Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Wondering
Do I need to notify anyone at the national mint that we're about to release $800+ in COINS back into circulation?

We're finally clearing out our change drawer, and it was, um, well overdue. I am really sad to learn that we can't pay for anything with it though. (See Question 13.)

Rock Down to Electric Avenue
While I was tempted to feel rich with all this newly counted wealth we've been hording, that was all before the Great Blackout of 2008. Last Saturday night, we were going to bed when I noticed the lamp kind of fading in and out. Finally the power went out in that half of the house altogether, but as we were already in bed, it didn't really matter.

We called the power company on Sunday morning. The guy came out and said that there was a faulty switch and that we were lucky it hadn't caught fire. So he disconnected the power to the whole house.

Monday, we called a wonderful electrician who came out to change the switch that the power company had disconnected. However, since we were at work, he couldn't check the switches inside. We got home and the lights worked, but the powerpoints did not. The freezer was thawing.

Yesterday, he came back out and changed a bunch of stuff and whatever they do. He stayed until almost 7pm to get it working for us. All was good until after he left, and I went to turn on the dishwasher. That's when we realized that the major appliances would still trip the safety switch.

So this morning, he came back one more time and found a stray wire from our original bungled wiring that was the issue. So hopefully we're good to go now. Today we eat meat and lots of it to avoid wasting everything that was in mid-thaw yesterday. *sigh* Not looking forward to the bill.

4 Comments:

Aug 20 2008, 07:57 am
I think it's hilarous that there is a policy on how much many coins you can use at one place. Are there coin police to stop you? Can you get a ticket for it?
Sorry about your power outage. That stinks. Hope it all is fixed.
Miss you!

8:04 PM  

Aug 21 2008, 07:15 am
Dear Danielle,

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8:05 PM  

Aug 21 2008, 06:33 pm
Danielle,

I have the token 5-gallon water jug nearly full of change (I call it the Bora Bora collection).

I was talking to a friend about how much money might be in it, and that it would be a chore to take all of the coins to the bank (I don't use the change exchange machine at Publix, they take 8%).

Then, we agreed that with so many coins, the percentages of finding a rare or semi-rare coin are pretty good.

So the question begs - do you go through every stinking coin to find that payoff? ANd how long would that take?

DTFKA

8:05 PM  

Aug 22 2008, 01:05 am
Well, now you're talking, DTFKA. When I had my change jar in the states, I always saved all the "wheat pennies" when I counted them out. I don't know if they were worth anything, but I remembered my grandpa collecting them.

Here I've come across the stray quarter, which must have come from my pockets once upon a time. And every now and then a New Zealand coin pops up... but yeah, maybe I should look into rare coins.

8:06 PM  

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