The MoneyWalker finds a $1 Coin: The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005

Journal Entry: 8-13-10: Weight = 172.8 lbs, $10.35 coinage including a John Q. Adams $1.00 coin. Source for the large find was a nice run of “curb quarters” on the way to Canal Blvd. Car Wash. Jason’s boys had just dumped their vacuum canisters in a way that led to easy access of the loot. Of course it was handled stealthy at 6:30 a.m.

Feature Entry: The Presidential $1 Coin Act of 2005

Who knew? Starting in 2007, the United States Mint issued four Presidential $1 coins which featured Presidents Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. The Coin Act (PL 109-145) has as its purpose the revitalization of classic designs for US coins. Four presidents a year are being released in the order in which the Presidents served.

Until the MoneyWalker found the coin on this morning’s walk, the new coinage program had escaped me completely. The coin is striking, but one thing is disappointing. The coins use “edge-incused inscription” which means that the year of minting, the classic “E Pluribus Unum”, and “In God We Trust,” and the mint mark are on the edge rather that the face. Without a strong glass, the inscriptions can’t be read. Too bad!

There are other components of the act such as commemorative coins of the wives of the presidents. To read more:

http://www.usmint.gov/mint_programs/$1coin/?action=coinAct2005

Remember, it is not the coins but the calories!!

MoneyWalker

"Rollers"

Journal Entry March 8, 2010: Weight = 173.2 lbs; Coinage = $4.40, 165 pennies, 13 nickels, 16 dimes, 2 quarters; Glass bottles = 10; Ground scores = 6 including two recyclable shirts and a neat five string guitar with just two strings missing.

Journal Entry March 9, 2010: Weight = 172.6 lbs; Coinage = $.80, 25 pennies, 1 nickel, 2 quarters; Glass bottles retrieve = 11; Ground scores = 2. Today’s coinage find included a “roller.” A roller is a coin that is dropped but then rolls a considerable distance from the original drop. Rollers can be hard to find for the person involved in the drop. The MoneyWalker looks for rollers when cars are in the queue at the burger drive thrus. I just swing wide of the thru way with a sharp focus in the area on the passenger side of the cars. This morning’s roller was a quarter. Once they're dropped, round and round and where they stop, nobody knows.

MoneyWalker

The Art, Luck and Politics of Finding Money During Money Walks

Journal Entry: Coinage (get ready) = $20.51 a record find for a one walk find, and yes there is a story, see below, 196 pennies, 42 nickels, 42 dimes, and 49 quarters; glass bottles = 9; ground scores = 5 (one slightly damaged card table that will go into the charity yard sale this spring. The yard sale will contain many of the MoneyWalker’s ground scores.)

Feature Entry: The Art, Luck and Politics of Finding Money During Money Walks

A few blocks back, the Moneywalker spoke of the art, luck, and politics of finding large amounts of coinage while walking to maintain fitness and weight control. The case was made that most significant accomplishments occur as a result of the interaction of skill, good luck, and politics. This post will feature the role of politics.

Several months ago I noticed that a local self car wash with seven vacuum bays did not bother to lock the vacuum receptacles, most do. It seemed intrusive and somewhat gross to inspect these potential money hot spots even though it was obvious from the debris in and around the canisters that others were doing so. Finally I succumbed to a money search urge and began inspecting these potential treasure spots. As expected, they were and continue to be a rich source for coins, and on one occasion a dollar bill.

Then it happened, a polite gentleman named Eddie approached me and asked if he could help me. He was the manager of the MidCity Car Wash. I introduced myself as the MoneyWalker and explained that I searched the canisters for loose change, but that I gave all finds to a charity, the Friendship House, a ministry for battered women and their children. He explained that he applauded the purpose and only asked that I carefully reclose the doors and tidy the debris that was pulled from the canisters. Later I met the owner, Jason, who was aware of my habit. He donated several quarters from a sack that was used to empty the vending machines.

Now the politics. Last year the MoneyWalker donated more than $500 dollars to the Friendship House, distributed in amounts of $100 each over one year. Each donation was accompanying by a cover letter offering encouragement as well as acknowledging the check. In each letter, I complemented the MidCity ownership and management for their cooperation and mentioned Eddie and Jason by name. I made copies of the letters and sent them to both Eddie and Jason.

