I have a dream...

Money.  What I couldn't do with more of it.  I don't mean the usual guff- mansion, speedboat and the like- just being able to finish things in a reasonable timeframe.  I'm involved in something of a long term project at the moment which, given somewhat larger reserves of cash, would fall neatly into the short term category.
I speak of Domotics. A word which even my spellchecker finds ridiculous (Dimitris, Comoros, synoptics), so let's call it Home Automation.
Nothing fancy, mind you.  I just rather like the idea of the hall light coming on to welcome us home on dark winter evenings, or popping the coffee machine on in the kitchen while I contemplate a looming day in the office from between the sheets.
And I'm getting there, too.  On these dark winter evenings the back door light really does welcome us home and my early morning coffee is stymied not by technology but by the coffee machine being in storage ahead of the house-move.
But aside from a few other lights I'm currently in hiatus.  It's unreasonable to spend too much money on the equipment necessary ahead of the move, and anyway, the idea was just to get a feel for the technology in this house before going full scale in the new one.  So now instead of spending I'm learning and planning, the learning being forced upon me by the planning.  There's a great deal I can do, I discovered, if I use a computer to program and control the lights and whatever else I decide to plug in. So I'll be needing some sort of low power, quiet PC to do that. But some time ago I promised myself (and moreover told other people I'd promised myself), that I wasn't going to buy another PC because I hate having to mess about with Windows when I get home after messing about with it all bloody day at work as well.  So I've neatly side-stepped this issue by acquiring a small laptop (slightly too old to be considered a NetBook) which is no use to anyone wishing to use Windows, but which runs Ubuntu Linux quite wonderfully.  There is a slight downside to this:  I'm meant to be getting out of IT, not falling in even deeper.  But this is the first time I've enjoyed learning how to get blood out of a stone for years, and it isn't costing me a penny.  And when we finally move into our next house we will have an extensive system of computerised lighting that will make our 1929 semi look like a 1986 episode of Tomorrow's World.
I shall of course let you know how it goes, but if all goes to plan I'll be taking a massive pay cut next year, so don't hold your breath.