Life After Lotto? Same as Before : Money: Winning the Big Spin for some has meant a few extra luxuries, but no guarantee of good health or happiness.

If he follows his usual Monday-morning schedule, Warrick (Woody) Woodard will get up today at 5:30 a.m., report for work at the Port Hueneme naval station and settle in at his desk to order supplies for U.S. Navy ships.

Not such an unusual way to begin the week--except that Woodard is a millionaire.

Two years ago, Woodard, 49, had an amazing streak of luck when he went to the state lottery’s Big Spin three times in just seven months, winning $1,050,000.

But the Camarillo resident still puts in his 40 hours a week as a Navy boatswain’s mate. He has to keep working, he said, because he is paying so much in taxes on his winnings.

“I paid more money in taxes than I made last year,” Woodard said.

And Woodard isn’t alone among Ventura County residents who have won $1 million or more in the lottery. For him and others, being a millionaire is surprisingly similar to not being one.

Woodard and his wife, Darlene, enthusiastically agree that the money is wonderful financial security. It allowed her to follow him out to California from Virginia and consolidate their bi-coastal marriage. But aside from buying a couple of new cars and a $250,000 house in Camarillo, they have shied away from spending the money.

Woodard, casually attired in blue jeans and a flannel shirt, said he plans to continue working until his Navy stint is up in 1993.

Then he plans to use the money to travel to Australia and start his own construction company.

He is pleased by the idea of owning a business and not having to check in at the office every single day, a luxury he can afford only because of the lottery wins.

“It was really the greatest thing,” Woodard said. “It’s something that you’ve always dreamed about but can never happen---unless you fall into a pot of gold.”

Even so, Woodard and his wife said that the pot, divided into equal payments over 20 years, would not go that far without careful planning.

They are quick to correct people who assume that winning the lottery is the key to material paradise and a profound change of lifestyle.

Some Ventura County winners seem eager to show that their lives are still simple, either because they have chosen to invest rather than spend the new riches or because, they note somewhat wryly, that $1 million is not that much money these days.

In Ventura County, 18 people have won more than $68 million in the state’s gambling game.

Many winners refuse to discuss the lottery, fearful that revealing the prize will prompt the envy of friends or attract opportunists eager to cut themselves in on a fortune.

“Many times, winners shy away from publicity because so many people from the public approach them for business propositions,” said Norma Minas, a lottery spokeswoman. “Many would just prefer a quiet lifestyle.”

In Woodard’s case, a destitute family he didn’t know contacted him and asked for money after he won his $1 million.

Envious co-workers stopped talking to him. Tensions also rose when friends asked again and again to borrow money, Woodard said.

“I tell them, ‘You don’t see ‘bank’ written on my forehead. It’s down the street,’ ” Woodard said.

Willie Smallwood, 65, of Ventura, was besieged by calls and visits from investment companies and real estate agents after he won $1 million in the Big Spin about two years ago.

But Smallwood said that other people are more impressed by the money than he is.

“Everyone I meet, we talk about it,” Smallwood said.

Other than retiring one year early from his job as a school custodian and moving to a bigger house, Smallwood said his life is no different than before.

He still drives the same car. He still spends his spare time sanding and painting small pieces of furniture. And he still buys a lottery ticket every now and then.

“I haven’t planned anything big,” said Smallwood, lounging in gray sweat pants and a white T-shirt while watching a game show one weekday morning. “I just prefer a quiet life.”

Other winners never got the chance to enjoy the advantages lottery money can bring.

Kathleen Romines of Port Hueneme won $9.74 million on a Lotto ticket that her husband William bought her for Valentine’s Day in 1988.

He made the gesture after she complained that he always forgot the holiday.

She was elated by the win and made plans to travel, said Linda Romines, a niece by marriage.

But Kathleen Romines, 62, only lived to see one of the $487,000 checks from the winnings that would be paid in 20 annual installments.

She died of cancer in December, 1988.

William Romines, 64, didn’t have much time to enjoy the money either. He died of a massive heart attack four months later--two weeks after the second check arrived.

Now the money will go to the couple’s 10 heirs.

“I don’t know if it really made too much of a difference in their lives at all,” said their nephew, John Romines Jr.

For Shirley and Milton (Zeke) Zeitzmann, also of Port Hueneme, her million-dollar trip to the Big Spin meant a chance to buy gifts for their children, set up trust funds for their grandchildren and take a couple of extra trips to Las Vegas each year.

The Zeitzmanns, who grew up during the Depression, said they handle their new money conservatively, investing almost all of it.

“We’re living on what we did before I won the lottery,” said Shirley Zeitzmann, 68.

Throughout their almost 44 years of marriage, the Zeitzmanns have never owned a credit card, and paid cash for all their cars.

Zeke Zeitzmann, 69, still sells homemade clocks at swap meets and comparison shops before buying anything.

He recently refused to pay $2 for a light socket at a hardware store, searching until he found the mechanism on sale for under $1.

The two said they have no inclination to move out of the modest, one-story, light green house they have called home for 21 years.

Nor does the couple, who moved 17 times during Zeke Zeitzmann’s career in the Navy, wish to jet off to exotic lands.

Shirley Zeitzmann wears her gold lottery pin every day and said she feels sorry for people who only manage to win $20,000 or so.

“When people ask me what I intend to do, I say, ‘Live long enough to cash my last check,’ ” Shirley Zeitzmann said.