Whittling Away with Dick Brooks - Luck

I have never been what you could call a lucky person. Oh, I think I’m average in the luck department but if a sea gull flew over a crowd and did what sea gulls do frequently, I’d most likely be the recipient of the gift from above. No more! I can’t believe the luck! Thanks to modern technology in the last two weeks I have received 19 e-mails informing me that I have won or become the beneficiary of millions of dollars and British pounds.

Totaling up the sums involved, it comes to $88,650,000 U.S. dollars and 176,500,000 British pounds, a tidy sum indeed. It seems that there are airplanes filled with people I don’t know falling from the skies all over Africa and the banks there don’t seem to know who their money belongs to. These poor folks all seem to have been exceptionally wealthy with no relatives and somehow the banks have chosen me to be the recipient of all this wealth. The British National Lottery, The Euro Lottery, The Irish Draw Promo and The Irish Sweepstakes have all drawn my name. Yahoo Agenda of France has drawn my name in their e-mail rewards program and are holding 10 million for me. BMW Automobiles pulled my name and have $250,000 and a new BMW waiting for me.

I’d be suspicious if all these notifications of wealth awaiting hadn’t come from such prestigious institutions and important people.

One offer came-- Chairman, Committee on Foreign Contract and Inheritance fund Payment Notification from United Nations and USA Government—Sir Allen Smith. Now a knight wouldn’t lie, would he?

All I have to do in most cases is send my personal information, banking information (so the funds can be discreetly transferred) and I’m set for life.

I could use a few extra millions and the new BMW would be nice but I think I’ll pass. Not being the luckiest of persons I learned early that if you wanted something, you went out and earned it. Most of these generous offers had misspellings and grammatical errors that offend me as an old teacher and the old adage “If it seems too good to be true, it usually is”.

I’m a senior, not stupid. The two don’t go together well. Seniors get taken advantage of frequently because we know what hard times are and we’re sympathetic when some one seems to be in need. There are a lot of things we can no longer do ourselves so we need to have them done for us. If we’ve done those things all our lives, we might not know how much it costs to do them so we can be easy prey for unscrupulously repair and handy men. If we band together maybe we can help each other.

If you have any suspicions about laying out cash or information, ask another senior if they would do what you’re about to. Check with your kids, you raised them right, didn’t you? They’ll help. Build a support system that you’re comfortable talking with in person, on the phone or e-mail. Ask and we’ll show these leaches what it means to deal with Seniors.

Actually, my luck has been good this week for real. I hit the Lottery for five bucks in hard cash I won on a dollar scratch off card. Things are looking up!

Thought for the week—“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, prepare to die.” --Klingon Proverb, Star Trek

Until next week, may you and yours be happy and well.

Whittle12124@yahoo.com