FRIDAY, November 1, I was elated to spot a penny lurking under the chocolate-covered raisins at the Sis-Town Casey's when I went inside to pay for T-Hoe's gas. Maybe I should just set up my casino comp folding chair there all week, and wait for one to fall. Except we didn't go back to the casino to get our free folding chair.
This was a face-down 2017 penny. My apologies to the man ahead of me for taking a picture of his rumpus.
Timing worked out just right for me to snap my pictures, and balance my hand on the counter as I leaned to pick up this penny.
With evidence that I wasn't shut-out riding in my shirt pocket, I smugly resumed my errands, and proceeded to the bank and Gas Station Chicken Store. It wasn't until my last stop at Orb K that fortune shined on me again, in the form of this glittery gem.
It was a heads-up penny. A little more difficult to harvest. A little more difficult to determine the date, as a terrible tragedy occurred later at home!
People had the nerve to line up behind me while the clerk was getting my scratchers. He was the slow one. Not ME! I snapped my pictures and pocketed the penny and my phone before the clerk had rung up my tickets. Some people were exposed to my ample rumpus, though. I hope nobody took a picture. That would just be weird.
While taking the pennies out of my pockets back home, changing into my lair-wear in the master bathroom, The Universe, continually conspiring against me, struck with a quickness! I heard a penny drop as I took off my pants (stop imagining that visual!). It hit something metallic. Which meant that it had rolled under a small chest of drawers Hick keeps clothes in, and onto the heating/AC floor vent. Not just ON the vent. IN the vent!
Yes, it was a dusty mess back under there. I studied other floor vents to see which way to turn that dial to CLOSE the vent, not open it. Then I took a pair of tweezers and tried to retrieve my rightful penny. Every time I touched it, the vent tried to open up and swallow my penny! Sheesh! Some vents you can't open or close without a struggle, but this one moves with the blink of an eyelash!
My knee was grinding angrily each time I semi-squatted and bent to maneuver my tweezers. I called off the rescue and put in a call to Hick. My hero. Who either hung up on me or was cut off by our faulty phone service. Maybe he can get it when he comes home. Maybe not.
Anyhoo, my Future Pennyillionaire coffers grew by two cents this week.
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2019 Running Total
Penny # 109, 110.
Dime still at 19.
Nickel still at 8.
Quarter still at 4.
2018 TOTALS
Penny 131
Dime 17
Nickel 6
Quarter 1
2017 TOTALS (Started in March, 2017)
Penny 78
Dime 6
Nickel 0
Quarter 0
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There is no rest for the penny-pincher.
ReplyDeleteThe weary, the wicked, and Val, toiling endlessly.
DeletePretty sure you can just lift up the vent cover and pick up the penny with you fingers. At least mine work that way and they look the same.
ReplyDeleteThat's what HICK SAID! He rescued it for me. After all my efforts surveying the situation and gathering the tool of retrieval. Just lifted it out, he said.
DeleteI'm submitting his application for MENSA tomorrow. I figure they'll have room for one more when they expel me.
[The Truth in Blogging Law requires me to reveal that I am NOT an actual member of MENSA.]
Your devotion knows no bounds.
ReplyDeleteIf I'd had a car's radio antenna, a fish hook and line, and some double-sided tape...I'd have rescued my own penny and spared us the doubling of Hick's ego.
DeleteForget the tweezers. Use a ruler with a small piece of blu-tak on the end, or gum if you don't have blu-tak and press it firmly onto the penny, lift it to where you can grab the side of it with tweezers to lift it back through the grill, and just to be safe, use a bit of gum or blu-tak on the tweezers too.
ReplyDeleteWe have really researched how to rescue this penny! So thorough. Yet all for naught...
DeleteWell, d'uh! after reading joeh's comment, I feel a bit stupid. I assumed the grill wasn't easily removable.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it looks like the real solution was to rip up the grate! So much for finesse and MacGyvering.
DeleteOkay, I actually thought that lifting the vent cover would work. Then I was thinking it must be stuck and that is why you didn't lift it.
ReplyDeleteNo, that's because the thought never entered my mind. It's like if I drove my team of draft horses into the Mark Twain National Forest for logging purposes, and then couldn't find the trees.
DeleteFun Val Fact: when I used to teach in Steelville, every morning on my hour drive to work, I would get behind trucks of loggers, pulling their draft horses in trailers, on the way to start an honest day's work.