Category: Guide to Life

Dumping Coins

Diversions, Guide to Life
Washed and ready for refilling

Washed and ready for refilling

For many many years, since I was a kid, I’ve kept a coin jar for collecting loose change. Piggy banks are boring, you can’t see what they hold inside! Coin jars rock. You can see your hoarded coins accumulate and shake them around hunting for the right coin to suit your needs. My jars sit in my closet, and each day I add whatever silver is in my pocket to the smaller of the two jars, and segregate pennies into the larger jar. The silver jar sees a lot of traffic, both in and out, as the whole family would routinely fish for quarters to help pay for a day’s lunch or bus fare. But the pennies just accumulated. Once in the jar, there’s never any real reason for a penny to come back out. Until today.

Today I acted on a notion that I had since the start of the year, that maybe it’s time to dump the coins, turn them into more practical funds, and give each jar a fresh start. So here’s how that went.

First, upon hearing of my plan, daughter Colleen asked if she could first help herself to quarters from the silver jar. I dumped the jar and gave her some time to hunt and gather quarters as I bagged the rest of the coins. She managed to scoop up $11 in the process. The remaining silver and all of the pennies, now dumped into plastic bags for transport, headed to the local grocery with me for tallying in the Coinstar machine. Now back in the day, I remember the burdensome chore of getting paper coin rolls, carefully counting out all of your coins and rolling them, and then having to write your bank account number on every single roll, just so you could deposit them in the bank and make some use of your excess coinage. It was a lot of work and hassle, and that’s probably why I haven’t bothered in so long. Coinstar machines will sort and tally your coins for you, and then you have three options; receive a cash voucher (after a 10.9% fee), or without fees you can get the full amount on a gift card, or donate the full amount to charity. But I was in this for the cash, and figured the fee was worth it.

I'm not certain, but I think this is a LOT of money somewhere!

I’m not certain, but I think this is a LOT of money somewhere!

Here’s my tally:

$ 6.50 – 26 Quarters
$25.90 – 259 Dimes
$ 7.50 – 150 Nickels
$21.79 – 2,179 Pennies
——
$61.69 Total
$ 6.72 Service Fee
$54.97 Cash

Nice!

There were a few coins rejected by the Coinstar machine, all legitimately so. They were 10 Japanese Yen, 1/2 Swiss Franc, 1 Czech Koruna, and 2 Irish Cents.

I did a bit of shopping with my newly flush wallet. And then at home, I gave both of my coin jars a nice scrubbing, and filled them each with my newly acquired change totaling $1.33. That was after spotting I had a commemorative issue Virgin Islands Quarter which was removed for placement in one of our state quarter collection folders.

The idea occurs to me too late for this year, but in 2015 I’ll plan on starting the year with empty jars in order to tally exactly how much pocket change I accumulate in a year. That will be exciting won’t it?? Stay tuned! (and hope I remember).

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Tracking Beers with Untappd

Beer, Diversions, Guide to Life, Technology

Chris on UntappdI will be the first to admit that I frequently demonstrate symptoms of OCD. It’s not crippling, or anything weird, but I frequently like to count and categorize things. In some cases it can be useful, for example it has added to my success and enjoyment of constructing my family tree. Other times, it serves no purpose at all other than to satisfy my own curiousity. That was the case when I spent a day  counting and categorizing my t-shirts, just so I could understand the big picture of my t-shirt collection. Or when I  took a photo of myself (almost) everyday for a year in order to make a short movie..

I also love technology and gadgets. And in the age of the iPhone, I’m a fan of many apps that allow me to check-into locations, track my runs, sort my music, and find my friends.

For the last two years, one app in particular has especially caught my imagination, bringing my love of tracking the mundaneness of daily life crashing into my love of gadgets, with another of my loves, beer. That app is called Untappd, and it’s a must have for any curious beer lover with a smart phone. For me, using Untappd has greatly enhanced my appreciation of beer. It has driven me to explore a broader variety of styles, visit breweries, bars and other places to imbibe, seek out new ‘distinct beers’ that I’ve never had before (at least since I started tracking them), to enjoy all of that socially with other beer loving friends on Untappd. Sometimes this quest for unique beers can be daunting. My wife rolls her eyes at me at every restaurant visit, as I quickly compare their beer offerings with my history on Untappd, looking for something new. And she has spent countless extra hours waiting for me as I peruse the beer section of the grocery store, like an indecisive kid at a candy counter. Once, when I brought home a six-pack of some very sub-par beer from the store, she asked, “I thought you loved good beer, why would you buy that?”. And she again rolled eyes as I explained that I needed to drink bad beer in order to be able to appreciate good beer, and besides, it was one that I had yet to check into on Untappd.

When Untapped added the ability to post photos with your beer check-ins, my worlds collided again. I’m well known for being my own favorite photo subject, and what better to join me in a picture than the beer I’m currently drinking and checking in? And having recently collected 500 such beer self-portraits, the occasion called for another movie starring me, straightforwardly titled 500 Beers.

All this beer drinking has also led me to revisit the hobby of home-brewing that I dabbled in for a few years in the mid-90s. The enjoyment of sharing your own home brew with friends is better still when it can be shared via Untappd. So get to know me, and if I have any to spare I will happy share with you a truly unique beer check-in courtesy of Casey’s Brews.

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Political Activity in Montclair, Virginia

Guide to Life, Politics

For my Montclair friends & neighbors,

Although not on the published agenda, I believe that our MPOA Board of Directors will once again consider a proposal to prohibit political activity of any sort at MPOA Events at tomorrow nights board meeting (7/13).  

