Football and Freshies

We've written many times about things we miss while we're at sea or just things we can't find in foreign countries. Crunchy green things for salads, fresh blueberries, green chiles, ground turkey … cars … washing machines … blenders. We manage just fine without, but it's always a treat when we get to have these things again. We certainly appreciate them more. For sure, one of things I miss most when we're at sea is fresh produce and I try to get my fix whenever we're ashore. Sometimes, even when we're in port, finding a good variety of freshies nearby is a challenge. When we're in Boston with Lin, we head to Trader Joe's. When in Las Vegas, Mary and I usually head to Sprouts Farmer's Market, first thing. It allows me to OD on the beautiful displays of freshies … unbelievable variety ... apples, oranges, pears, pomegranates and pineapples ... salad makings galore and everything from parsnips to peaches and kale to kiwi.

Instead of planning meals based on what's left in the larder, (pickled beets, lentils and tuna?) we plan more appealing meals and buy to suit our tastes on a given day. “Let's have roasted root vegetables tonight”, Mary suggested. And so we bought golden beets and parsnips, carrots, red potatoes and onions. We threw in some butternut squash and Brussel sprouts for color and good measure. We prepped the veggies, then Mary tossed them lightly in olive oil, salt and pepper and popped them into the oven to roast. She didn't even worry that it would use up too much propane. Oh, my … delightfully tasty, yet nutritious … a winning combination served with basil chicken sausage from the grill.

Though David might miss the food aspect of things, he rarely complains. He does miss the space to work on his projects, access to more tools (if that's possible) and watching football. Here in Las Vegas he has space, several projects he's volunteered to do for Mary and a whole cache of tools. He's installed new LED overhead lights in the kitchen and added more lights over the breakfast counter. He's replaced a temperature sensor in her all-electronic Samsung fridge-freezer. He doesn't like moss growing on his boat shoes.

Especially at this time of the year, however, his passion for watching football comes to a crescendo. On the boat, we never watch games and rarely even get to listen to them. It's one of America's autumn pastimes and he usually misses out. Not this year. It's play-off season and Sunday afternoons are usually spent watching a game … or two. Of course, that requires a TV, as well as access to the sports channels, and luckily Mary has both.

Now, how do freshies and football connect, you ask? Beyond the fact we miss both things while we're at sea is the fact that not only do we eat healthier here and get to watch the football games now, but we eat (not always healthier) WHILE watching football games. We plan our football feast and shop expressly for it … chips and salsa, guacamole, beer, mimosas (champagne and OJ for Mary and me), spicy chicken wings with bleu cheese dip, crudite (that's the healthy part) and whatever else strikes our fancy. Me? Oh, I like football okay - I can take it or leave it, but I enjoy watching with everyone and then there's the mimosas. Did I mention the mimosas?

Catching Up on Politics

Being away from the US for such long periods of time, we're always out of touch with politics and what's happening on the political front. Usually, that's not a problem, but here we are in a presidential election year and we need to learn a bit about the prospective candidates. We don't consider this blog an appropriate place for discussing politics (or religion for that matter...much too controversial for us laid-back sailors). But the process of catching up is an interesting exercise. We took a look at who was running first … Democrats and Republicans et al. There were a few familiar names … Clinton … Trump ... and some we didn't recognize at all. There's a pretty full roster of Presidential hopefuls out there. We're used to hearing about American politics through the eyes of people in the countries we visit. Amazing how much other countries know about American politics and how little we know about theirs (or ours). Can you name the Prime Minister/Premiere/President/Head of State of Great Britain? France? Germany? Australia? I'll wager most Americans cannot, yet most of the citizens of those countries know Barack Obama's name.

So, we searched on-line to find the major issues of contention and where individual candidates stood on each. Immigration, gun control, ISIS/terrorism, the federal deficit, health care, environmental issues … seemed to top the list. The issues are complicated. It's hard to figure out, sometimes, exactly what the candidates are advocating. They tend to spout about what's wrong and how they disagree with the other candidates … but they have a hard time defining exactly what would be right. Understandable … there are no easy answers, and to quote the 15th century monk and poet, John Lydgate, “you can't please all the people, all the time.”

We found several quizzes on line that matched up our political views with candidates. Sometimes I couldn't figure out the question; sometimes the questions were phrased in such a way, I couldn't answer. Then there were those questions, I'm sorry to admit, where I was totally ignorant of the topic, e.g. Do you advocate American exceptionalism? (Yikes, what the heck's that ... I had to look it up). Depending on the quiz you chose and the wording of the questions, it was possible to match up with a different candidate each time, even though my views hadn't changed. Just google “presidential candidate quiz” and see the results.

So, between now and November 8th, we'll stay tuned to the American political scene and try to figure out who best represents our own ideologies. We'll make a sincere effort to learn more about the issues and the candidates and vote accordingly. David and I certainly do not always agree on each issue. We do agree however, that it would be nice if the Democrats and Republicans could, perhaps work together for the good of the country versus their own political agenda. Enough said … let's move on to something even more controversial. Sail or motor? Stick or stinkpot?

PowerBall Mania - the Power of a Dream

The PowerBall jackpot was estimated to be about $900 million the other night. Every news program throughout the days leading up to the drawing showed long, long lines waiting for tickets. Believe it or not, Nevada is one of seven US states that does not allow a lottery. Therefore, if residents want to participate in a chance to win, they have to drive to Primm Valley, on the California line, to purchase tickets. Judging from this AP photo, I'd say lots of Nevadans made the trip.

The odds of winning aren't all that good … 1 in 292,201,338, except in our case. Since we don't buy tickets, our odds are nil, but really, that's not far from the folks who buy tickets. Admittedly, they do have a slight edge. I've read that there are ways of increasing your odds minimally … let the computer generate the numbers for you, buy more tickets, rely on Chinese fortune cookie lucky numbers, let your fairy godmother do the picks. In our case, buying a ticket would help, but again, only by a slight margin.

I got a charge out of reading what events had better odds of happening than winning the lottery. For instance:

• Being killed by a vending machine - 1 in 112 million
• Being hit by falling airplane parts – 1 in 10 million
• Being killed by flesh-eating bacteria – 1 in 1 million (really?)
• Being killed by a meteorite – 1 in 700,000
• Pigs flying – 1 in ?????

Who figures out these things?

Well, nobody won the $900 million jackpot. I checked the numbers first thing. Oh, my … now it's getting interesting. It's Powerball-mania. Estimated at $1.3billion, America's largest lottery jackpot ever is causing normally sane people to go wild. The already-crazies are beyond help. According to USA Today, the lottery is “a pipe dream Americans throw about $66.5 billion dollars at yearly. It’s a game that’s largely for poor people to lose, as numerous studies have shown.” Despite the odds, everyone thinks they're going to win. It's the dream … winning a billion dollars.

So what would we do with $1.3 billion. First of all, if we took a lump sum lower payment, it would only amount to an $806 million payout, then there's federal tax and maybe state taxes … so it would net out to significantly less. Still, that's a fair amount of money. Well, jeez … we can't quit our jobs … we don't have jobs. We can't buy a boat and sail off into the sunset … we already do that. We can't travel any more than we already do. We could buy a country, I guess … there are 10+ countries with a GDP below $800 million … which would still leave some change after purchase for supporting all our new friends.

All that said … we might be heading out of Nevada to a Powerball vendor in a nearby state in the next couple of days. You just never know … we might want to increase our odds of winning.