I'm Glad I Did Not Encounter Clyde Inside the Store

My errand day came early this week, because I wanted to get The Pony's house payment in our credit union account. He's persnickety about that. Doesn't like his check cooling its heels in my purse for a few days. Wants it to clear his bank. 

 

Okay. I picked up the check on Sunday, but didn't deposit it until Wednesday. I have an excuse! The credit union is always in a frenzy when it's time to compile and mail quarterly statements. I figured I'd give them time, since the 1st fell on a Saturday, to get their accounts in order before I popped in to trouble them with my deposit. I'm selfless like that.

Anyhoo... my errands took me to Sis-Town on Wednesday rather than Thursday. And look what I observed at the Sis-Town Casey's:

 

I don't know what it was. I forgot to ask Hick, who would have spouted out the make and model and some interesting (to him) trivia about what made it unique from the model year before and after.

To me, it looks like a Bonnie and Clyde car. My apologies to Bonnie, whom I did not notice sitting inside when I took the picture. She had her windshield open, too! The better to rain a hail of bullets upon my presumptuous rumpus, perhaps.

I guess Clyde had business inside. Though I did not notice anybody wearing a 3-piece suit.

The Lesser of Pony Work Hazards

The Pony sent me a couple pictures on Wednesday, while on his route. One was a hole in the ground. Not very exciting, unless it's silently waiting to slurp up a foot and break a leg.

 

 

This hole looks like it had evil intent.

Also, another photo from the route:

 

"Dive bombed by a caterpillar. Just walking under a tree, and then PLOP."

 

That might be a caterpillar. It looks very close to an inchworm to me:

 

 

So dainty and neon and smooth. You know what they say about an inchworm that crawls on you. It's measuring you for new clothes. Like the ones The Pony got last week:

 

"My uniform stuff came in. Got some new pants that are gonna need hemmed."

The Pony didn't mis-order. ALL the pants come that way. You can't select a length.

The Pony might be a regular now, with a 40-hour-week. But something tells me that inchworm could be working overtime.

Hick's Ever-Expanding Product Line

Hick is still investing in his inventory, even though he will be closing up shop at his Storage Unit Store on or before October 30. Never fear! He will have fresh merchandise when he opens the SUS2 (Storage Unit Store 2) down in Bill-Paying Town at a different flea market. Of course he would have liked to keep the old location, but that's impossible with the owner shutting down the entire flea market. Hick says 40 renters have left. Raising the price of a unit from $95 a month to $135 is not helping matters!

Anyhoo... a guy Hick knows came by his Storage Unit Store last week, and said he had some stuff to sell. Hick went to check it out, and spent $500 on the items below, plus others unseen:

 

Looks like it's mostly collectible stuff. Hick says he can get $1000 out of it, not including the items he wants to keep for himself. No pictures of that. According to Hick, it involves 2 Budweiser light sconces, which he called SCONCHES, but I speak Hick, so I knew what he meant. Also a Lone Star Beer clock, a wooden fire truck, and a candlestick telephone.

I had to ask Hick what in the Not-Heaven a candlestick telephone is. He said, "You know. One of them tall black phones that you take the receiver off of to talk into." Which to a layman might not make much sense. But speaking Hick, I think he means an old black telephone that is tall and thin, with a cone-shaped thingy you take loose and put to your ear to hear. I think you talk into the column part, not that little cone part. It's probably something they use on the Andy Griffith Show.

Anyhoo... Hick has not slowed down his quest for merchandise. He's waiting for the electric company to come hook up the SUS2 to the power line. Says it's all ready to move stuff into. Neighbors, beware!

I Fear That Hick May Be Wearing Out His Welcome Before He Even Moves In

Hick went down to the SUS2 (Storage Unit Store 2) on Sunday afternoon. He came home complaining. That's what he gets for going down there before his shop is officially established!

"There's gonna be some changes when I get down there. The lady in the unit next to me has her stuff set up all over! Between the units, and in front of mine! That's not gonna happen. AND the guy across the way is parking over on my side!"

