Family, Kids, Music, Travel, Uncategorized

Lucky Duck

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We ate out a lot in Los Angeles early last month, and our wait staff were all very friendly and inquired about the reason for our visit. Every time we explained were in in the city for Daughter’s graduation from USC,  she got something free. She received several lovely gratis desserts and one free breakfast.

She traveled to Iceland last Saturday, and was informed earlier in the week  that she had won some sort of Icelandic Air lottery for a free upgrade to First Class seating. She bought her original round trip ticket for $500. She said the First Class lounge at Seatac was “quite the place” with an open bar and a buffet.  (She was too sophisticated  to take a photo of it for her curious mother! ) Once boarded,  she drank free champagne and slept in great comfort on the flight to Reykjavik.

She is in Iceland with her best friend.  Today they sent me a video of them belting “All We Like Sheep” from Handel’s Messiah, as they sped down an Icelandic road lined with flocks of sheep. They have been best friends for 19 years, They are staying in a country inn-a four star hotel called the Hotel Grimsborgir. When they checked in on Monday,  they were given a free upgrade to a fancy suite because it was Best Friend’s 25th birthday.   How lucky, both in upgrades and friendship!

When have you been lucky? Where would you like to travel with your best friend?

37 thoughts on “Lucky Duck”

  2. i have been lucky most of my life
    my life has fallen into place as i meander through the path i haphazardly choose to follow
    if i got to choose one place to travel it would be kathmandu, i have always wanted to go there i hear everest is jammed this year and i fear if i don’t get tere soon it will be like going to disneyland
    other locations that come to mind are sidney australia hong kong florence and rome the lake district in uk the boundary waters and hawaii costa rica south africa egypt macha pichu and the list goes on and on

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  3. The dream vacation my bestie and I talk about is going to Italy and La Scala. We have talked about the other fine opera houses and events that could be backups, but none compare to Italy and La Scala. We got as far as starting to price it out once – knowing it was more than either of us could afford at the time – as I recall tickets to an opera at La Scala were almost as much as the flight to get there…sigh. (We are spoiled by the MN Opera – fantastic productions, wonderful singers, and ticket prices mere mortals can afford…)

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  4. Renee- what a neat story about your daughter and all the gifts. How fun that all sounds!

    I know a person that is lucky; she wins a lot of lottery type things. But she’s the whiniest person who gets hung up on details and inadvertently it becomes all about ‘her’. It’s hard to be happy for her “luck”.

    I was lucky Kelly stuck with me when we first started dating. I talked about old girlfriends too much. 🙂

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      1. Well, it’s behind. Everyone is behind.
        A few acres won’t get planted because there’s still water standing and wet spots and it’s not worth trying to just pick out the dry spots. Crop insurance will cover some of the ‘Delayed planting’ areas.

        With my leg still recovering, I had some neighbors plant corn and others will be doing soybeans for me soon as it dries up from this last rainfall. Hopefully this weekend.
        And then it all just depends on “Growing Degree Days” (I have an app!) and how the fall goes.

        Click to access ac09-introduction-to-growing-degree-days.pdf

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        2. Not really.
          Corn prices are up with so many areas being delayed in planting, not up as much as anyone would prefer, but up none-the-less.
          Soybean prices are still discouragingly low.

          With my late planting and some not planted at all, I won’t have any crop to put in storage this fall to help make payments next summer. And the little that crop insurance pays will help out this fall, but won’t cover the difference either.

          I won’t lose the farm or anything, and we’re lucky to have cash in savings. But I won’t be buying any machinery this year and lets hope there’s not any bigger emergencies…

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  5. Rise and Gambol/Gamble Baboons,

    Congratulations to your Daughter, MSW. She will always have a useful degree that will get her a job. If she wants to live in the Cities and find a job, she should talk to me.

    I have beginners luck, then that passes and I am just an average luckmeister—an occasional run of cards, now and then an extraordinary flower or tomato crop, etc. I really think we make our own luck—I loved Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Outliers.” That would be my view of luck. We do not choose where or when we are born, or to whom. But if we are born at a time and place that allows us to engage in who we are and what we do best, then 10,000hours of anything will produce incredible skills.

    The skills successful people have are those of discretion and timing. They use the skills they have at the proper time to get a pay off. I think that is also known as Common Sense, the very best luck of all.

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    1. P.S. Lou and I are traveling to NYC at the end of the month just for the fun of it. I have never been there. Yesterday I started Social Security. I am tending to the Bucket List.

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      1. Renee, I have been studying the concept of Psychological Primitives. Do you know anything about this topic?

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        4. xfben, I am studying this because it is a newer field of research within the suicide prevention field. They are defining certain characteristics as the building blocks of the psyche (psychological primitives). Certain combinations of these building blocks increase likelihood of suicidal behaviors (affect, poor impulse control and rumination). Searches of this term turn up some information, but not enough. I have been trying to find more information about this, because I think they are on to something important.

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        5. Ah. I read “primitives” as “primates”…. like baboons… I’m hoping by hiding this in yesterdays no one will realize what a bone-headed thought that was!

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    1. BiR, we toured Wales briefly when we traveled in the UK, in 1974 and 1975. There was no infrastructure for tourists then. The Welsh people all said, “You came here on purpose? Why?” I’ll bet it has changed by now. The tours you link to look great.

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  7. All is a balance for all. The average is an average. So somewhere lives someone at the other end of the luck spectrum, whose life is going from crisis to crisis, misery to misery, worry to worry. Which means to enjoy the blessing when it comes and remember those who are not blessed.

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  8. I would go with my best friend to northern Germany to see where our families came from. Her mother’s family came from the island of Fehmarn in Schleswig-Holstein. She has never been to Europe, and I would love to go there with her. We have been best friends for 56 years.

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  10. Just this morning a good friend posted this on Facebook:
    “Upgrade” is a soul-destroying concept. It implies unarguable benefits, but so often it promotes dissatisfaction with the status quo, fuels anxiety, and encourages elitism.

    Food for thought.

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      1. Actually, Bill, I was debating whether or not to post it. But because it did make me stop to consider the issue in a thoughtful way, I thought I’d go ahead. Personally, I have never received an upgrade, but I sure wouldn’t have looked a gift horse in the mouth.

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  11. A few months ago I picked up a scratch-off lottery ticket in a parking lot at my favorite St. Paul liquor store. I pick up lottery tickets when I see them, because some of the scratch-off games have a “Second Chance” contest online – you enter a number from the ticket, and get entered in a drawing. This particular ticket did not have a “Second Chance” contest online, but upon closer inspection, it looked to me like it was a winner. I brought it to a retailer, and exchanged it for $100. They always say “You can’t win if you don’t play”…but in this case, I didn’t have to buy a ticket. I just picked it up. And I won!

    Went out to dinner with three friends and picked up the tab.

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