I later discovered posted on https://www.reviews.com/

 

Of course I managed to score a box of goodies from Sample Source too. That also takes luck and timing. I always count myself lucky when I manage to get one.

Then recently I went to the Shop Local Showcase in Kemptville and, as usual, filled out slips for various draws I found there. I was present when I won one of the hourly prizes. I got a $25 gift card for Hard Stones Grill. Later in the week I got a phone call and found out I had also another basket full of stuff from the Royal LePage realestate booth.  That's almost embarrassing as that's the booth I went to first, when I was trying to discover who had called my name. And before I could even get into Kemptville to pick that up, a new friend, Gary Blake,  presented me with a lovely painting he had done out of appreciation for some little thing that required no reward. Lucky is one thing, but who can believe there would ever be so much of it all at once! It's been an amazing week!

I picked up the basket this past weekend, and it contained two bottles of Wayne Gretsky wine (one red, one white), four jars of Mrs McGarrigle's mustard, a $50 gift card for Heather's Healthy Harvest, another $50 gift certificate for the Brigadoon, and also one for a car wash. The rest of the stuff in the basket had to do with rolling your own sushi. That's not something that is likely to happen in this house, but I'll find someone who will appreciate it.  Maybe it's even you, if you tell me a story about how you do such things at your house or what on earth got you started.  I've had such great luck lately, I think it's time I gave something away.  You deserve a reward for reading this far, or for answering my question on Facebook. Only a couple of my facebook friends have done that so far, so this is your chance to see how I actually win things. I pick contests like this, where the odds are really good as there won't be a huge number entering. I'll pick the winner on June 5, 2017.  I'm sorry, but you will have to be living in Canada to win though I'd love to hear stories from the rest of you too..

Good Luck, Bad Luck, No Luck at All

Last year about this time, things were not going very well.  But a month or so later, my luck had changed, and things were going extremely well.  Earlier this year I mentioned that Mercury was in retrograde, and that effect has continued, as we just got a shipment that was missing two of the items we ordered. They were not on back order. They were just missing.  Luckily, we were not billed for them, and the company has agreed to send the missing items without charging us the extra shipping charges. 

Other than all the frustrations with the mail, I've had three of the nasty bugs going around since the beginning of January.  And yes, I did have my flu shot, and a pneumonia shot for good measure.  I'm a big believer in the flu shot, but while I got off extremely lucky last year, with not so much as a sniffle, this year I had a stomach flu, a cold and then this latest flu with the nasty cough that just won't quit. I say it's a flu as I had a fever for a couple of days in the beginning.  I have no idea what the difference is between this year and last.

On other fronts I've been quite lucky so far this year.

As I told you,  I won a hundred dollar gift card from Subway, and since then, a book about Joint Health For Life (that likely will tell me not to eat such things) and a big box of tea from the Bigelow Tea Company.  I've never actually heard of them before, but I got very excited when this package came.  I was expecting 16 assorted teas, but what arrived was 6 boxes, each containing 16 teas each.  Two black, three green and three red tea flavours with two of each flavour in each box. 

I've already sampled the Vanilla Peach and the Strawberry teas, both of which were red varieties. They don't come in the normal tea bag, but rather in unique swizzle sticks that you put in the cup of hot water and stir around until you get the strength you like. There could not be a better prize for someone with a nasty cough.  Once I get over this bug, I plan on having a lovely tea party with my friends.

I got an e-mail from a friend out west who says I've always been fortunate, and lucky enough to win a lot of things.  I had just read an article that says you make your own luck by taking advantage of opportunities that present themselves. Well, I win a few things now and then, but that's because I enter a lot of contests. I'm not sure that makes me lucky. It's just the odds. If you enter enough times, you are bound to win something, sooner or later. I think that hundred dollar gift card is likely the most valuable prize I've ever won. 

Still, it's unusual for me to win three things in such a short period of time.  It does help balance out the other things that have been going on in my life since the beginning of the year though. Mercury is supposed to move on and leave me in peace later this week, and really, I can't wait!

Enough Already!

Last year I told you all about my string of good luck.  Well, the planets must have shifted positions because now things are just not going all that well in my world.

