Do you know the feeling you have when you absolutely know something is about to happen? I don't have that right now.
But given what I know and don't know at the time of this writing, it is altogether possible that I am America's newest billionaire. Unlikely, I'll admit, but altogether possible.
In the spirit of that possibility, I'd first like to point out that I am not unique among the billionaire class. A lot of them did next to nothing to earn their wealth either. Many just won the birth lottery. In my case, I made an investment and it paid off. Like a lot of other billionaires.
I know what you're thinking. And you're right. If anybody should have a billion dollars thrust upon them, it is SJ. You can be assured that SJ is already referring to himself in the third person which is about all the proof you need that he's ready for the bank transfer.
To get an idea of what SJ would do, it's best to know what I wouldn't do. I am not running for office. I will not, no matter how tempting, buy a town. I won't even buy a church. I won't buy a yacht or a LearJet. Those things are ostentatious, which is a word billionaires should know.
I'm pretty much past buying a lot of things, anyway. I'd update the house. Buy an electric truck. A new kayak. I'd probably pick up a couple of guitars. You can't have too many of those.
Other things I won't do are give money to political parties or political action committees. I won't fund any ballot initiatives. No matter how hard Elon Musk begs, I am not buying Twitter.
Finally, I will not be spending any of that money on legal fees for indictments or the settling of lawsuits, unlike someone else who might have won. Come on, you know he's buying tickets.
In the possibility that my circumstances have changed for the better, I'd make sure my family was taken care of, then apportion the rest to a fund that was dedicated to investing in the people and things at home that make things better for all of us. Just for grins, we'll call it SJ's Homer Fund.
It would invest in small businesses with seed funds and it would support local arts and community based organizations with grants. It would be dedicated to the counties that fall along the Pine Mountain ridge and for preservation on the mountain itself to make sure future generations can hike and hunt and camp on it like I've done most of my life.
That's about it. It's a wild and fun dream to dream, even if it is a long shot. You actually have a better chance of winning the birth lottery than Powerball and it's not even close. The odds of winning Powerball are 1 in 292 million give or take.
There are 742 billionaires in the United States. There are 331.9 million people in the United States. That makes your odds of winning the birth lottery in the U.S. 1 in 458,425.
Come to think of it, I might buy one more thing. How does the SJ News-Express sound?