During this morning’s walk, I found just under $10 dollars in one of the canisters. By chance, Jason was watching from his office. He walked over and donated another $10 dollars in quarters from his sack. Then he said something remarkable. His company was being forced to put locks on the canister doors because others, less vigilant than the MoneyWalker was leaving the areas thrashed and were failing to close the doors. But please don’t worry he said, I will give you the key. As I said, finding money is a combination of art, luck, and politics. Thank you Jason. Thank you Eddie.

MoneyWalker

Give me five!

Journal entry: Weight = 172.8 lbs; Coinage = $8.28, 1 five dollar bill, 151 pennies (one wheat), 7 nickels, 11 dimes, 1 quarter.

Feature Entry: Give me five!

Today’s money walk was one of those high-five, give me five type of days. It started with a super find of a “penny dump” of just over 100 pennies with two dimes mixed in for good measure. And then just down the street, just resting, was a damp five dollar bill. Moreover, the coinage walk even without the five was $3.28. So give the ‘ol MoneyWalker a high-five.

Where did this ubiquitous physical gesture come from? It was not that for back. Phrases.Org indicates that it began in the college basketball conferences in the U.S. during the 1979/80 season when the University of Louisville player Derek Smith claims to have coined the term. The 80s found the gestures zenith in the 80s, became less popular in the 90s, and has rebounded in the 21st century as a major symbol of celebration and congratulation both in and outside of sport situations.

But then how can the MoneyWalker not mention the NFC Championship Game this Sunday. “Who dat? Who dat? Who dat say ‘day going beat ‘dem them “Saints?”

Whoooooo! “Give me five!, Dog”

The MoneyWalker is fired up!

MoneyWalker

Finding an Indian Head Penny

Journal Entry: Weight = 174.6; 12/1 coinage = $2.73; 12/2 coinage = $2.77; 12/3 coinage = $.87; Total Glass bottles = 20 (3 broken, one near a school bus stop); Total ground scores = 18 (mostly hardware that only my Grandfather would want); Significant find = 3 quarters in a drive through car wash coin return; Once in a life-time find = 1899 Indian Head penny in near mint condition.

Feature Entry: The MoneyWalker’s fitness walk was nearly over and there it rested an 1899 near mint condition Indian head penny (note, the photo is a stock photo, the actual find is in better condition and is an 1899, not an 1898.) For more than one hour, my thinking was spent sorting through various competing ideas for my blog. The battle for eliminating rather than generating blog ideas was unusual in that I had been experiencing a “blogger’s block” for several weeks. Then boom—all the great ideas were blown away by this once in a life time find.

An Indian head penny that was minted 110 years ago must be dealt with. It was such a long time ago. So long, that there were no Indians living in the state of Oklahoma because it didn’t receive statehood until 1906. In the year before 1899, my grandfather would have been 25 years old, but he could not have listened to a phonograph record or enjoyed a coca-cola or viewed the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The Columbia Phonograph company and the Pemberton Medicine Company (inventors of Coca-Cola) didn’t begin until 1899, the same year the Eiffel Tower was created.

President Grover Cleveland signed into statehood the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington. Clemson University was started that year, the same year as the Johnstown Flood that killed 2200 people. Adolf Hitler was born April 20, 1899 and the English poet Robert Browning died Dec. 12, 1899. Also, the Wall Street Journal was started that year.

Symbolically, it was all there in that glorious one cent piece just waiting in a turned over Tupper Ware container outside of a thrift store dumpster waiting for the MoneyWalker to make his rounds.

MoneyWalker

The Ventral striatum and money walking

Journal Entry: Coinage = $1.57, 57 pennies, 2 nickels, 4 dimes, 2 quarters; Glass bottles picked up and deposited in the dumpsters = 8; Ground scores = 2, 1 nearly new t-shirt that will be washed and recycled in the MoneyWalker street-side give away program and one profressional grade 3/8” socket; Best money find = one 11 penny curb scatter followed two houses later by a two penny scatter.

Finding money this close together but apparently unrelated is called a grouping. Why is a money find of 13 cents more rewarding than the .62 cents (two quarters, one dime, and two pennies) found at the McDonald drive-through? You must ask my ventral striatum. As for me, I prefer the quarters, my ventral striatum, the brains reward center is busy during the 4+ mile urgently and intensely searching for money.

