One of these days I really must master that spell for myopia.

So three Powerball winners -- one in California, one in Florida, one in Tennessee -- have been drawn or have come forward at the time I started writing this to divvy up a pre-taxes jackpot of one and a half billion dollars. (And now by 1300 CST I'm reading of four tickets in Texas that matched five numbers and are each worth -- again, before taxes -- a million dollars each.) If one of them is not you, I don't think this is a big deal. Though I wouldn't mind a sliver of it, I confess.


Today before work I got the kids to their six-month dental checkup at Dakota Kids' Dentistry, and Jeffrey especially was on me to get there early because he (and Sarah wanted this too, but the kids will often have the other say what they both want -- this despite their roughplay with one another) wanted to play some of the stand-alone video games that are in the lobby. So as I was checking them in, Jeffrey got started on Donkey Kong (yes, an original Donkey Kong stand-alone like you'd find in an arcade) and Sarah would have started except she was called back first to get pictures of her mouth taken.


Jeffrey played, then Jeffrey and I played, and for the first time I got past the first two levels of the game (DO NOT grab the hammer, just dodge the barrels -- it racks up more points, but it ultimately takes more time and you can't climb ladders while holding it). And also got in a round each of Battlezone and Warlords -- oh, the other machine's got more than a hundred games to play on it and they're all free. So Sarah got to play some, and Sarah and Jeffrey both played some until they got called back. Then I caught the scene in Cars where Lightning and Mater are scaring tractors.


Then I got called back and found out that the kids have no cavities (so they'll get listed in our local newspaper on the second Sunday of February), BUT they still need to brush, floss, and fluoride (their BFF) with more intent than they have been doing. In addition, Sarah has one of her teeth due to come out that in fact is wiggling enough to come out we think any day now. And if it doesn't, we'll have to go back to the dentist and have it taken out there. Got their new brushes, they got stickers, got another checkup set up in late July, and then through the snow got them to school this morning!


Snow's covering the ground and some people (even locals! not necessarily out of towners who worked in the rapidly diminishing oil field jobs) seem to have forgotten how to drive in it. There's no black ice down that I'm aware of, but I have seen two accidents today. Though that's easy enough WITHOUT snow and ice around here with all the construction going on, admittedly. Got to Coffee With The Boys at Bethany (six other guys besides me there) and then to Gideon's Trumpet for a few minutes and chatted with Sheri before coming to the office. I remember remarking to her that I'd been keeping journals more than half my life (since mid-1992) now -- I'd just started a new volume today -- and that it helps sometimes to look back on it. She told me she was really impressed by that.


Now, Lord, please let me do a few more impressive things before I meet You.


AND not have to worry about that spell for myopia!

David