"Why wouldn't they? Nobody is set up and selling in your unit. That's empty space. You'd do the same thing if you had that option. They don't know who you are. Your unit isn't open. So they're taking advantage of the extra space. I'm sure when you show up and start selling, they won't do that. They'll probably be mad because they're losing the space. But they have to know you're entitled to half the space between the units, and the area in front of yours."

"They'd better! Or we're gonna have problems!"

"You can't go in there bossing them around. Just say, 'Hey guys, I'm opening up, and I need to use my space.' I'm sure they'll be reasonable."

"They better be. Everybody up at my unit now likes me being there, because I bring in so much traffic. The guys come to buy my stuff, but their wives walk all around, buying other people's stuff."

"I'm sure they'll all learn to love you. IF you don't start out by bossing them around."

I might need to add that Hick should ignore any bicycles he sees leaned up against a unit!

A Not-Funny Thing Happened on the Way to The Pony's House

Sunday being the second day of the month, and a day off for The Pony, who is now a REGULAR City Carrier... I headed over to Pony House to pick up his house payment! I was supposed to get there at 3:00, but I was running a little late because I got sidetracked at the Gas Station Chicken Store. It was virtually deserted on this bright fall day, save for one other customer.

Cussy, as I will call her, was an old lady about my age. She had a helmet of short gray hair, and large round dark sunglasses. She was a perfectly nice old lady, in jeans and tennis shoes, with a gruff voice. She carried three cans of Coke to the counter, and said she wanted to also get some scratchers. She paid CASH!

Anyhoo... my favorite clerk was telling her: "Yeah. I've never seen that message come up on the screen. Here it is." She handed back a ticket, but I was behind Cussy, and couldn't see what kind it was.

"That's why I didn't want you to cash it out. Only scan it for me."

"Well. They made sure I COULDN'T! 'DO NOT CASH. RETURN TICKET TO CUSTOMER.' I couldn't miss that!"

There was some more back and forth talk. Cussy got her new tickets. And mentioned that the ticket in question was a $1000 winner.

"Did you get that one here?"

"Yes. Yesterday."

Of course I inserted myself into the conversation. "That must be why I can't win! You're getting the winners!"

"It's one of the tickets you buy everyday, too!"

OUCH! That was a dagger through my heart! Turns out it was the purple $3 ticket I am so fond of. Cussy gathered up her stuff. She was a nice chatty gal, informing me that one time she won $5000, and Woman Owner filled out the paperwork for her to send in to the lottery office, and she had her check back in her mailbox within 3 DAYS!

"I just can't bear the thought of going to the city to the lottery office to cash it in. It's so dangerous up there these days. I hope Woman Owner can fill the paperwork out again for me."

Once Cussy had left, after buying the three tickets I was there to get (!), I mentioned to Favorite Clerk: "Yesterday I bought TWO of that ticket!"

"I know! And you never do that."

"Yeah. I guess I set her up to win. Well. Good for her. I'm always happy for a winner. But I'm happier for a winner that didn't win on MY FAVORITE TICKETS!"

Oh, well. That win wasn't meant for me. I'll get another one. Eventually...

At least The Pony forked over his house payment check with no problems.

Hick Falls Backrumpuswards Into Another Bargain

Hick may not have any luck at the casino or buying scratchers, but he sure reaps unearned rewards with bargains that drop into his path. He sent me an email Friday afternoon, but it didn't come through until Saturday. 

 

"Did you get the picture I sent you?"

 

"No. What now?"

 

"I found a bicycle! It was leaning up against the lockers when I got there. So I took it. I'll take a free bicycle that nobody wants!"

 

 

I guess Hick just threw it into the back of SilverRedO. That picture is from where he parks beside our garage. I hope there's no homeless person wandering around on foot, looking for his mode of transportation. Although a homeless person shouldn't have access to the keypad to get through the gates of the storage units. Nobody complained of missing a bicycle on Saturday, when Hick spent the morning at his Storage Unit Store. I guess it just got left there by the Spare Bicycle Fairy.

Hick says he can get $25 or $30 for the bicycle. Not sure where it is now. You'd think if he was selling it at his Storage Unit Store, he would have left it up there, and not driven it home in SilverRedO. Maybe it's destined for the SUS2, when Hick gets his business underway there at the end of the month. Not sure there's a call for bicycles in November, but maybe it could be a Christmas gift.