As it turns out, the ventral striatum is wired with neurons that are connected with other parts of the brain that deal with problem solving. In the MoneyWalker’s case, the problem is finding money. But there is another issue that effects the firing power of the ventral striatum—competition. When others are trying to solve the same problem and when the problem is difficult to solve, a successful coin score registers much stronger than if the coin is relatively competition free. When a problem is solved the ventral striatum is happy. (Caution, keeping the ventral striatum happy is very "addicting" and is the source of the MoneyWalker's intrinsic motivation strategy.)

Now back to the debate. Who goes walking up to McDonald drive-throughs looking for coins? Just crazy people like the MoneyWalker. On the other side, people walking along the street are always subconsciously vigilant concerning coins and money. Most people will stop, bend down, and pick up something as value-less is a modern penny; and definitely a nickel, dime, or quarter. Thus, a penny scatter along a curb will often register stronger and longer than two quarters at the drive-through as for as the ventral striatum is concerned--more competition.

At least that is my SWAG theory (scientific wild-assed guess) SWAG theory belongs to many, but one being B.B. Suran, Ph.D.. Check out his funny and informative essay.

MoneyWalker

Quarters in Bloom

Journal Entry, July 5, 2009: Weight = 175.0; Coinage = $1.34, 34 pennies, 1 nickel, 2 dimes, 3 quarters; Bottles = 11; Ground Scores = 7; Best coinage find(s) = three quarters, each unlikely finds. First quarter was retrieved from a grassy cut-through path, second from a curb along a street section without houses or commerce, 3rd from an equally isolated curb and nearly in the street, just outside my visual sweep. A chance glance spotted it.

Finding a quarter for the MoneyWalker is as beautiful as a flower in full bloom.

MoneyWalker

A "Seven Bagger" and Playing the Market

The photograph is a "two bagger" with change.

Journal Entry, June 23, 2009: Weight = 176; Coinage = $.36, 11 pennies, 1 quarter; glass bottles = 6; Ground Scores = 3; Best coinage find = an old quarter nearly black from exposure, found on a curb in front of a community college drop off.

Journal Entry, June 22, 2009: Weight = 174.0; Coinage = $2.67, 22 pennies, 2 dimes, 9 quarters; Glass bottles - 11; Ground Scores = 6. Best find = seven quarters in newspaper vending machine.

Feature Entry: As an ‘ol ball player, I have always liked the baseball expression “bagger.” For example, a two bagger means a double. Peter Lynch of "Fidelity Magellan" fame uses the baseball metaphor in his book "One Up on Wall Street". The book's main objective is to instruct readers on how to find possible "ten Baggers" that is, achieving a ten-fold appreciation in a stock selection.

For moneywalking, I like the baseball metaphor of “bagger” to define the number of quarters found on a given walk. I am disappointed if each walk is not at least a one bagger. Today’s walk was such a walk, but with zero dimes and nickels and only 11 pennies, it still amounted to a “low growth” walk.

Now yesterday’s walk was better, a nine bagger, seven quarters from one newspaper vending machine. Lynch is a clear advocate of investing in what you know, and the more familiar you are with the company, the better you will understand its business and competitive environment.

It is the same with finding money during walking. I know my “hot spots”, “money spots”, and lucrative curbs and parking lots. I know my competitors and when they look and where they look. This knowledge leads to a higher probability that I will make lucrative coinage returns in my walking investment of time to say nothing of the calories expended.

By being fully aware of each pay phone booth, newspaper vending machine, pay drink dispensers, coin operated car washes with vacuum machines, and coin exchange tenders in my savanna, the expectation is frequent two or three bagger finds. Walking and finding coins is like playing the market, both require careful planning, knowledge, and persistence. I know that if these machines are systematically “mined” and by careful curb and parking lot scanning, most days will provide a two or three bagger with change to spare.

So what is the MoneyWalker'average daily coinage return? About a buck a walk. How about his market scores? The MoneyWalker thinks he will stick to walking.

MoneyWalking

The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth

Journal Entry: Weight = 174.4, Coinage and Paper = $10.60, 30 pennies, 4 nickels, 1 dime, and one wadded ten dollar bill; Glass Bottles Retrieved = 2; Ground Scores = 2. Beside the ten was a penny, thus a mixed mode scatter, the MoneyWalker's first.

