First for me with or without family. This one was with. The Race involved horses. It was at a local course in the bay area on a wonderful late summer Sunday. The setting is idyllic..you sit in the grand stand and watch this beautiful green oval with the Berkeley hills in the background set against an azure morning sky. Every 20 minutes or so well groomed and stately beasts appear and show off and get lined up to race.
Cheap beer was available cheap - it was a buck cup Sunday. I passed (without consuming) and settled to just enjoy the moments with family. It is quite a spectacle to see how people are betting on not just the live event but on a horse race in Argentina at the same time. The latter is being beamed live via satellite to the indoor TV screens where you can perch if you are not into the outdoors and serious about making a few (or a lot) quid. It does get quite excited once the race begins and people starting hitting their thighs in gusto ... our daughter was having the greatest fun doing her pretend bets with binoculars to track her pick.
On one side of the pavillion there was some other revelries hosted by the local Filipino crowd (wonder why Phillipine themed events are Filipino and not Phillipino?) with a singer of some acclaim crooning to a bunch of people with balloons and betting slips.
Not sure if one or the other was influencing the other or one in any way. Main attraction of course was to watch the horse races.
Each race is only a mile or little over a mile and is over in under 2 minutes. The largest collection of horses that raced that day was 11 and our only bet won. Having no clue in the matter we decided to experiment with a little skin in the game (from the pinkie) by doing a $2 bet on the most heavily favored animal to win.
In horse racing the term WIN actually means to come in First place. The other bets you can place are for it to come in either first or second (Place) or any of the first three (Show) places. Can be confusing but it works out since the results get displayed at the end of the race and you can collect by showing up back at the same apathetic agents behind the computer to print your win and pay up.
We made $3.80 on a $2 bet with a profit of 90%. We also quit while the going was good!
This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest. Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one. Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list. Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD - school f
nice way to get away from the rat race, it would appear..
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