General Cycling Discussion - Oh My Gosh!!!

I'm not usually a glass half empty person. But HOLY MACKERAL am I having trouble with this one. I've never been so close to something, and then have it all come tumbling down, in my entire life. The good news, is we just won a portion of the lottery - and if there's a miracle, life could be quite interesting. We can definitely pay back the people that helped us out at the beginning of this journey, and maybe even more...the bad news is how close we were to winning it all.
So Friday, Kevin and I went to our favorite little chineese food place. Cheap, kick-butt little restaurant. Well I get the following fortune...

http://www.bikeforums.net/joke/fortune-cookie.jpg

And on the back of that fortune, the following numbers...

http://www.bikeforums.net/joke/fortune-cookie-numbers.jpg

Now I'm not one to give a crap about fortune cookies, but the numbers with the fortune...I just "felt lucky". So I go to the corner store where Paddy (my roommate) and I walk to so he can get his cancer sticks to buy a lotto ticket. Well they have some weird pick 5 thingee for their lotto with a MEGA number to hit for the JACKPOT. No biggie, I can still use all of my numbers...so I put down the first 5, then realize the MEGA number has to be between 1-27. Well shoot. The first number that came to mind was 10 and I just put it down. I was kicking myself later because JORDAN wore 45 and 23, so I should've replaced the 45 with the 23...but oh well. And here's my ticket.

http://www.bikeforums.net/joke/lotto.jpg

OH MY LORD I WISH I WOULD'VE TAPED THIS. We hit the first...FIVE numbers. After the 3rd one I almost peed my pants. All we needed was the MEGA and as you can see above we would've won $27,000,000. And here's what hit:

http://www.bikeforums.net/joke/draw-results.jpg

11. ELEVEN. ONE - NUMBER OFF. ELEVEN. If it had been 23 I would've shot myself, but oh my GOD. After the shock wore off, I had the wherewithall to jump online to investigate (you can't imagine how slow 56k feels when you're trying to figure out if you've just won a bunch of money). I finally found the site, and unfortunately, the dropoff is pretty substantial. This is what the WEDNESDAY winners got for the 20 Million Lotto:

http://www.bikeforums.net/joke/win.jpg

I hate to be such a downer here. We just won the lottery...but SUNUVA B**** - you know? And the worst is I don't know how much we won. Because the jackpot was $27,000,000, I did the math, and it's a share of about $1,828,753.20. It all depends on how many people hit. And the average of the last 25 drawings was that around 15 people hit 5 of 5. I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE SAYING. DUDE - YOU JUST WON A TRUCKLOAD OF MONEY. I understand that, but taking the average, and after taxes, we'd get about $40,000. I know that's a lot of money, and I truly can't believe it - but we could've been set for life - not a care in the world. Set for life, little Billy's college fund. You know? I'm sure in a day or so it will sink in and I'll be really excited, but this JUST happened a few hours ago, so it's still bittersweet.

So here's the deal -- if 10 or less people win, I will give every senior member $100. 10 winning gives me close to $100,000 after taxes and I'll GLADLY throw 10% percent of it back to those who supported the BikeForums. I checked the last 25 drawings, and 17 of the 25 were under 10 people hitting 5 of 5. It's truly how much you mean to me.

Please PM me your address so I can send the check.

My head is spinning. If I take the highest and lowest number of winners the fluctuation is: 8 to 36. That's either: $110,000 after taxes or $20,000 after taxes. I'll find out on TUESDAY!

orright :beer: :fun:

Good things happen to good people Joe . I'm happy for you .
Bet you do a lot of daydreaming today . Congrats !:beer:

Joe
Glad you one big. I never new ot talked to anyone that one before. Therefore I've never bought a lottery ticket.
have a beer for me.
Joe
:beer:

Joe, congrats! The gods do smile on good people sometimes. You deserve it for what you have done for and with the forums. I won't be sending you my address. Put the money that you might have sent to me in a fund to help keep the forums solvent. Your unselfish generosity is an inspiration and I hope nothing but good luck follows you always.

Originally posted by ljbike
Joe, congrats! The gods do smile on good people sometimes. You deserve it for what you have done for and with the forums. I won't be sending you my address. Put the money that you might have sent to me in a fund to help keep the forums solvent. Your unselfish generosity is an inspiration and I hope nothing but good luck follows you always.

Ditto!!

For those who qualify, $100 is not a lot of money. Together, those funds can provide a boost for you and the forum. Sorry to say, but $100,000 or whatever you get will not really last a long time. Use it as principal, invest it safely, and use the interest for the forum and yourself.

Congrats, Joe, couldn't happen to a nicer guy!:beer:.
I appreciate your generosity...but
I'm with Dnvr & ljbike, keep the forums going with the money.

Congrats Joe. I've NEVER known anyone to actually WIN a lottery. And I'm TRULY touched by your generosity...