For weeks and weeks, the MoneyWalker has been shut out in the category of paper currency. The Change Pot New York City family has reported several paper currency finds, and out west the Numismatic eagle-eye has found her share of foldable green, but not here. Yet, except for one little whine last week, never a peep was heard.

Then it happened this morning. Rather than take the ten block direct walk to the Shell station (a frequent money spot), I skipped one block over to Iberville St. And just before I turned back to the main road, there in the curb was a crumpled ten with a one penny sentinel by its side. The six month draught was over.

MoneyWalker

Expansion Joints and MoneyWalking

Journal Entry: Weight = 175.0; Coinage = $.82, 22 pennies, 1 nickel, 3 dimes, 1 quarter; Ground Scores = 3; Bottles retrieved = 14. Best coinage find = .11 scatter (one dime, one penny) on hunch detour. Also, two finds involved coin return newspaper stands, 1 quarter and one dime. These finds followed a long dry spell with newspaper stands.

Feature Entry: Concerning the hunch detour, walking patterns, like empires, cannot afford to become complacent, comfortable, and predictable. Growth requires risk taking and successful moneywalkers transcend norms. (A little existential talk there.) To find more money on walks, think of new places to look.

For example, expansion joints on concrete and asphalt drive throughs are excellent hiding places for coins. Expansion joints are used to prevent drive-ways from buckling as the material shrinks and expands with weather changes. They are made of 3/4 inch wide wood or plastic. Over time the expansion material gives way and a 1/2 inch crevice is left. Those crevices give up easily retrieved coins and the competitors usually lack the insight to look, or if a coin is spotted, the will to retrieve.

As for the expansion joints of life...the metaphor is too obvious, but as with drive-throughs, there are times when each us need a little room to expand or shrink. Early morning walking is where I find mine.

How easy it is to digress when important chores like mowing the lawn are waiting.

MoneyWalker

Fifty Tries Before Paydirt

Journal Entry: 5/20 & 5/21/09 + one residual walk: Weight = 174.2; Coinage = $2.87, 52 pennies, 2 nickels, 5 dimes, 7 quarters; Ground finds for 5/21/09 = 12; glass bottles retrieved = 11. Significant finds were from three different coin returns, 4 quarters in one telephone, 2 quarters in a newspaper return, and one dime in a second telephone return. The usual response is no, no, no…..and no! My SWAG guess is that it takes 50 tries collectively for telephone and newspaper coin return mechanisms before one of these reluctantly gives up a coin. Three in one day is very unusual. I also found a full pack of Kools, minus two, on the same newspaper stand that produced the two quarters. The machine was in front of the criminal court house. Could he have been the defendant? I gave the Kools to a down-and –out-looking couple a few blocks away.

MoneyWalker

Occasional Streets

Journal Entry: Weight = 175.6; Coinage = $.56, 31 pennies, 1 nickel, 2 dimes; Glass bottles retrieved = 3; Ground Scores = 7. Significant find, a curb scatter of 1 dime and 3 pennies. My entire walk focused on that find and "the habit of carelessness." The Moneywalker follows "occasional" streets when returning to base from the end-point. These are usually a bit out of the way and so are not walked frequently. On most streets I remember which side I took on last walk and take the other side for the current walk. But today, I remembered that one block of the occasional street often gives up coins with high frequency. Sure enough, I abandoned the novel side for the high yield side and once again money was found. The results provided yet more data for the "habit of carelessness." Some people are just not careful when getting in and out of the car. They lose coins over and over and in the same place. My mind remembers these locations and never fails to guide me to these locations.

Because the Habit of Carelessness is so pervasive and pertains to so many behaviors, Ms. MoneyWalker is well acquainted with a person with this problem.

MoneyWalker

The SWAG Theory For Finding Money

Journal Entry: Weight = 176; Coinage = $1.78; 38 pennies, 2 nickels, 3 dimes, 4 quarters; Glass bottles = 7; Ground Scores = 5. Three great finds. The test came early, would finding 8 pennies on an ATT phone shelf bring joy after finding 821 pennies the two days before? The MoneyWalker passed the test, joy was felt. Fidelity was rewarded by a “walk over” scatter of four soiled and stained coins (quarter, dime, and two pennies); and a newspaper dispenser with three quarters in the coin return.

