Christmas Eve

It's 42 degrees and pouring out.

The past few weeks the ground was covered with snow and the temperature spent most of its time in the 20s. Several of those days were the quintessential winter wonderland scenes, trees outlined with snow.

But not now for Christmas. Nature's sense of humor.

I went out to make use of a $10 Jockey coupon and got the nicest help at the store.

On the way back, I stopped at a gas station to pick up a lottery ticket for Mom.

I stood at the counter for a moment scanning all the advertisements looking to see which lottery draws tonight.

A middle aged Indian woman around my age appeared from behind a display.

"Hi," I said. "Is Powerball the one that draws tonight?"

She nodded, "Yes."

"Do you know how much it's worth?"

She scanned the counter in between us and pushed some flyers aside. There was a printout with the totals for each game on it.

"100 million," she said, "but that's from this morning, so it's probably more now."

"I'd like 3 Powerball quick picks on separate tickets please." That'd be one for each of our stockings.

She started punching it in, I pulled out my cash, and she said, "May I see your ID?"

"Sure."

I still had my wallet out, so I slid my license out and handed it to her.

She examined it for a moment, looked at me, and handed it back. She put the tickets on the counter.

"You look very young for your age," she said.

"Thank you."

"It's a blessing," she said with enthusiasm.

"Oh, I'll take it," I said smiling.

"Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas!" I said as I headed for the door. Merry Christmas to me indeed.


3 years ago on TTaT: An xmas eve glimpse