Thursday, November 29, 2012

The Arizona-Missouri Connections

by Pa Rock
Traveling Man

The very first thing that I heard on my local NPR station (KJZZ in Phoenix) this morning was that two winning Powerball tickets had been sold - one in Arizona and the other in Missouri.  How exciting, I thought.  I had some tickets purchased in Arizona, and my two sons live in Missouri.  Could there be a Macy family winner somewhere in those circumstances?

Of course not - but it kept the buzz of "what if" going for a couple of extra hours!

In fact, I had one other ticket - an airline ticket that took me from Phoenix to Kansas City today on a long-planned trip.  It will be a fast one, however, because I have to be back at work in Arizona on Monday.  In fact, I am flying back early Sunday morning.

I am at Tim and Erin's house this evening.  Baby Olive is growing up so fast!  She is not only walking, but is also quite adept at running.  Olive is thirteen-and-a-half-months-old.

Tonight we went downtown to the Plaza for dinner and walked around looking a the beautiful holiday lights.  Our evening meal was at the Panera Bread Company at the Plaza.   As we were placing our order, I happened to notice four teenage males sitting at a table with their heads bowed.  My first thought was that they were saying a blessing over their food, but after we ordered and walked on into the dining area, it became clear that they were all reading copies of what appeared to be the same hardbound book.  Tim finally managed to get a look at the cover of one of the books when one reader set his book aside to eat.  It was a novel called Cold Days by Jim Butcher.    Later we stopped by Barnes and Noble where I thumbed through a copy.  It is part of a continuing "urban fantasy" series whose official title is Cold Days:  A Novel of the Dresden Files, and it had a release date of two days ago.  These young men were hardcore Dresden Files groupies.   Their social lives might be lacking (though I don't know that for sure), but at least they were reading.

But back to Powerball:  the winning ticket in Arizona was bought at a store in Fountain Hills - a nice suburb of Phoenix where the Arpaio's reputedly live.    I couldn't help thinking that if America's most expensive sheriff won the big payoff, would he begin to reimburse Maricopa County all of millions that he has cost the county and it's insurers in lawsuits related to the way his department is run and the mistreatment of prisoners in his jails?  One could only hope!

1 comment:

Don said...

Just ordered Cold Days: A Novel of the Dresden Files

Looks like a wonderful fantasy read. Thanx for the info