The things I could do, if I had the winning ticket

Iheard on the radio in the tractor the other morning that the power ball lottery was up to over a billion dollars.

For some reason that kind of stuck in my head. Later that morning I went to town to get some spray paint after the chores were done so I stopped in at the gas station. I got me a pop and I bought a $3 lottery ticket. I needed spray paint to put my brand on some new horse blankets I’d bought.

They make fun of me down at the feed store because they know

I’m too tight to spend money on something so foolish as a lottery ticket. That radio show talked a good deal about how much money the winner would have, then they compared the lottery winner’s wealth to some famous celebrities. It shocked me that the lottery winner would be worth more than many of the country music stars that I thought were really well off.

Later on in the day, I was fixing fence and the barb wire cut my hand. I thought to myself maybe next week I won’t have to fix fence no more. When I finished patching the fence, I headed back to the house. The old feed truck didn’t want to start and I had to jiggle the battery cables to get it to make contact. I thought maybe next week I’ll have a better feed truck.

The rest of the day was kind of the same thing as I went about my day around the house and farm.

I’d build a new heated and cooled horse barn, an indoor arena and buy a bunch of good roping horses. I also got to thinking there’s not an indoor arena anywhere around. So I thought about how I’d build a new indoor arena and give it to the roundup clubs in the area.

There are two that are fairly close.

I figured I’d stipulate that the arena can’t ever be locked. I want it where if someone wants to go ride a horse they can ride anytime they want. I’d be ok with a donation box to help pay the light and water bill, but I want the average person to be able to go and use it.

That evening, I sat in my chair and thought some more about what our little corner of the world needs. There’s a bunch of stuff, from a good western and tack store to a good place to break horses in the mountains.

Most of the schools in my county don’t have a barn at the school for the kids to keep their show animals in, so I’d build every school a brand new barn for the show animals.

On-and-on, I went thinking up stuff that needs done around here. It kept me entertained for the rest of the day at least, dreaming about the lottery.

That evening, I got to telling my wife about all the stuff we could “fix” around our little corner of the world if we won the lottery. She gave me a serious look and said, “Only you would think of such things.”

I didn’t know which channel showed them drawing out the winning numbers, so we had to google it. It turned out there was no winner that night.

It worked out ok, because somehow that durned little lottery ticket had slipped out of my coveralls pocket and got lost anyways.