Day one as a post-Powerball non-billionaire

Well, I didn't win Powerball.

Of course I didn't. But it would have been nice to get at least one of the numbers, especially the first one ...  you know, to build the suspense for at least one or two seconds.

I'm normally not one to gamble, since I don't see mucn entertainment value in it, and I'm probably going to lose my money, anyway. However, the incredibly slight possibility of turning $2 into nearly $1 billion (after taxes) was worth a WTF trip to the local Rite-Aid on my way home from work.

If nothing else, it made for some fun, harmless fantasies about what my wife and I would do if we won. Quit work, for sure, and pay off the house, but also get a little flat in London and be able to ride in the bed seats on the plane across the Atlantic.

I'm sure there would have been some charitable contributions, and maybe a building at one of our colleges or scholarships named after our families would have been in order.

And about 90 percent of our Facebook friends would have been history ... nothing personal, just trying to make the circle of people who may ask for money smaller. (Of course, I'm not talking about you. You, I would have kept.)

That was about as far as we got. No sports teams, or newspaper companies, or islands somewhere. Neither of us is extravagant, and I may be one of the few people who actually worries about blowing nearly $1 billion.

But the idea that really made me think was the concept of (assuming we didn't take complete leave of our senses) never having to worry about money ever again. We both do fairly well, no complaints there, but there's a difference between the nice lives my wife and I lead and being insanely, filthy rich.

However, it was not to be, and it never was. Oh well.