The COINS Are Back in Town, the COINS Are Back in Town!

I wonder if they were askin' if I was around, how I'd been, where I could be found. I hope someone told them I was livin' out of town, drivin' an old man crazy! 

Somebody must have spilled the beans on my whereabouts. It has been a very good week for Val's Future Pennyillionaire Fortune.

 

TUESDAY, September 27, stopped by the Sis-Town Casey's for scratchers. My favorite parking space was open. Barely. The three spaces to the right of it were taken by a sideways-parked panel truck, its metal rumpus backed up beside my space. As I tried to catch the eye of the two guys wheeling out a dolly, a truck parked in the handicap spot across the striped walkway from me on the right backed out. SO... I moved over to the handicap space, to allow the dolly guys access to the ramp in the striped walkway, without going around T-Hoe's rear to get to their panel truck. I'm selfless like that.

 

When I came out after my transaction, my reward was silently screaming for me to claim it.

 

It was a heads-up 2013 Abe Lincoln, not at all handicapped.

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THURSDAY, September 29, I was back over in Sis-Town on my regular errand day. I went in the main Post Office (work-home of THE PONY) for two books of stamps. I reluctantly became the meat in a gossip-lady sandwich as we were in a line parallel to the counter, and a long-lost acquaintance came in and started jawing at the gal ahead of me. I didn't much like being in their spittle-zone as they boisterously recalled old times. 

 

A man, woman, and child were trying to get passports. They didn't have the little girl's height, so the man whipped out a metal tape measure and tried to stick it under her shoe sole. She was having none of it, and kept moving her foot. The clerk told them to move to the side, where the young man clerk I like had to take over. The next customer wanted a duplicate key to his P.O. box, and had to answer a lot of questions to prove that he was who he was, before being told they just don't hand out duplicate keys. After that, the line moved quickly. When I came out, a treat awaited:

 

No, not the old gum. The PENNY!

 

It was a heads-up 1969, kind of smoothed-out. But also out-of-focus. Darn phone.

From there I was off to the School-Turn Casey's for (you guessed it) scratchers! While waiting for them to be torn, I noticed what every Val out on the towns for errands likes to see:

 

It was a DIME! I was on it like Juno on little Jack's treats!

 

 

It was a face-down 2001 dime, all monochromatically dramatic in black and gray.

Errands done, I was headed back to Backroads to the Gas Station Chicken Store for my daily crossword scratcher. Just where I was meant to be, because when I opened T-Hoe's door to disembark, I saw that I was expected:

 

It's like somebody left that penny there on the concrete tire-bumper so I didn't have to wave my ample rumpus so high to pick it up!

 

It was a heads-up 2003 penny, caught between light and not-so-light. Into my pants pocket it went, and I entered the store to tease the checker that she had been waiting for me. YES, she said, she had!

"Are there coins on the floor? People keep telling me there are coins, but I haven't come out to pick them up. I told them, 'There's a lady who comes in here that collects them, and even takes pictures!'"

"Well, I don't see any now. But I JUST FOUND ONE outside where I parked. So I guess the ones inside were not meant for me, or they'd still be here."

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FRIDAY, September 30, I was back in the Liquor Store. No mean feat, since the road in front of it was blocked off with orange-and-white-striped pointy things. I went around them. A lady in a black SUV was cutting through from the Country Mart side of the lot, and slammed on her brakes to let me cross. Nope. I motioned her on. 

"I'm really slow. You go on ahead."

"I don't really know where I'm going with all these detours!"

"Well, you can't go up the hill! But I guess you can turn around on the street beside Casey's."

In I went, and found my good-deed token on the filthy rug:

Don't be fooled by the rug-spots! There is a single penny above those three spots.

 

I promise! That's really a penny! My phone camera is not helping. It's a heads-up 1981.

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That's 5 COINS this week, for 14 CENTS towards Val's Future Pennyillionaire Fortune!

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2022 RUNNING TOTAL

Penny          # 93, 94, 95, 96.
Dime            # 18.
Nickel          still at 6.
Quarter       still at 6.

 

2021 FINAL TOTALS

Penny        124
Dime           14
Nickel           7
Quarter         6
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