Even if it's "Heads Up," Better Keep YOUR Head Up!

My poor mom! After a long dry spell in the heat of another Las Vegas summer, she finally found a penny...but oh those stinkin' desert winds!

Les,

I thought I better make an official report or I won't get credit for the ONE penny I found last week. It has been a sad time in Las Vegas, everywhere I look NO CHANGE. Finally I eye a copper treasure on the street at a senior housing complex. I have a hand full of mail and I suddenly think about your friend Stephanie who only picks up "heads up." It's been a long dry spell for change finding so I don't want to tempt fate. As I look down, it's up!! Yeah!! I bless Stephanie for bringing this head's up thing to our collective consciousness. I pick up the penny and while still bent over savoring the moment, a gust of wind comes along and blows all my mail away. Stephanie....YOU LIED TO US! I retrieved the mail and still have the penny....put one down in my column for the September financials!

MOM

Illeny's Notes From the Field...

Occasionally a story about a penny comes a long that is just too ridiculous not to post...this is one such story. So, read on...but only if your "gross out" tollerence is pretty high!


A Story From Illeny:
Hi All,

Until today I couldn't bring myself to tell this story... but here's a delayed report from the field:
It was an overcast day, I was running a few errands at lunch, just a few steps from the cleaners...

I don't know what I saw first, the shinny penny pleading for rescue or the drooling, spilling, oozing inebriate seated (and swaying) above it... I do know what I saw next... all the wet, unknown drippings surrounding that penny of my desire.

The test... could I reach down between the feet of a drunken man, drooling and dripping, near the corner of 18th and I Streets, mid-week at mid-day? (Who gets that wasted so early in the day in downtown DC? a sad testament to his despair, I guess.) NOOOOOOOOO!!!! I just couldn't, eeeeewwwwwwww gross... besides, perhaps is was his penny and he certainly would need it more than I. So I just paused for a split second and kept walking... it just wasn't meant to be.

We all have limits, right?

On the way back to work I passed it again... anyone watching may have thought I was frowning just at the sad sight of the drunken man who'd passed out on the steps behind a penny... the penny I so desperately wanted to rescue, a penny calling out... but sometimes it isn't your place to intervene, life must take its course... Plus, it was still sitting in all that yuckiness! I just couldn't do it.

It's the next day, it's lunch time and I'm running errands again. The sun is bright and the day beautiful, a slight touch of autumn in the air... I'm approaching the spot where, the day before, I'd witnessed the despair of a man... and a penny... I could see the stain on the pavement left from all the unknown fluids, a few leaves and paper were all that remained... hey... is that... could it be... a penny!!!! Yes! I can't believe it's still there, a full 24 hours later on this busy corner!!!! It WAS meant to be after all. I still couldn't bring myself to pick it up with my bare hand and over a week later, it's still wrapped in the paper I picked it up with.

Leslie, come and get this special penny. I believe that might tie things up between Michele and I. I've a feeling I may regain my lead this weekend :) ...

~Illeny

Metro Bus Belly Crawl

I can't decide if I've hit an all time low or just expanded my penny-picking-up horizons. Today I actually got down on all fours for the sake of one lonely penny under a bus seat.

Now, it's not as if I haven't gotten on all fours to scrounge up a penny before (see the previous post about digging one out of the asphalt in a cross-walk) but this time I actully had to say, "pardon me, excuse me..." as I proceeded to force two poor bus passengers to move aside a bit so I could gain access to the penny.

Again...it's not like I haven't made an ass of myself for a penny before (it really is a shame this blog didn't exist when I had the altercation w/ the street vendor or when I nearly upended myself over a metro station railing to reach a penny about ready to fall through a grate). But usually I don't inconvenience paying bus riders for a sole penny (a dime, yes...but not one lonely penny).

But today...I was a bit desperate. It was almost 6pm and I hadn't found a single cent. I needed to find one so I wouldn't have a goose egg on the scoreboard! And so, much to the chagrin of the passengers on the 52 line, I dove under the seat just before reaching my stop to grab that penny.

And that's my two cents...er...ONE CENT...for the day!

Tar & Tenacity

For some reason...one nickel and seven pennies weren't enough. I HAD to dig out that penny in the crosswalk at 14th & U Street NW...I had to.

I didn't initially think I was going to do it (there were only a few seconds left on cross-walk-o-meter before the light changed). I walked past the penny thinking, "Someday I'll be back for you!" But for some reason...today was the day!

I waited for the light to turn green again...and then I had free run of the cross-walk for 44 seconds (thank God for the little blinking green man w/ the timer!). So I fished my keys out the side pocket of my purse and commenced trying to loosen Lincoln from the asphalt. This sucker was in deep! A few people walked by and looked at me funny (I saw these looks because I'm a multi-takser...I can dig for penny AND watch to see if I am about to get hauled away in a straight jacket for attempting to free a single penny as if it were a bloody fortune). One guy asked me what the hell I was doing to which I just replied, "It's a long story."

This thing wasn't budging. I looked up at the timer...26 seconds left. Plenty of time...no need to panic. But I was going to have to use a little more muscle (or a bigger key...I'd chosen the mail key, which although tiny in size, has a pretty impressive point on the end). So I took another stab at it (literally). I dug in as hard as I could an then all of a sudden...BLOOP...out it came. 21 seconds left to spare.

I looked both ways (I'm not sure why since I'd essentially been playing in traffic for the last 23 seconds without any concern for my safety) and made a dash to the sidewalk. It was my 13th cent for the day...hmmm.

A few minutes later I was home placing this tar covered penny in the "special stack" with his chewed up, oxidized, dirt covered penny-brothers. Some day I think I'll frame the worst of the worst (some of which are barely identifiable as pennies). If that won't be a conversation-starter...I don't know what will be!