COLUMN: I think I just won a Mustang!

OFF THE MARK COLUMN
By: 
Mark Spensley
Express Co-Publisher

Around 5 p.m. on July 4th I was sitting on our deck with my family when my phone rang. I looked at the caller ID first, recognized it was a friend of mine and got very excited to see him calling me. 

 

You see, July 4th was the day that the Animal Welfare Foundation was drawing the winner of the Mustang they were giving away. And my friend that was calling was part of the group in charge of the raffle. I had purchased a ticket at the Monti in Motion Car Show, the winning ticket! 

 

So, when I saw his name, I let our something like “Oh my God”, before I answered. I think I scared everyone sitting with us plus the neighbors. My wife asked what and I think I responded, just a second. 

 

I know my heart was beating as fast as it could when I answered the phone. My friend said I have two things for you, first off, he enjoyed my column from last week. It was about our trip to Canada. Makes perfect sense he would use that as small talk leading up to his second reason for the call. 

 

“And what is the second thing I asked”? At this point I could hardly contain myself. I wanted to blurt out to everyone within hearing distance that I just won a Mustang. “Well the second thing” my friend started to say, (here it comes I’m thinking) “I was just wondering what time the fireworks start so we can draw our car winner right before it.” 

 

“Dusk, maybe around 10”. “Sounds good, thanks,” he responded. 

 

Crap, no Mustang. It was too good to be true. Since I know I probably sounded kind of out of sorts when he called, I thought I should heckle him a bit. “You know, I thought you were calling me to give me the good news I was the winner.” I think he chuckled and apologized. 

 

Hey, that’s okay, the donation went to a good cause! 

*********************** 

The All-Star break. Here we are at the All-Star break. The Great Jones County Fair will be here before you know it and summer will be just about over. Time flies by way too fast. 

 

I went back and looked at my baseball predictions for the post season. In the AL I have the Yankees, Indians and Astros as league champions. At the halfway point it is the Yankees, Twins and Astros in the lead. 

 

I picked Tampa Bay and Minnesota for the two wild card teams. Currently Tampa Bay and Cleveland hold the spots. Looks like I have all five playoff contenders correctly picked. 

 

In the NL, I predicted the Phillies, Cubs and Dodgers as league champs. At the break it’s the Braves, Cubs and Dodgers. My two NL wild card teams were the Cardinals and Diamondbacks. At the half way point its Washington and Philadelphia holding those spots. I’m three out of five in the Senior circuit. 

 

I have the Phillies over the Twins in the World Series. I’ll stand behind those picks but I’m going to throw out a new pick. The Dodgers over the Yankees.

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