We Interrupt Your Regularly Scheduled Reading

You don't know how close you were to having the MEDALLION saga pre-empted by today's tale!

I know, right? You're all probably trying to decide if that would be a bad thing. Like Kim Darby as Mattie Ross of near Dardanelle in Yell County said to Glen Campbell as LaBeouf the Texas Ranger in the original True Grit, after he said he'd changed his mind from stealing a kiss from her to giving her five or six good licks with his belt..."One would be as unpleasant as the other."

Of course, there's only one thing Val would think important enough to pre-empt a long boring tale of a savings bonds faux pas. A PENNY FROM HEAVEN!

On Monday morning, I took my little flat rate box of bonds (with its UPDATED list) to the main post office. I filled out my own shipping label, because the guy working was the one with terrible writing. I found that out previously, when I had neatly written in block letters the address, directly on the box in the area where it was printed with TO: and FROM: That guy had whipped out a red-and-white stick-on label, and scrawled what kind of looked like the address. I swear, I wanted to snatch my mail back out of his hands, and come back another time.

This time I was ready to insist on filling out my own label. Hick, with his one eye, and his big toe that won't bend due to a pin surgically installed after he dropped a 5th-wheel trailer hitch on it, and his don't-care attitude...could do better writing with his foot than this scrawly post office guy. I got my label done, paid (with no extra penny given to me this time), and stopped by the credit union on my way to the bank.

In between CU and bank, I stopped at Waterside Mart South for a scratcher. A little gal who works there used to be my student. Her grandpa was my custodian. She came right over from the deli where she mainly works to wait on me at the counter.

"Hi! I'd like a Golden Ticket, please."

"Oh. We're out."

Let the record show that I don't go to this store very often. But when I do, I speak to this little gal, and we cut up and carry on, knowing each other from our past lives.

"Okay. I'll take a Black and Gold, and the new $5 Big Money."

"We're out of those, too." She's kind of a jokester, always smiley.

"No way!"

"Yeah. We are!"

"You're just messin' with me!"

"No. Really. We're out. Our lottery man hasn't been here yet."

"Okaaayyyy. Give me a Diamond Dollars and a Multiplier."

With my two $5 tickets in my hot greedy hand, I headed back to the car. I clicked open T-Hoe's door locks, and saw THIS by his back tire:

In case you can't see it, that's a penny. Look in the curve of that first ribbon of stain on the right. It's in the elbow-bend area. I took a close-up, but inconveniently focused too close to the tire and left out the penny. That's what happens in the bright sun. It was a 2012.

I finished my picture-taking and walked back and bent over to pick it up, and saw ANOTHER one by the other back tire!

I got a close-up of this one, though. A 1992.

So you can judge where it is in the big picture, related to the end of that stripe, and the gum spot. It was a DOUBLE PENNY DAY! I was as happy as a clam! IF a clam in Missouri behind the wheel of a 2008 Tahoe can be considered happy. I wasn't quite so happy as I left the bank. I don't know why it takes 8 minutes to take cash with a deposit slip correctly filled out, and type that amount into an account.

From there it was on to Casey's General Store for another scratcher. Before I turned in, I saw the lady who usually waits on me. She's always nice, especially since that time Hick was in Sweden and T-Hoe ate up all his oil, and my warning lights were blinking, and I had to buy a funnel and two cans of oil. Now, here was Clerky, out in the parking lot, standing beside a 1980s model Cadillac. It drove off, and Clerky bent over and started picking stuff up.

"By cracky, she's picking up my rightful pennies! Where does she get off, doing such an uncalled-for thing!" 

Mind you, I didn't actually SEE any pennies. But what could she have been picking up? Broken glass? Crack rocks? A shredded murder-for-hire note? NO. She was more likely picking up pennies. A whole roll of them, by the looks of it. As I parked T-Hoe over at the side, I couldn't tell what Clerky had picked up. Didn't see anything in her hand. Her pockets were not stuffed.

I was still fuming a bit over the unfairness of that penny-pincher as I used the strong cell phone signal to do The Pony's mobile banking. Then I grabbed my winners for cashing in, and headed inside. I got in line behind a dude whose card said it was invalid. While he and the clerk were deciding what to do, I finished checking out the numbers on the tickets I wanted to get from their case. I glanced down, and saw THIS:

I guess it was a consolation penny for me! A 2015. I took a picture while Clerky came up to the other register to help me. I think that makes clerks nervous. Like they think I'm a secret shopper or an inspector, spending decoy money on scratchers several times a week.

My clam-happiness knew no bounds! It was turning out to be a THREE-PENNY DAY! I started home, only one stop left, Orb K, for my 44 oz Diet Coke Polar Pop. No pennies there! I went on home to put my three newest pennies in my penny goblet.

After supper, I told Hick about my THREE-PENNY DAY.

"Well...good for you. I was going to tell you this, Val, but I forgot. The crane guy that finally came today to move my freight containers told me my freight container was too heavy." [Insert a bunch of Charlie Brown's teacher's WAA WAA WAA in here concerning tons and crane lifting power and Hick's estimations]. "So we had to unload it. HOS and I carried out almost everything. Boxes and boxes of stuff. Mostly from your mom's house. Kitchen stuff, and her crafts from your old bedroom, the glass jars and stuff. When we were putting the boxes back, I climbed up inside the back door of the freight car and put my hand on the floor. It landed on a penny. This was a WHEAT penny! So I found a penny today, too!" His was a 1945.

Hick is not contributing to my pennyillionaire stash. That's okay. That penny was meant for HIM.

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Oh, you might think (and fervently HOPE) that this was the end. But you know what happens when you wish in one hand and click on Val's blog with the other...the blog is always overflowing!

TODAY, Wednesday, I stopped by Waterside Mart South again, for that ticket they were out of. I was startled to see the parking lot almost full, with three sheriff's cars there, two of them parked in the area I normally park, where I found my two pennies on Monday.

I had to park way over to the side. As I started inside, I almost stepping on a PENNY! I backed up for a picture, but that penny was all in my head. The shadow of my head. So I got a different angle, too. It was a 2014.

Three days. Five pennies (four of them mine). Not a bad haul for my pennyillionaire harvest this week. So far...
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That makes pennies # 43, 44, 45, and 46 for my collection.
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