Like Catching Santa in the Act

Thursday, I headed to town for bill-mailing, and to fill T-Hoe up with gas before the eclipse crowd hit town. About halfway there, I decided that I had time to stop by the cemetery. I'd planned to go on Monday, but Mom was getting a new neighbor nearby, so I did not.

I passed by the hole-in-the-wall bar noted for its delicious steaks, and flipped on T-Hoe's right-turn signal for the cemetery. I put the radio on Prime Country. Some song I didn't know went off, and Dolly Parton and Vince Gill started singing "I Will Always Love You." Uh huh. Dolly wrote that song, you know, even though Whitney Houston made the most money off of it. Several million of that went into Dolly's pocket as the writer, too. Anyhoo...Mom and I never had any association with that song, but I'm pretty sure I will always love her, and she will always love me.

I just found that to be a pleasant coincidence. I really doesn't pertain to my subject today, except, perhaps, in a roundabout way.

On to the post office I went, to mail my bill. Of course I had my eyes glued to the pavement, looking for random pennies from heaven. Didn't find one. I stopped by Waterside Mart for a scratch-off ticket. Again, no penny. Most days, I DON'T find pennies, you know. But since I'd had that four-day streak last week (FIVE if you count dimes!) of finding a penny each day, I'm still on the lookout.

I pulled into Casey's to get T-Hoe's gas. Right up to the same pump I was at last time, when I found a penny there. I didn't pick that pump for that reason, but because it's the most convenient one, and it was available. But you can bet that as I opened the door and stepped down, I was thinking about the penny I found last time.

CLINK!

A lady had come out of Casey's and climbed into her black SUV that she'd parked parallel to their sidewalk. She was putting stuff in her purse, and had apparently dropped a coin! She glanced at the ground fleetingly, then closed her door and drove off.

After pumping my gas, I took a route to the door that put me near where I heard the CLINK! I found a QUARTER on the lot! You can bet I picked it up, but I didn't take a picture, because it had rolled to the middle of the parking lot, and also, there was a man standing down by my sidewalk ramp with a big dog on a leash, and I didn't want to look like a weirdo. Oh, I didn't mind bending over and exposing my ample rumpus to him. But I wasn't going to make it a photo opportunity. So for all of you Geniuses who say, "Pics or it didn't happen," you'll have to take my word for it.

I guess that counts, right? As pennies from heaven? It was 25 pennies condensed into one coin, that fell as I was thinking about pennies from heaven. So I'm claiming it. Yeah, maybe I'm stretching it. But those pennies have to get there somehow! They don't actually fall out of the clouds, you know!

It's like catching Santa in the act, and not having a camera.
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BUT WAIT! There's more!

TODAY, I went to town for my 44 oz Diet Coke and scratchers. First stop was Orb K. I gathered up my $20 winner and climbed down from T-Hoe. I don't know where all those eclipse people are, but they were not at Orb K around noon. I got my favorite parking spot, right by the handicap striped walkway, where that sewer grate has the lid screwed in sideways. Where I previously found a couple of pennies. None there today.

BUT WAIT!

Good thing Val is thorough in her penny search. This one was by T-Hoe's back tire! Good thing I have an awkward way of getting out of the car. I was standing almost on the grate as I snapped this.

I fear that an open letter may be in need, to the manager of Orb K, concerning why nobody ever hoses off their parking lot. It's getting pretty hard to spot pennies from heaven, like this 2006 Abe, (whose date has no significance for me), with all this gunk marring the blacktop.

I must remain ever-vigilant in my search.