Day #1,294 - Cleaning

Maribel Cleaning

This morning I had arranged to work with Maribel around the house.  Doc went to Starbucks (Doc #1) and then attempted to turn in the TV box from the Pomona house.  After 30 minutes of standing in line, his name had not even made it on the display screen for customers to be serviced, so he left there frustrated.  He grabbed a fried chicken lunch and headed to Cal Poly Pomona to clean out some emails - about 400 of them.

Trevor Spraying

Maribel and I made some good progress; she on house cleaning and me on putting things away.  This morning the Penny Palace also received it’s first quarterly pest control service.  The best part was that Trevor cleaned out all the cobwebs under the eaves.  We are trying to keep the house looking nice.

As soon as Maribel left I headed out to turn in batteries for recycling, make a deposit at the bank, then meet mom at the dentist.  Today was mom’s deep cleaning session before tomorrow’s oral surgery.  While she was in the dental chair, I went outside.  Two dirt pennies there in a planter.  (Coins 1&2)

Upon leaving school, Doc stopped at a convenience store for a soda.   He found a penny on the floor there.  Then a second penny right next to his van as he was backing away.  Sit-N-Find.  (Doc #2&3)

I met Doc at 4 p.m. and we ran a few errands.  Went back to the store to turn in that TV box.  After 30 minutes one guy recognized that Doc had been there earlier today and let us take a short cut in line.  J

We ran errands for a few more hours, then I came home with hopes of cleaning up and logging in the past 21 days of penny finds.

Sure grateful all my Stuff is at least somewhere here in this chaos.  This evening in writing a Thank You note, I needed a notecard (one box), paper cutter (another box), scrapbooking pens (carry case), adhesive corners (travel case), and decorative scissors (hanging near Doc’s TV in family room).  It took an hour to pull together a simple card, but it was good to be able to find everything here close at hand.  Glad we cleaned out my Pomona office. 

This is why I needed to retire - so I can do Full-time Cleaning!

Total:   5 Pennies

Day #217 - Principles

Each day is a new adventure with the Penny Angels. Today they had me laughing as they tested me. The Angels dealt with a few topics: Taking risks, Improving performance, and Learning about Principles.

Today Doc planned to help son, Stephen on his house projects. I planned to work with Mandy on developing products for this Penny Finding “hobby/sport (?).” Not sure what this is? How can we “package” and promote these smiles and manifesting lessons?

Doc said we should begin our day with breakfast from McDonald’s. I was in pajamas at the time and told him to go alone. He refused and required that I go with him. I did so grudgingly. I found two pennies at the window. It took 7 minutes from home, to McD, back to home. So that equates to a Finding Rate of 17 coins per hour (cph). (That is my engineering background coming out). As you recall, last Sunday (Day #212) we found 12 (or 13) coins in one hour. That is a Finding Rate of 12 cph. Then on Monday the 6 coins (to make 25 for the day) were found in 22 minutes which equates to a 16.4 coins/hr rate. Today’s Finding Rate is 17.1 cph. And I just remembered yesterday’s Starbucks Mining: 26 coins in 15 minutes = 104 cph. Wow! This sounds like racing!

On the drive to Mandy’s house I was doing some thinking and pondering….where will this Penny Finding lead? I was engrossed in the mental wrestlings then thought, “I am stopped at a red light and not even looking at the median next to me. Doc would be looking here - that seems to be his specialty area of Penny Finding.”

Then I thought, “What if I did see a penny?

(Translate that to: “What if an opportunity was put right in front of me?)”.

“Would I really take the truck out of gear, put on the brakes, wrestle with my finicky seat belt, leave the safety of the truck, etc.? -- and all for a penny?” “What would people think if they saw that? It would be too risky. It would not be a logical action”

(Translate that to bigger decisions in your life)”.

I told the Penny Angels that I did not want to be bothered with more coins today - less to write about tonight. I made a quick stop at Radio Shack to drop off batteries for recycling. There was a shiny penny in my path (Coin #3). Then I quickly went into the grocery store. There was a penny behind the cashier. She was busy with customers, but I quickly told her I was writing today’s penny tale and could I reach behind her to grab that one? She said, “OK” so I retrieved that penny - and the one next to it. There was another one at the feet of the customer, so I gave him a business card and said “you are now part of Penny Tale Day #217”. (Coins #4-6).

Mandy and I “cranked” all afternoon with ideas. How can this Penny Fever be spread?

While driving home I was stopped at a major intersection - you guessed it. There was a bright, shiny penny in the median just 4-5 ft away! The Penny Angels were testing me on the conversation from earlier today. I wrestled and debated: “Do I get out of the truck? Is it safe? Is it worth it? I can’t accomplish the job before the light turns. What will others think? What is the payoff? Who needs it? I have six coins already. Why do this?”

This found Penny was so trivial - or was it? These types of questions and inner debates are also generated with “Bigger” decisions in our lives. Can we learn the Basic Principles through pennies and then apply those Principles to bigger and bigger things?

PRINCIPLES:

“Simple, yet powerful models that help us understand how the world works…Gravity is principle. When you wake up in the morning, you don’t question it …Principles don’t wear out, rust out, or give out. They last forever. They are timeless and tireless.”

Excerpt from the One Minute Millionaire.