Conquering the Abyss

Journal Entry March 1, 2010: Weight = 171.4 lbs; Coinage = $1.74, 24 pennies, 4 nickels, 3 dimes, 4 quarters; Glass bottles = 6; Ground scores = 5. Much of the change was found in an abyss and a dime was found in no man’s patch of ground followed on a hunch.

Journal Entry March 2, 2010: Weight = 171.6 lbs; Coinage = $.98, 53 pennies, 3 nickels, 3 dimes; Glass bottles retrieved = 14; Ground score = 1; Best coinage find = 11 coin “penny dump” in a street curb.

Journal Entry March 3, 2010: Weight = 171.8; Coinage = $4.15, 125 pennies, 11 nickels, 15 dimes, 3 quarters; Glass bottle = 1; Ground Scores = 3; Best coinage find was a quadrella grouping (finding a quarter, dime, nickel, and a penny all within one block of one another, but not a scatter.)

Feature Entry: Conquering the Abyss

These walks produced a need for several new Moneywalker terms—“coins of the abyss”, ”maverick coins”, “penny dump”,“clear shot”, and a "quadrella find". This past Sunday, two quarters, two dimes, and a few pennies were retrieved from a deep crevice between Rally’s Burger Drive Thru and the Rally’s main building. To retrieve the coins required a long yellow # 2 pencil and a slightly bent stainless steel table knife (both ground scores.) The technique was tricky and required that the coin be wedged between the bevel of the pencil and the slightly bent blade of the knife. Both the wedge and the knife bend were required to sustain a pinching posture long enough time and with enough force so that the coin could be lifted safely from the depths. The technique took several tries to learn with frequent plunges by the coins back into the abyss. But finally it was conquered.

The abyss is a good metaphor for weight gain. It is good to remember the four ways to keep off the weight--daily high fiber breakfast, weigh every day, exercise, and smart portioning of food.

On the same Sunday walk, I also found a dime in a patch of ground in the middle of nowhere—not a curb, a vending machine, a drive thru, or any logical spot. Someone must have dropped it a random way. I have found coins like these before, just random finds. I call them “maverick” coins.

While walking, I sometimes engage in self talking. Monday’s walk reminded me of a self talk observation. When I see a burger franchise drive thru wide open without one or more cars in the queue, I call the coin search opportunity a “clear shot.” For breakfast serving chains like Burger King, such opportunities are rare. I had a "clear shot" at a Burger King this morning. Then right down the street by a curb was a eleven penny pile of pennys. When people throw away pennies in a systematic pile of coins, these are not lost coins but dumped coins, thus a "penny dump."

Finally, sometimes I find four coins in a scatter or a grouping, all of a different denomination. Such an occasion occurred during this morning’s walk. The Aussies have a horse racing betting term, the quadrella. The successful better wages the order of the first four finishers. For me a "quadrella" is finding the four denominations of coins—penny, nickel, dime, and quarter in one find or in a grouping.

Ms. MoneyWalker believes, and perhaps unarguably, that the MoneyWalker is growing dangerously eccentric; being dragged further and further into the vortex of the moneywalking abyss.

MoneyWalker