Go Play in Traffic...You might find pennies!

It was not just a good penny day...but a ridiculously good penny day today. I found 15 pennies and...A QUARTER on my way to & from work.

It was exciting to have that many individual sightings. But for a moment, I thought perhaps someone was playing a joke on me. My friends have been known to throw pennies on the trail while we are hiking to test my penny prowess (I failed miserably...but who is on the lookout for change while rock scrambling on the Billy Goat Trail?! I'm good, but even pros need a day off now & then!). And all of these pennies, or at least a good portion of them (and the quarter too) were in the middle of the street! And I'm not talking about a crosswalk here...I mean smack dab in the center of traffic!

The first one wasn't too far from the curb. I thought conceivably a guy had dropped some change while shuffling in his pockets to get quarters for the meter. But the next one, a few blocks later, was considerably further from the curb...out beyond the driver's side door. What happened there. Perhaps a lover's quarrel that led to pennies being tossed in anger, "You cheat...I never want to see you again. Take that! (Insert a meanly tossed penny here)."

The best part was that I'd seen the second penny and was about to step in the street to pick it up when I realized a guy was trying to park his car in that space. So did I abandon the penny and move on like a normal person? I'm writing a blog about pennies...what do you think?! Of course not! I went around the front of the car as the driver got the vehicle settled in its cozy new spot and bent over to pick up the coin. I was right where the guy would have to open his door to get out and it occurred to me...this might look a little odd. So what do I do? I grab the penny and then show it to the driver as if to say, "I'm not trying to carjack you...I just wanted this penny." The look on his face said he would have thought I was more sane if I was indeed carjacking him. A little embarrassing? Yes. Would I do it again? Absolutely. I love my pennies!

Finally, as I continued down 17th Street, still amazed by the brick gutters I'd discovered a few days earlier (why so fancy...they're gutters?!) I saw the quarter in the middle of the road! Has jaywalking gotten that bad? People can't be bothered to go one measly block to cross legally? Although I suppose I'm no better...darting into traffic for a quarter.

So, my day concluded with a total of 40 cents, most of which was found as I risked life and limb in the pursuit of stray coins. But hey...40 cents is a damn good showing for a single day! And although my mother did teach me not to play in traffic, I somehow think she would have approved of my forays into the street today (especially since she's got 43 cents of her own on the spreadsheet!).