The computer I normally do the taxes on is very old, and temperamental so I decided to load the tax software onto my hubby's machine this year. I do taxes for most of my family, and managed to get three out of the five done before I got the paperwork for the other two. There are things missing for those, so I have to wait. Meanwhile hubby was on Kijiji the other day and picked up a virus on his machine.  So far, I've only printed off one of the three completed taxes.  Now we have this virus to contend with before I can proceed. Time is quickly running out.

I believe I mentioned that we had recently purchased some new furniture.  We thought we had lucked out finding something so comfortable on a day when it happened to be 50% off.  But they managed to damage all 3 pieces somewhere along the way. It's like they took it off the truck, set it down on one corner and pivoted it before picking up that end. There is one worn corner on each piece, and we are hoping to get it all replaced.

The assessor was supposed to show up on Thursday, but he never came.  Hubby even took the day off to deal with him. Meanwhile, the tags remain on the furniture, and we are being overly protective of it, so they can't say we did any further damage.  We had a 4 year old here a week ago, for the day. I covered everything with blankets and was amazed he didn't decide it was time to make forts!


Today, I went to my exercise class, and before leaving I went off to visit the washroom.  I found myself stuck in the stall. The lock wouldn't release.  I ended up having to crawl out under the door.  That is not an easy task at my age, but I can't  help being a bit glad it was me, and not any of the others in the class. It's a seniors class, after all, with people in their 80's and  and others with bad hips, bad knees, and other problems. I was in there, and everyone else was leaving the building. One of the others could have been trapped for who knows how many days, until another group rented the hall and they were discovered and set free.  Scary thought. I stopped by the municipal office on the way home, to alert them to the locked door I had left behind. 

There have been a couple of other problems lately too, mostly related to one institution or another, so it would take much too long to fill you in on those. Suffice it to say that any operation with the power to screw you up is busy doing that to me these days, so you can relax.

I was going to go to the Fashion over 50 presentation at the Library this afternoon, but it's brewing up  a storm out there, and with my luck, some big branch would fall on my head as I walked across town.  I think I'll just stay here and read.

Unusual Lucky Streak

I'm having a real lucky streak lately. Nothing big mind you, but normally I don't tend to win much more than a bit of makeup or the odd book anyway, no matter how many draws I enter.  While it's true that I've won a good number of books over the years, the key word there is Years.  Here are just some of the books I've won, pictured at the left. 

Something has changed since 2012 has begun however, as I've already won 3 this year, plus a necklace, and a $10 gift card for Sears.
 One day in particular was so lucky I couldn't believe it.  First some friends had passes for 2 free buffet dinners at Rideau Carleton that they couldn't use before the expiry date. They knew we liked to go there, so they gave them to us.  The day we went we stopped into Shoppers Drug Mart on the way.  I happened to spot something that I use all the time and it was on sale so I decided to buy it.  They rang it in at full price, and when I pointed out that it was on sale, they told me that if I was right, I'd get it for free. They did a price check, and verified that it was indeed on sale. It's their policy that if anything scans incorrectly the customer doesn't have to pay.  This was news to me, but I came out $10 ahead of the game and quite happy to have learned about this. 
When we got to Rideau Carleton, there were several tables set up outside the dining room area. I asked one lady what that was all about, and she said it was Spanish Night, and would I care to sample some wine. I looked up in time to see my hubby being led off to our table, so I said I had to go.  Moments later someone arrived at our table with two glasses of wine, and said they had heard "the hubby was in a hurry."  That kind of service was certainly unexpected.  Oh, and they came back with more later on.  Free dinner, free wine, things were going great. Normally they charge you extra for coffee and tea, but that night they told us to forget that too!

Now, we are not gamblers, but we like to pick a horse and bet $2 to show, just so we have one to cheer for.  By the end of the night we generally break even, or only be up or down by a buck or two.  During this particular evening I picked a horse that came in 3rd.  While many of our horses that come in first only pay $2.10 for the $2 bet, this one, even though it was third, paid $18.50.  The stars must have been really lined up right that night!

My most recent win was yesterday, when a letter arrived from Reader's Digest. It seems I've won a Swap and Drop Kit, worth about $40.  I've been entering Reader's Digest contests regularly for so many years I can't remember, but I've never won anything from them before.  I don't know what's going on, but maybe I should buy a lottery ticket, just to see if I can win something worth a bit more.  What do you think?