A Lack of ConCENTration

Woe is Val. Now she's gone and done it! Deprived you of a PIC TO SHOW IT HAPPENED.

I know how you all love to browse through the photos of my found pennies. How you wait eagerly for Saturdays to arrive, perched on the edge of your (perhaps OP) chair, anticipating the roll-out of yet another gallery of Val's Future Pennyillionaire harvest.

I apologize. If I hadn't been so self-CENTered, you'd have had your picture. I stopped by the Original Waterside Mart on Thursday, because I was in that neighborhood, with the intention of cashing in a $10 winner for two more scratchers. I was halfway to the door when I realized I didn't have my phone in my pocket.

"Pshaw!" I thought. "I'm not going to find a penny. All week, I've been going back to T-Hoe for that forgotten phone, and I haven't seen a penny yet. It's almost as if that phone has been a penny-repellant this week." So on I went, into the store.

Two steps inside the door, there it was. On the floor in my path. I actually stepped over it.

"Should I pick it up?" I wondered, as I waited behind a dude filling out a money order. It's the second-of-the-month, you know. That happens. "I'll regret it if I let that penny lay. Or lie. I can't leave a penny behind. I'm taking it!"

Let the record show that I waited until my transaction was over, and the penny was still there waiting for me, face up, having been stepped over by at least three people in the interim.

I got you a consolation picture, though, once I got outside.

It was a 2007 version. Didn't even need my magnifying glass this time!

Speaking of magnifying glasses...we're not going to speak of them at this juncture. But there'll be something coming down the pike next week on that topic. This is called FORESHADOWING! You know. A subtle hint...
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HOLD THE PRESSES!
dateline 2.57 p.m.

Of course The Universe is chortling at Val's well-laid plans. After a kerfuffle and a hiccup in the procurement of my daily 44 oz Diet Coke, I forsook The Gas Station Chicken Store and headed for Orb K. Where I found 5 pennies!!!

I stepped over these two to get in line, my ample buttocks twitching with desire to bend over and flaunt themselves as I harvested this double crop. I debated whether to take a picture and pick them up. Or just take them after paying. While I was debating, I glanced off to my left and saw THIS:

Well. I surely couldn't let THREE pennies evade my clutches! I decided I would snatch them up on my way out. But WAIT! I glanced down to my right, and you guessed it, ANOTHER penny awaited!

I could only manage one close-up, due to a thundering herd of Polar Pop buyers. But what a close-up it was! As I bent down to harvest the first of my crop before giving up the counter space, I saw

A hidden BONUS PENNY, all camouflaged by its patina! I'm pretty sure this is a personal record: five pennies in one establishment. I got a 1996, 1975, 2010, 2017, and 1970. All but the 2010 were face down.

I had explained to the clerk (my favorite one in Orb K) that I was not a creeper, but that I collect found pennies, and I take a picture of them. She said, "Oh, no. That's fine!"

So sorry to disappoint the antipennyites who thought they were getting off easy this week.

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For 2018: Pennies  # 72,73, 74, 75 ,76, 77.
For 2018: Dimes still at  # 11, 12.
For 2018: Nickels still at # 4.

Since 2017 (the beginning), this was Penny # 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 155.
Since 2017 (the beginning), this is still Dime # 17, 18.
Since 2017 (the beginning), this is still Nickel # 4.
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