Feature Entry: Yesterday and Saturday, May 9 and 10, I played a hunch and found one of my all-time high money finds, nine dollars and twenty-one cents, and nearly all pennies. As a seasoned moneywalker I find myself experiencing feelings or intuitions or hunches that certain detours from my established routes of walking will lead to greater success in terms of finding money. I play a hunch because it feels right, and then when the hunch results in a found coin, human nature is such that I want to give the action some mystical power such as Zen power.

Does the scientific literature substantiate the role of hunches as a behavior of consequence? In a word, No! Intuition seems to work best when guided by previous relevant experience. The more that hunches or guess work is “educated,” intuition rises to higher and higher levels. According to B. B. Suran, Ph.D. (his essay in the URL below is informative and funny)

http://www.floridabar.org/DIVCOM/JN/JNNews01.nsf/8c9f13012b96736985256aa900624829/5fdb2f3e7191366085256dac005791f4?OpenDocument

a licensed clinical psychologist, “homework and hard reason carry the day” when it comes to decision making. Suran provides names for all the voodoo strategies. My favorite is SWAGs — scientific wild-assed guesses. Honest scientists admit to the practice of using SWAGs to guide their way through unchartered domains. More philosophical, Emmanuel Kant called SWAGs transcendental reason. G.K. Chesterton noted: “A woman uses her intelligence to find reasons to support her intuition.”

Suran suggests that we should brush intuition and hunches aside and rely upon logic and the scientific method to explain success: “Lay out the legal pad, draw the line down the middle, and line up the pros and cons. Then, let intuition, gut instinct, the sixth sense, transcendental reason, and SWAGs work their magic in the light of day.” In other words, allow experience and research to do the work.

As for moneywalking, as I gain experience and add reflection, I find myself playing more and more “hunches” and with more and more success finding money. It is not Zen or intuition, but learning. With experience I am learning where money is lost and how people thing and behave that leads to the loss.

A hunch led me to look down into the 17th Street Canal, but it was the informed behavior of many previous penny scatters combined with the multiple finds of penny scatters on the canal bank that caused me to wonder, “Is someone deliberately throwing this money away?”, and “If they are throwing money up here, could they also be throwing money down into concrete apron below?”

But why would they throw money away? My belief, it is that some segments of society have a growing contempt for the penny, especially teens and young adults. It is this group that utilize the bus stops that flank the canal. When pennies accumulate whether in the jeans, the purse, or in the car, out they go.

But having zero evidence, I’m putting this whole notion in the SWAG category.

MoneyWalker

I found 821 pennies in one location

Journal Entry: Weight = 175 lbs; Coinage = $9.21, 821 pennies, 3 nickels, 5 dimes, 1 quarter; Glass bottles retrieved + 21; Ground scores =4.

Today and yesterday I found 821 pennies in two spots along the infamous 17th Street Canal. This is the Canal that gave way during Katrina and flooded my home and thousands like me with five feet of water.

The Canal runs through my walking savanna. It is a 25 foot deep concreted ditch that flows along mostly without observation or incidence. A bus stop is on two sides of a traffic bridge that crosses the canal. Recently I have found several penny scatters on a walk way that leads along the high protected bank from on one bus stop to another.

Careless bus riders was my explanation. But then I had a hunch. I decided to carefully examine a concrete apron at the base of the canal. Barely visible from the 25 ft vantage point was what looked like a penny, but hardly worth retrieving. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a scatter of what appeared to be several dozen coins. Finding an access ladder near the bridge, down I went. 300 pennies later I went home. This morning I returned to the canal for a second look. In a different spot, I found 500 more pennies and several nickels and dimes.


I have taken that path and crossed 17th Street Canal bridge hundreds of times without thinking of finding money in such a remote and difficult location. But playing a hunch provided big rewards. Perhaps Zen is an explanation for the hunches. This is my second blog about playing hunches to find money. In my next blog I will attempt to provide a scientific explanation about what seems to be going on.


MoneyWalker

A Penny's Leadership

Journal Entry: Body Weight = 175.0; Coinage =$.94, 44 pennies, 3 nickels, 1 dime, 1 quarter; glass bottles retrieved = 4; Ground scores = 7.

Feature Entry: When fast walking (zooming), I walk the curbs of the streets rather than the sidewalks. The curbs is where money falls when people get in out of their cars. Curb walking can be "inside" or "outside." Inside walking is the area between the actual curb and the pavement reserved for cars. Outside walking is still reserved for car parking, but it is the area that the driven opens out to. With busy streets, outside walking is dangerous.

