Day 86

Didn't really sleep all that well last night, and while I wasn't super sick, I called in sick to work today. Got to sleep in and chill out, good times.
I did make it out later in the afternoon and found 1 penny at JR's Car Wash and found a penny on the ground leaving Randall's. That makes a few days in a row that I've had "true" finds.

While getting gas today at the Shell station, I noticed that the vacuum cleaner was not locked, and I thought about Chris, but didn't open it and search for change. After reading his blog tonight where he talks about his thoughts on the vacuum cleaner issue , I will weigh in with my 2 cents (No pun), and then hopefully we will be done with this topic.

I don’t have a real solid argument, I just know that personally it feels like it is over the line. When I did my April Fool’s joke on Chris, he said that even though he didn’t have a good argument, he felt that the find shouldn’t count due to the amount. I feel this applies in the vacuum cleaner issue. It just feels like a bit much. Ownership of the coins is probably up for grabs, but it is in a place that is normally locked. It is the fault of the gas station for not locking up the vacuum cleaner. But if someone forgets to lock up their car, does that give you the right to open their door and pilfer through their coin holder? (I would never try this, because I’m sure I would find a way to set off the car alarm with Mark McGwire in the background)

I started this blog to keep track of change found during the race. But in the 86 days that have followed my blog has taken a different meaning for me. I do enjoy finding change and keeping track of it, but I also enjoy posting my thoughts and having a running diary of my life. I’ve long ago given up serious thought of winning this change race. But I still want to find my $100, and I will continue to search and blog after that, because this is more than just a race to $100 for me. I look at it as a chance in my lifestyle to always keep my eyes out for coins and to keep a running blog of my thoughts. I'm the kind of guy who like to balance his checkbook, so I enjoy keeping track of finds, and seeing the patterns and totals over a long period of time.

I guess where it bothers me a bit is that Chris is now up by $30, yet he has broken into a vacuum cleaner for 3 straight days. We’re talked about giving up drive-thru’s, because it really is no longer a thrill to find coins there. I really only get excited when I find “true” finds, coins just laying randomly on the ground. Chris had said the same thing before, so now for him to be breaking into vacuum cleaners seems to go against that.

In the end, if it makes Chris happy, I really don’t care about it anymore. Doesn’t really matter. Chris’s absurd change finds in the last 80 days have taken a lot of the fun out of the change race for me. Like I said in the previous paragraph, I have found other parts of this to keep my interest and keep me amused. For Chris, the downside of his huge lead, is that his race partner doesn’t have the same passion for the race that he once did.

Like I said before my purpose of this blog has evolved since the race started. I guess for Chris his purpose is to find $100 as fast as he can. Which in the end was the original purpose of this blog, so I have to respect it. I’m just not going to start breaking into vacuum cleaners and sifting through trash and dirt for change. And that is probably why I’ve lost this race.

Total for the Day - $0.02
Total for the Race - $22.57