Just for fun

Because Lynn did it.

Five things if I woke up tomorrow and had piles upon piles of money that I felt license to spend:

1. Buy large plots of land near my workplace/home. Hire people to restore them to natural habitat. Encourage grad students and researchers to come and do experiments and studies there. Invite the public to non-damaging, non-consumptive enjoyment (e.g., hiking, butterfly watching) at the site, maybe even hire a couple educational people to run programs there.

2. Buy a plot of land and have a house built on it for me. With a dedicated big library, with a separate music room, with a bigger nicer kitchen than what I have now (with a pantry!) and with abundant storage. Have the land it's on be big enough to serve as somewhat of a noise buffer.

3. Landscape the lawn area with butterfly and bee friendly plants. Sit around and enjoy watching the pollinators.

4. Pay to have all the "deferred maintenance" on campus taken care of. (Yes, I would probably keep my job; a person needs a reason to get up in the morning). Have a greenhouse built for the biology department for student labs and research. (I would also open up the areas listed in 1 for field labs)

5. Give goodly amounts of money to various groups I would like to support and to certain scholarship funds.

A few more, if I can add on:

6. Offer grants to bring more and better small businesses to my town. Small businesses are so much more enjoyable to shop at than the big box places because I get the sense the people who work there have a lot more sense of investment and pride in the business.

7. Start an educational-tours company for single people where you're not required to find a roommate (a bad roommate can make a trip miserable) or pay an outrageous "single supplement" - you get a hotel room to yourself, you don't always have to be buddied up. Do things like run trips to go see the fall foliage or to do museum-hopping or something similar.

Edited to add: and I shall call it - Introvert Tours. Because one big thing that stays my hand of doing tours is that I need time alone at the end of the day, and if you have a roommate who was largely a stranger to you before the tour, it would be far more stressful (can't "let down my hair") than enjoyable.

8. Maybe fund after-school programs, or programs on Fridays (in the districts that don't offer Friday classes "to save money"). These would be mostly fun programs - some sports, some crafts, maybe age-appropriate movies, some educational stuff to and maybe have tutoring or homework help available. I see too many kids who are either bored or lonely or get in trouble after school or on "Fridays off" and it would be good to have something fun for them to do. Or maybe just have places where they can go and play disorganized sports or do crafts on their own, or a library to hang out in.