But guy, this is your money! Take the $100 per senior member and buy yourself a *****in', no-compromises road bike. If you insist on spreading the wealth around, then subsidize jerseys [that way, in fact, you put the money into a BF marketing thing]. But the money's yours use it! :)

Joe:
it about about time something nice happens to a nice guy like you!
catfish

Uhmmm Joe, You're not thinking about that monster
SUV on the top of the page are you?

I say go buy yourself that dream bike you've lusted after.

Congrats on your win :beer:

Marty

Congrats!!

I guess I better find those fortune cookies that I've been keeping and play the lotto too!

Way to go Joe!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! Wow! I got excited just reading your post, Joe! :eek: :eek: Hey, that money is yours. You go ahead and put it to some good use. And keep going back to that Chinese place!

:fun: :fun:

um april fools???:confused: :thumbup:

Originally posted by The Toninator
um april fools???:confused: :thumbup:

DARN, I think he got me again!!

DOH. . .

But I still think you should buy your dream bike!

Marty

Originally posted by The Toninator
um april fools???:confused: :thumbup:

ahhhahahahahahhahahah.......$100 bucks would sure be nice at this point....to make up for all the crap ive ordered online in the last week!

Congratulations! Now, let me tell you about this little business idea I have been toying around with. It's a great idea, all I need is a couple of financial backers. First, we put out a bunch of drift nets and catch some dolphins. Then we cover them with crude oild and . . . hey wait, where are you going?

By the way, that "ad" at the top of the page is fantastic.

andy

Originally posted by KleinMp99


ahhhahahahahahhahahah.......$100 bucks would sure be nice at this point....to make up for all the crap ive ordered online in the last week!
I have ordered so much **** online in the last 6 months it's going to take winning the lottery just to get me out of debt:p

OK, I'll admit it. You got me good. I was just going to say how you deserved it and all that. Good one Joe. :)
But I'm going to hold you to that $100!!!! ;)

Originally posted by Joe Gardner
HOLY MACKERAL...OH MY...SUNUVA B....

So here's the deal...I will give every senior member $100.
I AM CHECKING RIGHT NOW JOE TO MAKE SURE I'M A SENIOR MEMBER!

GET POSTING, YOU MEMBERS, JUNIOR MEMBERS AND GUESTS!

:thumbup:

OK Joe. What's going on?
If this is an April Fool's joke you got me! :o :lol:
Let's see. You live in Utah and the ticket is for the California Lottery. Hmmmmm.


If it is for real, congratulation. You won $112,886. :thumbup: :cool: You deserve it.
Don't do the $100 thing. Go buy your dream bike -- or maybe a couple of bikes. :D


I know the advertisement for the Ford Behemoth at the top of the page is an April Fool's joke. :fight:

Check the date on the ticket as well.... ;)

That said, i did purchase my dream road bike this week, i'll get pictures of it ASAP! (No joke!) :)

Originally posted by Joe Gardner
Check the date on the ticket as well.... ;)

That said, i did purchase my dream road bike this week, i'll get pictures of it ASAP! (No joke!) :)

heheheh. good one.

congrats on the bike.

04/01/02

Originally posted by RonH
Don't do the $100 thing. Go buy your dream bike -- or maybe a couple of bikes. are u nuts, its a free 100 bucks.....who dosent need 100 bucks?????

Good Job Joe! I think this is the second year in a row that I've fallen for your April Fool's joke.

dangit, Joe, you CHEESEHEAD. You had us going there for a minute. But it was only for a second, since we're such a bright bunch of crayons!!
Heck -I call it winning when I just scratch off a "Free Ticket" !:D

I guess i can end this thread...

APRIL FOOLS!!!

And yes, the ford ad is an april fools joke aswell. For thoes who missed it, heres a screen shot i just took:

Originally posted by Joe Gardner
I guess i can end this thread...

APRIL FOOLS!!!

And yes, the ford ad is an april fools joke aswell. For thoes who missed it, heres a screen shot i just took:

Yeah, that ad had me going last night. I spent most of the ride home today thinking WTF??? The April Fools' day thing simply never occurred to me. :eek:

I suspected the SUV ad...I mean, where is the bike rack?!

OK, anyone else here from Brooklyn? How do you write a raspberry?:rolleyes:

Cheers...Gary

I'm a long way from Brooklyn, but I bet the universal spelling is

PPPPPBBBBBBBBPBPBBBBBBBBBBLLLLLLLLLLLLTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT.

hard to spell spit, tho.

Hope that helped. :)

Close enough.

That's for you Joe! :D

Cheers...Gary

:lol: Thanks Gary! :p

Very funny Joe. I can normally spot a April fools joke, but you got me good. I even told my wife about your good fortune. It was the amount of detail that it made it very believable. Good one.

A few years ago a radio station Triple J ran a story that Sydney had lost the Olympics. What made that believable was that Richard Wilkins announced on the Today Show that he had late breaking news that Sydney had lost the Olympics. The only problem was that Richard Wilkins wasn't in on the joke, he thought he was covering a ground breaking story which he had heard on morning radio. He looked like a total fool, which he is. :D

CHEERS.

Mark.