If I Won...

On a whim, today, I did something I rarely do.  I bought a single ticket for the regional "Mega-Lotto" game.  This is foolish, and I know I am simply throwing my money away, but for some reason it felt like something I should do today.  What my rather silly purchase did for me, however, was help me in a bit of daydreaming.  What would I do, if by some incredibly small chance, win this enormous amount of money?  My aspirations for the money... may seem modest to some, and perhaps extravagent to others, but here is what I would do.... IF money were no object:

1.  I would hire a professional house organizer for help and guidance to help us get our home into a more efficient order.  This would probably be a one-time occurance (or if I found it extremely helpful, perhaps we would do it once, yearly). 

2.  I would hire a part-time maid to come in, probably twice a week, to help us in general cleaning, to help my wife and I both free up some time. 

3.  Even though I have taken care of my yard (and before that my paren'ts yard as well) nearly my whole life, I would hire a lawn cutting service and a snow removal service... again to free up some of my time. 

4.  On the extravagent side, I would look about with my wife and try to find a small, modest, but neat 2 bedroom condo in Chicago for us to purchase as a family vacation spot.  Chicago is such a wonderful city, and we have gone their often.  But, to have a "home-away-from home" that could visit almost on a whim, that is close to the train lines would be delightful for our family. 

5.  Another on the extravagent side purchase, would be a similar, small condo in the Florida area for a similar sort of "on a moment's notice" vacation destination. 

6.  I would quit teaching in the Spring/Summer session to free up time for me to indulge in more camping and fishing. 

7.  I would take my beat-up, old truck, and take it to a body shop to have its rust repaired, a new back bumper put on (the original is rusting through), a professional cleaning of the interior, and perhaps a fresh paint job. 

8.  I would splurge and buy myself a new, pick-up camper for my truck, so that I could when so moved, travel around wherever, and camp, and experience new adventures in the same vein as Steinbeck wrote about in "Travels With Charlie". 

9.  I would quit all the committee work that is drugery, keeping only those that felt worthwhile and felt as if they were actually making a valuable difference.

10.  I would spend some of my own money to spruce up my research lab at the U.  Nothing particularly fancy, but updating, with a few new gizmos, replacement of some old machinery, and if possible, more space for the various lab research projects I will shift my (prior committee) time towards. 

11.  I would probably treat myself to 2 or 3 new, really nice new pipes.  It has been a very long time since I have done that. 

12.  I would quit being involved with the two people I dislike at the U.  I would devote myself to the joys of my job fully... teaching and research, with just enough enjoyable committee work thrown in to have fun.

13.  I would probably buy our first HDTV. 

14.  I might buy a "smart phone", even though I am not sure I would. 

15.  I would set up an organized plan to be able to donate funds to the causes I want to support and help. 

Those are the things I dreamed about this afternoon after spending my pocket change on a "Mega-Lotto" ticket.  Of course, there are other, more helpful things I would need to do to help my greater family, but from the selfish side of my daydreams, the above hits the keys of my wish-list.