Liquidation

My son, Richard, loves to play Monopoly. I like to play it too but because it takes so long, I often have to pass on the opportunity to play. Or maybe it is because everywhere I turn, especially at work (and church) people are so interested in finances.

Anyway, since there was so much snow on Saturday (February 5th), it was a good day to be inside and play Monopoly.  Since Lynn went out, it was just Richard and me. Perhaps she passed up the opportunity because Richard usually wins. His winning ways were honed by reading a book (that I originally bought) that revealed the secrets to success (at Monopoly).

My strategy was simple: prevent Richard from obtaining all the properties of one color, and especially Boardwalk/Park Place.  This approach was going well and Richard was begging me to make a deal. Finally, I made my fatal mistake and gave in. I thought he only had 1 green property and traded him my 1 green property for cash plus a property that I needed. However, I failed to realize that he actually already had 2 of the 3 green properties. Once I realized this, I knew my days were numbered.

While I was collecting rent in the tens of dollars, Richard was putting up houses, then hotels on the green properties. I managed to survive my first stop on one of these by mortgaging virtually everything.  But it was inevitable that I would land on exactly the same property again. That was it. I had to liquidate and the game was over. Richard was the winner again!

Addendum:  From where I was sitting, I could look out the dining room window (from Lynn's 3rd floor apartment) and see a dozen or so yellow clad figures shoveling snow off the flat roof of the Armory Building a block away. They were working the entire time we played Monopoly.

Sad Anniversary

Judy McCormick

Today is the sad anniversary of the unexpected passing of my favorite mother-in-law, Judy McCormick. Oh, how we miss you Judy! I learned a weird thing recently: the numbers that Judy played for the lottery were 1027 (which is sort of like 1-27, the day she died). When I play, I let the computers pick the numbers.

Can you believe it? More Snow!

I'm at home again today (Thursday) because we had another snow storm. We may be setting a record. Actually, we had a "small" storm yesterday - snowed most of the day and we got a couple inches. Then last night a big storm blew through and I woke up to about 2 feet of snow (see picture above).

When I went out to clean off my car this morning, this (above) is the view that greeted me. Fortunately, it was not icey cold but rather in low 30s and no wind. At this point, our lot had not been plowed.

Here is a picture of what my Ford Escape looked like before I cleaned it off. Note that the snow is up to the bumper and about the middle of the wheels. Also note how much snow is on the front wind shield. You can get an idea of the depth of snow from the picture below that shows a partially clean wind shield.

I spent about 2 hours shoveling a path along the side of my car and cleaning off the snow from the top.  I went inside for a bit when the plow arrived.

After about an hour, I went back out because everyone was moving cars so the plow could clean the lot. I find it quite heartening that so many of us were working together. I enjoyed chatting with my neighbors. I learned that one of my neighbors got sick earlier and the ambulance got stuck in the snow at the front of the building! I ended up staying out for another 2+ hours shoveling around cars and scraping up the melting ice from by the back door and the mouth of the driveway. Snow shoveling - the poor man's fitness club.

As I write this, the crew has returned to finish cleaning the lot with a front end loader.



Note that there are a couple of cars that are virtually buried. There is not a lot of room to put the snow.

The forecast is calling for more snow tomorrow afternoon and Saturday afternoon. Then, we might get another storm next Wednesday to help celebrate Ground Hog Day.