What would you do with $500,000,000

As of right now, the estimated jackpot for Friday night's Mega Millions lottery is $540,000,000.  Over Half a Billion Dollars!  Should the winner choose to take the cash payout option they would get $389,000,000 before taxes.  According to the website they withhold 25% in Federal Taxes from that and 6% in Ohio for State Taxes.  I live in Columbus, which would be an additional 2.5% in city income tax.  So if I were to win the Mega Millions Jackpot on Friday night and took the cash option, I could expect to walk away with $258,685,00 federal, state and city income taxes.   I split the ticket with a friend, so my half of that would then be $129,342,500.

Now if I put 1/3 of that in a simple savings account earning just 0.1% it would earn $43,114 a year in interest.  Since I wouldn't have to worry about a car payment or house payment, the interest alone would provide me with more than enough to pay my annual expenses for food and entertainment.

1/3 of the money would go towards paying off my house and car and taking care of all of those maintenance things that need done at my house.  Then I would have plenty to sell my house and build a new house the way I want it with the land the way I want it, and maintain it.  With plenty left over to make sure those things stay maintained and well taken care of.  It would also provide plenty of money to make sizable donations to my church and to charities that I feel are worthy.

The last 3rd of the money I could use for whatever I wanted.  Fun, vacations, giving away, or whatever.  I have some more specific things I would use part of this money for, but those are things that will be part of my dreams unless it actually happens.

It's fun to dream about these things.  And with the current jackpot being what it is, it makes it much more tempting to dream.

Two Posts - One Day

Yes, this is the second blog post on the same day, but the subjects of each posting were so different that I didn't want to stick them together. I thought, for what complaining I do about some of the drama that goes on, I should at least note the fact that last Friday at work was a good day.

A co-worker of mine vented to me about some issues and I vented back to her about other issues, but even with all the venting we were in a pretty good mood all day. And the mood at work stayed positive throughout the entire shift, something that rarely happens here. I'm not saying the mood is always negative...I really enjoy being here at work more often than not...but last Friday was an especially good day at work. Maybe it was because two of the four people here were starting their vacations when they left that day. But whatever the reason, I really enjoyed work on March 23. It was a good day.

50th Anniversary

Well, the 50th Anniversary celebration for my parents went off without much of a hitch. It was the first time in several years that we'd gotten all four kids together with mom and dad at the same time, and five of the nine grandchildren were able to make it.

There were some faces there that I hadn't seen in several years and my parents were happy to see them too.

My parents were two of a very small graduating class in 1961, so a lot of the remaining members of their class were there, as well as all of my dad's brothers and sisters.

There was a little bit too much of most things (cake, punch, coffee), which is really what I was shooting for when I planned it. I would much rather have too much than not enough.

Got a lot of help from everyone getting the church ready for the celebration. My brother's girlfriend and her daughter did a great job of helping set up the decorations and the "presentation table" with all the pictures and photo albums.

My nieces and nephews were a great help setting up beforehand and cleaning up afterwards, as well as a very good friend who was there as a guest and stuck around to help clean up.

Most of all I have to thank the Women's Guild of the Grace United Church of Christ. They were a terrific help with getting us in to set up and helping to serve cake, coffee and punch to the guests.

If You Think It's About You....It Probably Is

Memories are who we used to be...not who we are.

I did some work yesterday, going through old pictures in order to put a photo album together for my parents' anniversary party this weekend. As I was going through the photos I came across several that I either had forgotten existed or didn't know ever existed.

So the project now has become trying to get all of those pictures scanned and put in to a digital format and get them identified as to the times and places and, in some cases, the people in them. While I expect it to be very time consuming, I think it will be fun to look through those pictures and remember some of the times that I can remember.

But it's also important to remember not to LIVE in the past. The past is what it is. Everything we've done in the past has played a part in making us who we are today. But we are who we are today. We're not who we once were. Too many times I see people trying to hang on to the person they once were. Everything in their life ends up referring back to that past life to the point where it almost upsets them not to be recognized as that person they once were.

When I was in high school I was a member of a group of Law Enforcement Explorers and while part of that group I applied and was selected to serve on a national committee where I met the head of every law enforcement agency as well as some state and local law enforcement agencies. After high school I joined the Army and served as a military policeman. After getting out of the Army I went to work in retail loss prevention and then to my current job as a public safety dispatcher. While all of those things have shaped me in to the person I am and molded my current career choice, none of those past jobs or positions or groups are who I am today. I am no longer on that committee working with the Director of the FBI or head of the Postal Inspection Services or Customs Service. I'm no longer a military policeman in the Army travelling the world and participating in field exercises. Those things that I did taught me a lot. They helped form my decision to work in my current profession. But they were a long time ago. They don't define who I am. My current profession doesn't define who I am either.

We can't live in the past. There's nothing wrong with remembering the past. There's nothing wrong with talking about who we used to be and things we used to do. But don't let those things be who you are today. Don't let yourself be defined today by who you USED TO BE. I'm not former military policeman Chris Burkhardt. I'm Chris Burkhardt, Christian, son, friend, uncle, brother, dispatcher, co-worker, guy driving down the street.

Good Article

Last fall several exotic animals were released from their cages and ran loose in the Zanesville area. This article in Esquire magazine is a good account, from several perspectives, of what happened that evening.

http://www.esquire.com/features/zanesville-0312

50 Years Ago

My parents will be celebrating their 50th Anniversary on March 24.  I came across this clip from the Sunday Morning show about what things were going on 50 years ago.

Congratulations Alex

I found out Sunday that my sister's son (Alex) was selected to attend Buckeye Boys State for 2012.  This is quite an accomplishment.  He was one of only 3 boys nominated by his school to interview for a spot and then had to interview with members of the American Legion in order to be selected.  During the week that he attends, boys from across the state of Ohio will meet to form a state government as well as county and local governments.  The boys there will run for offices and hold official positions within the government that they set up.

Congratulations Alex on your selection!

To kind of put in perspective how much of an accomplishment it is to be selected for Buckeye Boys State, here are some of their alumni:

Neil Armstrong First man on the moon	1946 Boys State
Thomas Moyer Chief Justice - Ohio Supreme Court	1956 Boys State
Michael Oxley U.S. Congressman	1961 Boys State
Greg Lashutka Former Mayor - Columbus	1961 Boys State
Rex Kern Ohio State University	1966 Boys State
Terence Henricks Astronaut	1969 Boys State
Randy Gradishar Ohio State University	1969 Boys State
Carl Walz Astronaut	1972 Boys State
Michael Gernhardt Astronaut	1973 Boys State
Joseph Johns Television Reporter	1974 Boys State
Randall Gardner Ohio Senaator	1976 Boys State
Gregory Johnson Astronaut	1979 Boys State
Darrin Blackford U.S. Secret Service	1981 Boys State
David Moreland U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds	1989 Boys State

To learn more about Buckeye Boys State you can click on this link:

http://www.ohiobuckeyeboysstate.com/philosophy.html 

No Drama

You would think that, in a job that produces plenty of real life drama, that people would not want to have a lot of additional drama.  You'd be wrong.  I wonder sometimes why that is, and I admit that I get caught up in drama occassionally.  Maybe even more often than "occassionally".  But I've made an effort to try and stay away from the drama and even try to help keep some of the drama away from here.  It doesn't always work, really it rarely works.  But that's when I just try to find the humor in some of the drama.  The potential to deal with life and death situations every day is a real thing here.  Anything less than that is easy and not worth getting worked up over.  I'm just sayin'