Oh my.  A month has gone by. I last wrote about taking vacations—including from devices—and must have been truly inspired by my own ideas! But thus the blogging sabbatical ends. And speaking of inspiration…

Local lottery winners say, “meh”

A married couple not far from here just won nearly $12 million, and seem appropriately pleased but surprisingly unfazed by their luck. The Star Tribune interviews the lucky couple here and shares these heart-warming quotes…

“I have a fabulous job, and I like to work. I actually have to work tonight,”

says Wife, of her waiting-tables job at the charming Lake Elmo Inn.

“I don’t think it’s going to change our lives that much,”

ponders Husband.

“We really hope it doesn’t change the people around us,”

suggests Wife.

There you have it: Real winners! Just folks that are suddenly rich, yet obviously have been living rich, content lives all along. That’s what can happen when you do something approximating our 11 Commandments of Fiscal Fitness—which are as much about living well and sanely as they are about money management.

• Is winning the lottery really “winning?”

Follow-up stories on lottery winners are rarely pretty. Too many “winners” quit their work, spend like crazy, and eventually end up jobless, possibly penniless, and even friendless.

Not long ago, for ex, media reported on a Minnesota young woman who had won millions and, some years later, mostly drove around her small town solo in her Hummer—while locals rolled their eyes and rumored that she’d spent it all, lost her career, and alienated her community.

Sometimes, all we need is right in front of us. As for all we want? Sometimes that stuff is just stuff, and we may be better off without it.

Best wishes to this model couple a few miles north of here. If I ever recognize them in a nearby pub, I’d like to buy them a drink and make a toast to their smarts.