Lottery Jackpot is now over $1.5 BILLION. I’m off to Beaver Dam

My little mind can't really grasp what a BILLION dollars would be like to own.  As we learned in math class, a billion is 1,000 million.  And after taxes, this $1.5 billion jackpot sends you home with around a billion dollars.   Over the years I've heard all sorts of lottery stories.  I like having Beaver Dam close by so I can perhaps have my own lotter story someday.

I've heard people say, "It ruined my life!"  Well, then it landed with the wrong person, didn't it?  I've had friends ask, "Can you imagine what it would be like to win?"   Can I?  I do imagine that every time I play.  To me, that's the fun part of playing.  It's like buying a movie ticket to watch the fantasy reel playing in my head.  And it's nothing extravagant.  I like my car.  I don't want to live in a mansion.  I rent a Cessna now and then to go flying so I might buy my own but that's about it.  I'm not one of those people who spend a fortune playing.

It only takes ONE ticket to win.  I have 3 sets of numbers that I play.  Random birthdays, a few lucky numbers and some numbers that my grandmother had stored in her prayer book years ago.  The numbers make no sense of any of us in the family but when my mom found them, I decided to keep them in play.

I've been a part of lottery pools in the past and played my own numbers as well as quick picks.  Years ago in Colorado, there was a commercial that started with the lottery numbers coming back 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and the Powerball was 6.  It asked, "What are the odds of that happening?".  Then they pointed out that they are exactly the same odds as ANY other combination.  There is a tip jar where I play that borrowed a line from The Hunger Games that just says, "May the odds be forever in your favor".  You KNOW you have to throw a tip in there for some added good luck, right?