I think it may be over...

I sent back the assemblies with broken adjustors, and I'll get a full refund. My mother-in-law used to work for Berglund, a big car dealer in Roanoke, and we can get new assemblies for the Cadillac for a lot cheaper than most folks would pay. It can pay to have connections.

I'd like to be connected to the winning numbers in Friday's MegaMillions jackpot drawing. I can't seem to pull up the MegaMillions site to see what it's up to now, but it has to be close to $200 million. If the winner were to take the lump sum amount, then pay the taxes on that, it'd be around $90 million or so. That's nothing to sneeze at.

I play every now and then. I don't feel too bad when I find out I didn't win even $2, because the money went to schools. But it'd be nice to win a little something, to say nothing of the big prize. We could use some extra cash: this economy is sucking my family dry. With a 1 in 176 million chance of winning, the odds are against most everyone. But when it grows huge like this, tons of people play, and someone eventually wins.

I think everyone has his/her jackpot winning fantasy. Here's mine:

• Pay off every debt we have. Mortgage, credit cards, student loans, bookies (just kidding on that last one).
• Pay off every debt my parents, in-laws, sister and siblings-in-law have.
• Build our house on "the farm" in Hillsville, VA. Make it big enough to fill with people during the holidays, but not so sickly big that vacuuming becomes a week-long task. And it'll be run fully on solar panels.
• Start college funds and IRAs for all the kids in the family, even those not born yet.
• Donate a pile of money to religious organizations, and NPOs dedicated to finding cures for cancer, Alzheimer's Disease and uncommon diseases (like polycythemia vera, a mostly nuisance myloproliferative disease my father has).
• The indulgent part: new cars! For us, an '09 Ford Flex Limited, an '09 Cadillac CTS-V (yes, it's a Cadillac, but it's not like the one I have now, not by any stretch of the imagination), and something to commute in, maybe an Infiniti. I think we'd donate our current cars (it's $90 million bucks for goodness sake, how much more do you need?!). For my parents, some kind of station wagon for Mom, and an '09 Nissan 370Z for Dad... in roadster form, if it's available yet. Plus a '50 Mercury 2-door hardtop in "driveable dream" condition. For Kimberly's parents, an '09 Ford F-250 XLT Lariat 4X4 with PowerStroke Diesel for Ronnie, and an '09 Ford Mustang GT for Evelyn. And I'd buy every part Ronnie needs to finish his '70 Mustang Fastback and Evelyn's '69 GMC Pickup.
• Invest in gems and metals on top of different stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
• Finance Kimberly's ideas to start a line of baby clothing and open a professional theater.
• Start really working on my creative writing projects.
• Spend more time volunteering in the community and going on mission trips.
• Take Richard out to see the world.
• Would I keep working? I don't know. Seems like this hypothetical schedule is even crazier than the one I have now. Might not be time for "cubing."

Yeah, I think that's about it. I may just pick up a ticket before Friday's drawing; you never know, but I do know you have no chance of winning if you don't play. Whoever eventually wins, let's pray s/he looks to God for guidance on how the money must be put to use. I'd hate to see such a blessing be squandered on golden teeth and Maybachs (dude, I looked those up on Cars.com... they lose their value quicker than Audis... that's not good at all).