As for finding coins, there are trade-offs. Gravity pulls coins to the curb, but many drivers drop coins when getting into and out of their car which favors outside walking. When zooming along the inside, I always look between parked cars for coins. This morning, the MoneyWalker spotted a bright penny between two cars but in the area defined as outside. Looking carefully for traffic risks, I retrieved the penny. But once there, again vigilant for cars, I scanned the area for more coins. There hidden from my original view on the "outside" was one more penny, then a quarter, and finally a dime--one of my all time best "scatters." And to think, a lowly penny led the way.

That is what I call leadership.

MoneyWalker.

Hall of Fame Money Spots

Journal Entry: Weight = 174.4; Coinage = $1.25, 25 pennies, one nickel, two dimes, and 3 quarters; glass bottles retrieved = 8; Ground scores =3. Four great finds and several scatters on this walk. Find of the day, a quarter and nickel scatter of Juan's Flying Burrito parking lot. Runner up find, a quarter and two pennies at the coin change machine in Rouse's Grocery Store (found on the floor, not in the refuse coin return bin).

Feature Entry: Today, I am featuring several photos showing "hall of fame" money spots in the Mid City area of New Orleans. While walking for fitness and weight control, I plot these spots into my four mile daily walk.

The Jefferson Davis Car Wash featuring six vacuum stations, one automatic bay, and five self wash bays. I have checked this spot two or three times a week for several month and have never been shut out.

A depiction of how money is left near the vacuum bays of the car wash.





Newspaper stands have mechanical coin mechanisms that somehow drop monetary overflow into coin returns. I want to know how that happens. This shot is near a fast food entrance. It takes about fifty tries before one of these machines delivers a coin. Some people drop coins on the ground so I always look around the machines as well as in the coin returns.


Car wash coin receivers have yielded big returns for the MoneyWalker. People drop a quarter and don't feel a need to open the door, look through debris, and retrieve the coin. Also, inside the car wash money is somehow found. Recently I found a dollar bill inside an automated car wash.

Telephones are still viable even with cell phones, but they are slipping out of use. Recently, the telephone company systematically removed one phone from each two phone station as indicated in the photo. I find money in the return and on the ground around the phone. Note the trash in one of the phone bays, I always clean trash from the phone bays as a service.



This dime is resting in the parking area between the street and the curb, I call them curb finds. Curb finds is my top hall of fame money location. For the MoneyWalker, zooming from one money spot to another always involves curb walking. My least favorite hall of fame money spot is the fast food drive through. I chose not to provide a photo feature.

Someone once said, "You are so lucky concerning finding money, I never find anything." Finding money is luck, but it is also a function of art and science. We will talk about learning and the art and science of finding money in a future blog.

Moneywalker

Overriding Atkinson’s “Law of Least Effort”

Journal Entry: Weight = 177.6; Coinage = $1.01 (.49 from two residual walks), 36 pennies, 2 nickels, 3 dimes, 1 quarter; glass bottles retrieved = 8; “Ground Scores” = 6. “Ground Scores” are a new feature for the Journal Entry section of the blog. The term comes from Wendy Bumgardner and her Walking feature in About.com. It refers to items found on the ground other than money that is considered worthy of keeping. My recent find of a screw driver is an example. My favorite money find was a $.17 scatter in the drug store parking lot, 1 dime, seven pennies. I parked there and walked three blocks for a doctor’s appointment rather than park in the convenient “pay to park” garage. The money was a reward for the six block walk, plus I didn't pay a garage fee.


Feature Entry: Jack Atkinson and David McClelland pioneered a motivational theory that concerns peoples’ need for achievement. Too much negative reinforcement and people stop responding and learning; but, too much positive reinforcement has the same results—people stop responding. What seems to be happening is “I can’t please this guy, so I will stop trying.” And conversely, “Regardless of how little I do or how poorly I do it, I still get an ‘adaboy.’, so I will do as little as possible.” Atkinson called this phenomenon the “Law of Least Effort,” or the general tendency for humans to avoid fatigue.

