Missed It By That Much

Back in the 60’s on the show, Get Smart, Don Adams had the catchphrase, “missed it by that much”. That phrase is very appropriate for me, because I missed it by just that much. Saturday night Kris and I stopped at the Pick N Save to pick up a few things, like fruit, bread, etc. Not a lot, just a few quick items. As we were walking out, I decided to stop at the service desk because I had a lottery ticket that I had been holding onto for a month that was a $1 winner, and figured it was about time to cash that badboy in. While there, I saw the Powerball jackpot was at something like $179 million, so I reaced into my pocket for another dollar and rolled my winnings into another ticket.

Usually, when I buy a lottery ticket, I will get a Badger 5 ticket as well. The jackpot starts at $10K and goes up daily by a minimum of $1K until it is won. I think it goes up by more, depending on how many tickets are sold. So I thought, yeah, give me Badger 5 ticket as well. When I buy lottery tickets, I don’t normally sit and wait for the numbers to be drawn, or even check them in the morning, just because the odds are so long. Sunday night I was cleaning up and thought, hey, better check the lottery numbers to see if I won, figuring there was no way I would have.

The Powerball jackpot had increased, so I knew that was a loser, but thought I would check and see if maybe I won $2. Nope. Then I looked at the Badger 5. The jackpot was back down at $10K, so I knew someone had cashed in. I looked up the numbers for Satuday night and checked my ticket… nope, yep, yep, yep, yep. Then I thought, is that right, I matched 4 of 5? I checked and double checked and was shocked. I got 4 of the 5 numbers. So I missed a $38K jackpot by one number. Instead, I win $50. I’ll still take it.

I tell myself, that if I had won, there would have probably been 4 or 5 other winners, because the jackpot gets split between winners. But it still sucks thinking I was just shy of a pretty nice payday.