I bought a micro-share (1/1000 of 1% of a 12.5% share) in a race horse two days before the Kentucky Derby. I thought he had a decent chance but I actually liked two other horses in the race better...but I thought it would be cool to say you had a piece of a horse who ran in the Kentucky Derby.

Then he goes out and wins the damn thing!

Just got this in the mail...somehow the track photographer had the technology to put 4000 individual names of the micro-share owners in the Owners line so I have a Kentucky Derby winner's circle photo showing me as an owner. There are some obscenely wealthy folks who have spent $millions$ trying to win the Derby and they don't have one of these.

I've worked in the racing industry for 30+ years but haven't had much work this year due to COVID. This was a bright spot in a 2020 that's been pretty bleak.

That's cool. :)

Cool story...but you're burying the lede (I hate that it's spelled that way). What (if anything) was your haul? Are you going to buy some Mantles, or just a Mario Mendoza or two? :D

If you try to glance up into the trees on the pike, usually west of the Rte 9 exit you will see a few red tail hawks. They are easier to see in the fall and winter after the leaves have fallen. Once you see one they are easier to spot.

Yesterday, October 22, my father and his twin brother turned 88 years old. Neither is in the best of health, but both alive and kicking. I called him the piano man and he got the reference. Beat lung cancer in his 80's.

Happy birthday to your dad and uncle.

I've seen a few hawks along the pike. I used to see deer along the pike between the Rt30 Framingham exit and Rt128 Wellesly exit.

Darren -

The way the micro-share deal is structured, there isn't a financial windfall so it's still Mario Mendozas for me!

It's a complicated deal and to be honest not the smartest investment one would make but it was all laid out in the offer. With a little background in finance I knew exactly what I was getting into. The ownership format is a relatively new thing, and it's a way that a schmoe like me can have a small interest in a really good horse. But in all honesty is really structured to benefit the main owner, Spendthrift Farms (B Wayne Hughes, who founded Public Storage).

Had he run 2nd, we probably would have gotten about $12 each. The return on the (small) investment may come if he is a successful sire at the end of his racing career, but in a best case scenario where he's the hottest sire in the US, I'm looking at maybe $100/year but the reality will likely be much less.

I have to say the thrill of watching him unexpectedly win and getting a winner's circle picture with my name as an owner was well worth the $200 investment, even if I never see a penny of it back.

Not as many deer with all of the development. You can still spot them west of the Sturbridge exit. I can tell you are a local - you used Rte 128 - the 'Roadrunner' road for you Jonathan Richman fans.

....
 

love this sign.....

Michael, I avoid rt128 at all cost and rt93 as much as I can. Rt128 up past Peabody to Gloucester (Glosta as we call it) is a nice ride on weekends.

I grew up in Waltham and owned a house in Walpole for most of the 90's. Used to see the Pats players at the Subway on Rte 1 after their practice. I found some parallel roads so that I could get from Lexington all the way to Norwood without driving 128. It was great during rush hour, especially when I worked at the courthouse in Cambridge and was driving to Walpole. I lived in 'Woosta' for 5 years before moving down here to work in D.C. I miss the beaches - Wingaersheek, Salisbury and even Carson Beach in a pinch. The 90 minute drive to Old Orchard was worth it especially when they had the Maine Phillies. Down here it is 3 hours to a beach on the ocean - Virginia Beach, which I like, or Ocean City, MD.

I was up there for a funeral last Friday. It was great to see the snow. That was more than we got down here all of last year. I actually do miss the snow. The 'weather pussies' down here panic over a snow flake. The federal government will shut down for the day if there is 2 inches on the ground. I would not have to work if that happened. Now, thanks to all of the court and other info I need being online, I work from home full time and have not seen my office since March.

I'm originally from Worcester. I moved to Boston in about 1988. The jobs were better paying. Worked for an airfreight company for 20 years. Worked for 2 different pharmaceutical companies after. I don't like living around Boston. Traffic is a bitch. Other drivers go out of their way to be ass wholes big time. I'll be moving back to Wosta in the next year or so.

Anyone have any recent good news to share ? :)

I had surgery 6 days ago, ostomy reversal, and I'm going home today! This site helped pass the time in the early mornings when sleep had passed me by. I will quasi-be-home for Thanksgiving (staying at my parents). But nothing is better than mama's cooking.

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Tim, that's great to hear that you out of the hospital.

