The first question usually asked in this situation is: “So, did he decide to quit his job, once he realized what had happened?”

What had happened was that Bill Bass recently won $1.8 million in the Missouri State Lottery jackpot.

Bass is a computer specialist with the Farm Service Agency’s Kansas City Information Technology Services Technical Office in Kansas City, Mo.--and now also a millionaire.

“Well, not exactly--my lawyer now calls me a ‘thousandaire’,” he quipped, “since I opted to take an immediate lump sum of $900,000, and from that I paid $400,000 in state and federal taxes.” The other option, he explained, was to receive $72,000 annually for 25 years. “Hey, I’m 63,” he laughed, “so I chose the best option for making sure that I really do see as much of that money as possible--NOW!”

Bass noted that the computer-picked ticket he bought from a local grocery store in Lee’s Summit, Mo., was the only winning jackpot lottery ticket in Missouri for that day.

Bass recounted that over the years he would periodically purchase power ball and lottery tickets, and would spend about $5 per purchase. This particular time he spent $3 on power ball and $2 on lottery tickets.

He explained that winning lottery numbers are announced on local television stations on Saturday evenings, but he usually waits for the Sunday newspaper to check the winning numbers before leaving for church services.

However, on this particular Sunday he had extra errands to run, so didn’t check the numbers until about 10:30 that night, after his wife had gone to bed.

As Bass relaxed in his favorite chair, he first checked the power ball numbers, but had no match on his ticket. He then checked the state lottery numbers. To his surprise, above the winning numbers it read, “One winning lottery ticket sold.”

“I read the numbers--and they matched my ticket,” he recalled. “So I lay my head back and closed my eyes briefly--and then took a second look at the numbers.”

Again, the numbers matched his ticket. “I lay my head back again and closed my eyes again, and then took a third long look,” he said. “The numbers still matched.”

“At that point I decided to get my wife out of bed to confirm what I saw.” She read the numbers--and then started screaming, “We won! We won!”

Bass advised that he and his wife decided that they didn’t want this literal good fortune to disrupt what he describes as their “contented lives.” So to date they have only used their ‘sudden cash flow’ to pay off a new truck they had bought earlier in the year, pay off the remaining mortgage on their home, make some financial investments, and give some to their five adult children.

And, what’s the answer to the question at the beginning of this story? Did Bass decide to quit his job, once he realized what had happened?

“No,” he said, “I’m continuing to work at FSA, and then I’ll retire--as originally planned--in 2006 with 26 years of service, all with FSA.”

“But,” Bass quipped, “in the meantime, I am grinning a lot more around the office, these days.” •