The Lottery

Hey, somebody won the Gopher 5 last night. It could even have been me. I have a ticket.

The reason I know is that the lighted number signs in the convenience store windows changed from $375 thousand to the base of $100 thousand. If you consider that about a third of that win is taken for taxes, that leaves something close to $240 thousand. That's not quite enough for me to retire on, yet, but it would certainly change how that retirement is spent.

For example, I could purchase a house down in Arizona using just a portion of the net, rather than selling this one when I retire and moving down. That way I'd have this one to return to up here for the summers, which is good because I love my yard, with blueberry and raspberry bushes, fish ponds, a fire ring for evening entertainment and cooking. Heck, I could even head down there now for a few months each winter with this place to return to, kind of a semi-retirement. Days like today make that very tempting.

On the other hand, I could peel off a few thousand for each of the kids, mine and my boyfriend's, sort of an early inheritance, and sock the rest away for a few years of additional interest, then sell here and move, etc., etc. That credit card balance and the car payment could be eliminated first, of course, and that would take a lot of the stress away. Some of the vehicle maintenance I've been putting off could be taken care of, like replacing the other three engine coils instead of just the bad one I took care of last year. There is quite an expensive amount of dental work ahead, or a new solar-shingle roof for the house, or a few nice vacations I'd love to take.

Now if it had been the Powerball which had won last night, my dreams would be so much grander. The bigger the jackpot, the more people I'd share it with, the more charities I'd cut in for shares, and the more my own personal dreams could grow. A house becomes lakeshore property with my own dream home design. Add a windmill to those solar shingles, make diverse and interesting investments....

The point is, until I know for sure that I haven't won, my imagination can entertain me for hours with all the possibilities built into that amount of money. That's why I consider buying a lottery ticket as an entertainment tax. My imagination can be amazingly and frustratingly literal-minded, and refuses to really take flight without some possibility it could happen. Enjoying my fantasies as I am, I won't even check my ticket until this weekend.

My daughter insists that lottery tickets are only for the mathematically challenged. I disagree. Heck, I know the odds, practically zero. Just not completely zero. Occasionally somebody does win, like last night.

And until I check that ticket, it could even be me! Dream on!