Glad you're home. Wishing you a speedy recovery.

Great news, Tim! Thanks for sharing and best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Anyone have any recent good news ? It's been a while. :)

I had a very nice Christmas, was able to surprise my folks with a vacation. More of an IOU to them, they'll pick a destination and time to go, post COVID vaccine of course. They were happy, times are rough for everyone, they need something to take their mind off of everything going on with the pandemic.

I might be able to go back to work in person in mid January too, which I'm very excited about!

It's sounded real nice James. :)

Anyone have any recent good news ? :)

The weather was awesome yesterday and I got to wear my second hand pullover instead of a heavy jacket.

I got a back handed compliment from the wife before we went on a walk. I had on my second hand NY Yankee pull over and a baseball cap. She said " You look like a baseball player with that outfit, well more like a coach with your big belly"

My second hand pullover used to belong to Joe Girardi when he coached the Yankees. So I took it as a compliment instead of being called fat.:D

My high school just completed their first cross country season ever. I was the coach. 8 kids signed up on the interest survey. When we started, 16 kids showed up! We finished at the league championship on Wednesday (no state championships this year :( ), and our best runner finished 4th. All the kids are proud, the admin is extremely pleased, and parents are happy.

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Very cool that more showed up than expected.

Anyone have any recent good news to share ? :)

I found out a couple days ago that a friend of mine from high school, who beat cancer as a junior, and walked on to the football team at Syracuse despite having never played before, just signed with the Saints. He's a UDFA kicker, so probably won't make it out of training camp, but it's still something.

Very cool. :)

Oldest daughter skipped prom and graduation to travel to Costa Rica for 3 months to teach underprivileged kids. Even raised all the money for it herself! Very impressive move considering neither parent has ever done anything bold.

She made it safely Wednesday morning and is unpacked and sunburned already.

Couldn't be more proud!

Very cool Ken. Sounds like a great kid. :)

Anyone have any good news to share ? It's been a long time. :o

Ground was broken this week on our retirement home. It should be ready around May-June of next year. It is in a DelWebb community in Nevada. I am chomping at the bit to retire and go do things for fun.

Sounds great Butch. :)

It is cold, windy, and rained most of the day. Still a day out camping at my favorite place is better than most.

Here is a pic of my dog out sniffing everything in between rains.

Where is your favorite place at ?

A small quiet beautiful lake out in the middle of nowhere. The beyond little town in the background had part of the movie Into the Wild filmed there.

Had my first flower open on my jade plants today.

I've never seen a jade plant that had flowers. I worked in a greenhouse during high school. Very cool.

I have had them for easily 20 years and never seen one flower till a couple years ago. I had always kept them inside. Then I started putting them out in the spring and bringing them back inside in the fall. The first year we got a unexpected early hard freeze. It killed off the tops but never killed the plants. Then they started flowering. After some research I found out if you deprive them of water and let them get cold before you bring them in they will flower.

EDIT to add another picture. Have around a dozen open flowers today. They should look pretty cool in another week with more flowers open.

Most of the buds have opened.

Wow ! :)

I aw my Cardiologist yesterday. My heart has shown good improvement and I will temporarily be off my heart medicine. We just need to monitor things to make sure I can stay off the meds. If my A-Fib starts back up, they will do another cardioversion and possible second ablation and then back on the meds.
I would prefer to stay off the meds because of the possible long term side effects.
Bob

That is great news. Hopefully you can stay of the meds.

That's great news. Being on meds is no fun.

Yesterday was 24 years without my wife killing me while I sleep.:)

That is something worth waking up for! :D

I'm glad to hear that. :)

Just paid for a cool vacation. Picked up tickets and rented a house for the Brian Shaw Classic.:D

Can't wait to see those animals compete. Sadly all the meet and greet tickets where sold out.:(

Are you taking your wife and kids ?

No kids and wife hasn't decided yet.

I'm happy right now. I do track, and today I was on the 400 meter relay for varsity. It was super cool running with the best runners on my team. I was kind of the odd man out, as a freshman, but I smashed my previous personal record by a few seconds so I didn't do too badly. I got a time of 57 seconds, and we finished third.

Good to hear that. :)

Great for you. I would guess you ran leg 2 or 3. It seems 1 is to get ahead or not fall too far behind and 4 is catch up or hold the lead. It seems that the relay produces good times compared to a flat distance race. It could be momentum or not needing to anticipate the pistol as you know what is coming. Continued good success.