To be a successful MoneyWalker, we must learn to override Atkinson’s Law. First, why walk at all, it is such a bother! But if we do walk, Atkinson's law is still an issue. The walker’s goal is two-fold—to burn calories and find money. Thus, when the MoneyWalker charts his path, his walking goal is not to take the shortest route from the starting point to end-point, but to walk to where the money is. This strategy requires double-backs (the box canyon problem), two block detours, frequent crossing of streets, and playing hunches that require spontaneous diversions.

The mind is in a dissonance war. One element wants to follow Atkinson’s law and walk predictably and efficiently to the end point. The other element wants to take risks and serpentine along hoping to find even more elusive coins that others might have missed. As for weight control, the body doesn’t care as long as the distance is long enough to burn the desired amount of calories to prevent weight gain. Which will result in the strongest positive addiction? It all depends upon ones ‘need for achievement,’ in this case defined both in terms of the amount of money found and the amount of weight lost.

Atkinson and McClelland have more lessons such as where to park while shopping, stealing calories, and taking the elevator—all topics for future blogs. In the mean time, I am feeling a "need" for a nap.

MoneyWalker

A French Quarter Fitness Walk and Ten Healthy Habits

Journal Entry (4-20): Weight = 179.8; Coinage = $.82, 27 pennies, 3 dimes, 1 quarter; glass bottles retrieved = 8. Feature find, my old coffee-shop standby, The Bean Gallery, gave up a dime in the newspaper vending machine.
Journal Entry (4-19): Coinage = $.39; 14 pennies, one quarter; six bottles retrieved. Feature find, a nice quarter drop at the Burger King drive through. Burger King update from last week, the found BK gift card mentioned had $3.50 and bought the MoneyWalker a Whopper Jr. Meal Deal. The $3.50 went into the MoneyTender. Note to followers, it was a Jr., I consumed only half the fries, and gulped it down with a diet coke.
Journal Entry (4-17): Weight = 176.4; Coinage = $.95, 2 dimes, 3 quarters. Two quarters were found on the historic New Orleans Street Car while travelling to the French Quarter Jazz Festival; one quarter on the median, and two dimes around the gumbo food tent.

Feature Entry: In a commercial blog, Weight Loss Matters, an unnamed consultant lists several excellent reasons why many of us have weight problems. Sometimes we just give up and say “Whatever!” Part of the reason is the absence of the lack of internal motivation to make healthy choices—exercise and proper nutrition. The MoneyWalker must admit that he has essentially given up on internal motivation and boldly proclaims a shameless need for external rewards. I find it in the unlikely habit of looking for money as I take daily walks in my neighborhood. I walk every day early in the morning searching for coins that other people have left behind. This morning, a one hour and 15 minute walk netted $.82 cents. Each find connected with a “pleasure spot” somewhere deep in the brain and provided a small but highly rewarding delight. Check out the blog at---

http://www.weightlossmatters.org/top_10_reasons_im_fat.html

Upon returning from my morning walk, I sat down to a bowl of unsweetened fiber filled cereal and 2% milk. Uh Oh!, later in the morning I spotted several chocolates left over from Easter celebrations. It was very tempting to take one or two of these bite sized morsels and say “Whatever!” But instead, I was reminded of the hard work contained in the long walk and it was easy to say, “No way am I going to waste all that burned energy on something as short lived as a Reese’s chocolate/peanut butter splurge.” I monitor my food choices and eat my daily allowances of fruits and vegetables, but it requires daily discipline to stay away from the bad stuff including sweets and fatty foods.

Then there is stress and the absence of restful sleep. Stress and Reese’s are a bad combination. Feel a little stress, “Whatever!”, pitch down a few of those Reese’s cups and eureka, momentary relief. But it is my choice to let things bother me or not. Sometimes I wake at 2 a.m. and have trouble preventing stress from evading my thought processes. I have a little mind control game that works well. I work the alphabet until sleep returns. Starting with A, I think of things that provide pleasure rather than stress. These are personal but a few examples follow: A = Astros, as in the Houston Astros. A buddy and I go every summer for one guys get away week-end; B = blogging; C = cooking, a fun hobby; D = Destin, a place we vacation with friends twice a year; E = entertaining; F = Folsom, the name of our week-end retreat home; G = gardening, another great exercise hobby; and on I go. If my brain tricks me into negative thoughts, I stop and remember the appropriate letter on my pleasure scale and continue with pleasant thoughts. The A..B..C.. game works for me, but all successful stress management techniques must be individualized.

