Ever Hopeful...

I purchased two Powerball tickets last week, when the lottery pot was $360 million; it cost $4, and I won $7.  Yesterday the pot was rated at $450 million, and there was such a rush of sales that it climbed to $564 million before the drawing.  I again had purchased two tickets for $4, and I again matched two regular numbers plus the Powerball, and won $7.  So I came out $6 ahead of the game. I know that there were three winning tickets sold; one in Texas, one in North Carolina, and one in Puerto Rico.  Ah, well....  I refuse to buy a huge number of tickets, so two or three are my maximum, and I buy them on different days, at different times.  I guess that I'm lucky, as I usually end up a few bucks ahead of what I've paid out each year.  I'm ever hopeful, though, that, perhaps, one day, I just might match all the numbers....  "Hope springs eternal," indeed!
  Last night, once I recovered from my migraine, I looked at places for sale on Chincoteague itself, and in the surrounding areas.  I saw a really nice place in Tasley, a good place in Wattsville, and several charming places located at Captain's Cove in Greenbackville.  I loved a farm house near Parksley, and a farm near Atlantic. I saw several pieces of land that I would have loved to buy on Chincoteague, to keep them undeveloped.  I also saw several homes that I would have purchased in a heart-beat - on both the Chincoteague Channel, the Assateague Channel, Little Oyster Bay, and a couple that are not near the water.  The pull of the island is a great as ever for me; or, as Joan Leslie recently said, I've "got Chincoteague sand stuck tight in my shoes."
   Let's see... Stay Gold, the 21-year-old son of Sunday Silence, and sire of multiple champion Orfevre, passed away earlier this week.  ....  Breeder's Cup Juvenile winner Texas Red has a hoof abcess, and will be out of racing for a short time.  Will he be able to get back, and fit, in time for the Kentucky Derby, is the big question.  ....  Three-year-old American Pharoah is on track to start in the Rebel Stakes, after being scratched as the favorite in the Breeders Cup Juvenile.  ....   And foals are dropping all around the country - they are just so cute!  Which reminds me, after the tragic death of Zenyatta's filly this past fall, Z queen is being bred back to War Front for next year's baby.  Hopefully we'll get another girl.   Cozmic One (Coz), Zenyatta's eldest, is working well for trainer John Sherriffs at Santa Anita; he looks like his mom on the track!  Ziconic, the younger colt, is undergoing breaking and early training in Florida.  They are both good-looking guys!