Thursday, January 06, 2005

Change Is Good

A thousand apologies for:
a) the pun subject
b) another bank story

So a few months back I went to cash in my spare change. I am not a change purse type person, choosing instead to throw my pocket change in a coffee mug at home and redeem it for paper or "real" money. I went down to my local Commerce Bank and partook of its penny arcade.

This was a fancy penny arcade with a touch screen and a computer character named Penny (chortle) who carefully guided me through the process of dumping metal down a hole. But before it told me how much money I had it asked that I guess. Because if I guessed within two dollars in either direction, I got a prize! I guessed $50. But I am the worst estimater in the world, so in reality I typed in $30. Before I pressed enter, I noticed a loose penny wedged in part of the machinery. So I tapped that in, pressed enter and waited for my fortune.

The receipt came out. $30.01. That last penny made me miss an exact guess.

Of course, I won my prize...a plastic red C (for Commerce) shaped piggy bank, which I haven't used. Still, I can't help but wonder what might have been had I guessed my total exactly. Two red C's? Three? I can only dream.

The only reason I mention this is because I did it again today, guessed $18.30 and had $41.71. I'm so stupid!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

You're so lucky to have such restraint. I use to cash in my coins but inevitably I'd be thinking "why haven't they phased out pennies yet". I'd ask to talk to the manager who would refer me to his boss and so on until as per usual I'd be venting my concerns with the big man at the Treasury Dept. Sometimes the same guy sometimes a new administration would have a new guy there. Either way it was always the same. A "damned if I know" look and a cold and uncaring shrug of the shoulders.

Thankyou for your apology regarding your pun. Sorry. I'm too upset to reciprocate. Plain and simple: pennies make no sense. I friggin' hate them.