Mega millions

I bought a Mega Millions lottery ticket a couple of days ago. That’s a rare event, but the jackpot was up to $102 million so I figured why not spend the $1. My chances are as good as anyone else’s. The drawing was last night and I am not surprised to learn that I am not a multi-millionaire today. But I am surprised to see that I actually got two of the numbers, which is two more than ever before. Up until now I have unerringly chosen all the wrong numbers any time I’ve purchased a ticket. Maybe the tide has turned. I’m getting closer! I can almost feel the weight of all those millions in my pockets now. Heh.

In theory, the idea of winning such a huge sum is kind of tantalizing, but studies of past winners seem to suggest that such a sudden windfall is rather upsetting to the overall applecart. My talent for choosing all the wrong numbers is probably a good thing. But then again....

For a brief space of time, before the drawing, I let my imagination wander. What would I do with all that money? Well, the first thing that came to mind was taxes, of course—and the certainty that it wouldn’t turn me into a tax-hating Republican overnight. And then I’d want to cover my roof with solar panels and retrofit my house to become as close to a zero net energy consuming structure as possible. Really. One of the next things I’d like to do would be to adopt a couple of Katrina families who have been displaced and help provide the means to get their lives back. When I think of it in those terms, I realize what a drop in the bucket that would be to the overall situation and that’s pretty disheartening.

Beyond that, I’m not really sure. It’s fun to think about, anyway.

Reminds me of an idle day activity a couple of my friends and I used to engage in during lazy summer afternoons when there was nothing else going on—back in the teen years. Each of us would have a pencil and paper and an imaginary $1 million dollar bank account. What would we do with it? It was an interesting exercise. Most of us wanted to ‘save the world’ in some manner and we found some rather creative ways to make the dollars stretch to achieve maximum benefit, including the old compound interest thing that made the money last longer so we could do more with it. Back in those days a million dollars ran circles around a million of today’s dollar. But the principle was the same.

Well, there’s an idea for some enterprising reality show producer. ;)