My final points from the blog consultant for weight loss are time management and daily exercise. Getting to bed relative early is important for my lifestyle. If I don’t do my exercise early in the morning, exercise may not happen. Also, by going to bed by 10 p.m., I get 8 hours of sleep, another healthy practice. To lose and maintain weight, I must plan my day to have enough time for exercise. To quote the blogger, “...a half descent walk is going to be enough to drown you in your own fat soon. Seriously, most don't know it but if YOU went for a 40-50 minute walk 4-5 times a week, you could lose your first 5-10 lbs in under ONE MONTH! YES SOMETHING AS SIMPLE AS WALKING.” And one more thing, STAY OFF THOSE FATTY FAST FOODS!

Now I am shouting and am feeling the need to quote the Victorian novelist Anthony Trollope, “Please don’t preach more than you have to!” Their other points must wait.

Moneywalker

Playing a Hunch

Journal Entry: Body Weight = 178.2 lbs; Found Money = $.70, 20 pennies, 3 nickels, 1 dime 1 quarter. The amount included .13 from a residual walk from yesterday; glass bottles retrieved = 6.

Feature Entry: The more time the MoneyWalker spends on the asphalt, the more insight is gained about where and how people lose money. Sometimes a new insight leads to a "playing a hunch." Today was such a day. Smart money walkers avoid rigid following of routines. For example, one of my end points is a large metro bus turn-around. Several newspaper stands, a pay phone, frequent bus arrivals, and bus benches make this a "hot spot" for money finds. It is about 30 minutes out from my home.

My return route is very predicable. From the bus station, to a convenience store, and then curb walking to a Burger King goes the route. There, the search includes a quick check of the drive through, the pay phone, the newspaper vending machine, and a scanning of the parking lot. Then onward to a Delgado Community College parking lot and across the street to USA Today and Times Picayune Newspaper stands for a quick look for coins carelessly left in the money returns.

Then a hunch! This morning, I notice a change, it is Saturday, there is no temporary fruit stand just down from the newspaper stands. The fruit vendor has broken camp. I played the hunch, walking with more visual attention than usual, I surveyed the curbed area where he usually sets up shop. At first nothing, then a nickel, then another nickel, then a penny, a second penny, and yet a third nickel all slyly blending into background of leaves and debris but waiting to be found. Playing a hunch yielding the MoneyWalker .17 cents of pure fun. Playing hunches is an important aspect of the MoneyWalker's overall strategy in finding money.

MoneyWalker

Making the Calls

Journal Entry: Weight-177.0; Found Money-$1.19, 14 pennies, 2 nickels, 2 dimes, and 3 quarters; 12 glass bottles retrieved.

Feature Entry: One of the followers of this blog is an industrial salesman. In discussing his work this past Sunday, the essence of his comments was that “you just keep making the calls.” For this year, the MoneyWalker has been averaging over a dollar per walk (about one hour and fifteen minutes). But even with success as a money finder, before the beginning of each walk, I have doubts. This good luck can’t continue! This morning was one of those walks. It had rained most of the night. Leaves filled the curb sides. I got started late and the commuters going to work caused distractions. So went my negativity. And as if the theory of self fulfilling prophecy was true, more than two-thirds into my walk, my pouch contained 3 cents. Moreover, I had visited most of my hot money spots. Then it happened. The fast food drive through that had been “dry” for the last several visits, produced a quarter, two dimes, and six pennies. The next USA newspaper stand gave up a quarter. Two blocks later, a quarter was mined from the curb followed by several pennies. Then a nickel from the NY Times stand at the Coffee Bean was added.

My friend is right, finding money is just a matter of making the calls. In fact, my doubts are like most things we worry about, 90% of the time, our worse fears don't come true. And of the 10% left, half of those things we can't do anything about. What looked like a barren money day, with threatening rain and overcast skies more than a metaphor, turned into a bright rosy money finding walk. I find life is much the same way. We can chose to dwell on the negative and be gloomy, or we can "keep making the calls" and watch those storm clouds drift over other skies.

How was your walk? Great walk, Dear! Incidentally, Ms. MoneyWalker has her own highly effective work-out regiment of stair climbing, hand weights, and stretching exercises. Then she said, "Have you finished the income tax filing?" Dread that 5 percent.

MoneyWalker