Yeah, I was the second leg. That stuff helped, but I was really just running faster. I was going against a lot more competition than usual, and I didn't want to get passed by everyone, so I ran a lot harder.

Thanks for the kind words, y'all.

I made it through 45 minutes of a crazy storm in my travel trailer last Thursday.
The first pic is just before it hit. The guy in the other camper was just moving his pickup to the other side to help block the wind. It still slid his travel trailer about a foot. That had to be a super scary short ride. The second pic is from about an hour later.

It was like a wall of blackness just coming really fast that made the small town in the background disapear.

Good to hear that your ok. :)

About 1:30 we had a storm roll through with crazy winds. Lost a couple shingles is all. Power weirdly went out in almost the entire town just before 3:00 when the storm was about over.. By 5:00 I decided I had had enough and wanted power. Luckily I have a generator that can run my travel trailer. Hooked it up to the house and now have a cool house and internet for the last 2 hours.:)

So happy I have a generator.:)

Last year, the company I worked for was acquired by a larger company and my career choices were to move to Houston or move on. Obviously, I chose the latter and worked under a retention agreement for 6 months. My last day was 6 weeks ago. Today, i accepted a job offer and will start the week after next.

The beauty of the deal is I will be collecting severance from the old job through November. Given the windfall, my treat for tricking someone into hiring me is to actually look for a Clemente RC and try to complete my 1955 set. I am only 9 cards from finishing, but never figured I would finish because card 164 was beyond my means. I'm giddy as all get out.

Congratulations on the new job. It's good to hear something good came of it all. :)

Awesome and congratulations. be sure to post a pic of that Clemente when you get it.

Congrats and agree would love to see the Clemente when you get it

I bought the tickets a few months ago. I wanted actual tickets and they finally arrived today.:D

This will be my first large Strongman contest I have been at. Can't wait to see these monsters in person. It is also probably the last chance to see the greatest of all Big Z( Žydrūnas Savickas) compete in a large event since he is 47 years old.

Internet been out for 3 days!!!!
btw- i am a old timer type person with no cell phone.
No access to NET54 for 3 days!!!!!
ATT came out and replaced the box, found out the frequency was wrong.

TODAY--- I am so HAPPY!!!
Back on NET54!:D

But the bigger question is that good news that you have to deal with her 24 years while you are awake?

If So God Bless...:)

If not our Prayers :)

Over the 24 years there has been a lot of both good and bad. Way more good than bad and all the bad was of course my fault.

"Quando omni flunkus moritati"

I'm a man, but I can change, If I have to, I guess.

They produced trading cards for the athletes in this event. I just pre ordered 3 sets.:D:D:D

Can't wait to get the Big Z cards.

Got to watch Aleksii Novikov pull 1210 pounds to set the new Hummer Tire deadlift record today. Also got to see my strongman hero Biz Z compete today. He is 47 so just competing at the highest level is a huge win. I have been to a lot of sporting events and this ranks among the best.:D

While winterizing and cleaning my travel trailer I counted 13 camping slips from this year. So had to be a great summer to get out that many times.:D

I was hired as a full-time substitute Sept 30, but because of my 11 years of teaching experience, they offered me a teacher's contract. It's a trade: no homework but now I must accept jobs I'd rather pass on. But it's another year closer to retirement!

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I found a brand new pair of boots in my closet that I didn't know I had, I needed a new pair and they fit perfectly, super comfortable. $140 saved

I was worried about selling off my cards, but hit the very top of my estimate.

Cancer Free One Year

Good stuff!

Two-timer here and it's likely to eventually win in time, but I celebrate those goals every year. F-Cancer, but enjoy each and every day, those lessons learned on what really is important, and hug your loved ones daily.

You have my best wishes that it becomes a memory of a battle scar and never returns again!!

Congrats to you also.

Being as young as I am and how I feel I was surprised and it definitely changed my outlook on life

Congrats, glad to hear that!

Thanks and appreciated

Only person a little disappointed was my wife

She was hoping to become a cougar sooner

LOL

Somehow, I sincerely doubt that is true. But very happy to see you can still find humor in things, even this episode of your life. Old saying, laughter IS the best medicine. So true, so true!

LOL. Congrats, Jeff

Congratulations. That's great news. :)

Congratulations to you also. :)