This is coming about because someone was upset with the fact that at our recent Montclair Day event, our new Delegate (as a result of re-districting) sought to introduce himself to his new constituents in Montclair, and a candidate for office that sought petition signatures to get on the ballot.  Both perfectly appropriate and desirable actions to take at a community event, in my humble opinion.

Our guidelines already limit MPOA events to residents with tags and their two guests.  Anyone else can be asked to leave, as could anyone who was doing anything truly disruptive.

But please, let’s not invite our neighborhood’s private government to regulate or prohibit that way our REAL elected American government works.  I would love to meet with and speak to political candidates at our community events.  And anyone who doesn’t feel the same can ignore them and move onto the dunk tank or their funnel cake.

Tomorrow is my birthday.  Give me the gift of joining me at the MPOA Board Meeting (7:30 pm, July 13th, MPOA Building) and demonstrate your opposition to our Property Owner’s Association interfering with our rights as American’s any more than they already do.

Thanks!  Chris

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A Boy and His Lion

Family, Guide to Life
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Christmas 1993, Huntington Beach, California. Will Casey is three weeks past turning one year old and celebrating Christmas at his Nana & Papa’s house. It’s Will’s second Christmas, but his first with awareness. Too young to know or care about Santa or Baby Jesus, Will knows only that there are lots of new toys being opened and they seemed to be for him. The toys stacked taller than he was, and from the safety of his mother’s lap, Will took it all in. He really wasn’t feeling very well on this trip, but toys are great medicine. Among his sister’s gifts was a Lion puppet. It had plastic brown eyes, soft fur, and a huge bushy mane.

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Will had to touch that mane, and he did.

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From that moment on ‘Lion’ belonged to Will. They were together always. By the next Christmas, Lion even came along with Will and Katie when they visited Santa,

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and when he joined his family for a White House family Christmas photo.

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And when he wasn’t traveling with Will on such exciting days as the first day of pre-school,

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Lion and Will could most frequently be found napping together, like they are here with Will’s Aunt Jill.

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Luckily for Will, his kind and generous older sister never begrudged him for taking her gift. She understood that Lion and Will were friends.

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There were others. Others who tried to compete for Will’s attention, and he was willing to give them a try. There was Abu,

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and bunny.

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There was Mickey,

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and Pooh.

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There was even eventually a baby sister, but pulling her hair just wasn’t the same.

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None of them lasted (well, the sister did), and no one knows where they are now. Lion was always there.

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And he still is today. A bit worn after 17 years (his tail fell off years ago, but it’s safely stored inside his puppet head), but still Will’s Lion.

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The End.

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Marathons

Guide to Life, Running

fixx_running_books.jpg In November 2008, my friend Jay and I completed the Richmond Marathon. It was the first for each of us, and a successful culmination of a 16-week training program to get us across the finish line. The goal of our program was to simply complete the marathon, not in any particular time, but just to complete it. Among the many sights along the course in Richmond, was the shirt of an older gentleman that proclaimed he was ‘Larry’ of the ‘50 State Marathon Club‘. He was an inspiring and humbling sight. Jay and I finished in 5:56:57 and were both happy just to have completed the race before the course would have closed after 7 hours. Having assumed at the time that running one marathon would be enough to check that off my ‘bucket list‘, I was a bit surprised when, within an hour of our finish, Jay said, “I bet we could do better”.

The idea of running a marathon was not a recently found fascination for me. As a kid, I read both of Jim Fixx’s books from the late ’70s that helped to spur the increasing popularity of recreational running. And I referenced the first book extensively in a grade school report I wrote titled ‘The Marathon’. My mother and I gave the second book to my Dad for Father’s Day in 1980, and in the inscription I wrote, “Dad, We’re gonna run a marathon by 1983, so start reading!” So I was off by 25 years on that prediction, but clearly the idea stuck.

AfterJay’s suggestion that we could do better stuck as well, and just less than a year after Richmond I ran my second Marathon in Baltimore, where I beat my goal of breaking five hours with 10 minutes to spare. Done, right? No. Earlier in the summer the Surf City Marathon in my hometown of Huntington Beach, CA called out to me, and when Jay said he’d like to do it too, we signed ourselves up and ran it in February. A trip home is always nice, and I shaved a whole 24 seconds off of my Baltimore time, and we brought back some excellent surfboard medals for our effort. And then, just six weeks later I found myself in Virginia Beach running in the Shamrock Marathon, in which I ran with an orange beard, fell short of my goal time or a PR, but was consoled by some fine Yuengling Lager’s provided by the race sponsor.

Last July there was an article in Runner’s World about a man named Larry Macon. Larry earned himself a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for having completed 105 Marathons in a single year. It turned out that this was the same Larry that Jay and I had run behind for a good portion in Richmond (he finished a minute and 42 seconds ahead of us). I’ll certainly never challenge Larry’s record. And it’s unlikely I’ll ever be a member of that 50-state club. But I do believe I’ll keep running marathons, maybe one or two a year, hopefully in different cities; Chicago, New York, Philadelphia, Dublin, OBX… so many choices. Running down the middle of closed streets with thousands of other runners is a truly unique way to see city.

Today I registered for the Marine Corp Marathon which will be run next Halloween. This one is really the DC area’s premiere marathon, and so a must do for any local marathoner (To the 50-stater rules, it counts as a Virginia race since it starts and finishes in that state, despite being run mostly in DC, so it does nothing to help me advance towards that membership and I already have two Virginia marathons now). The Marine Corp Marathon sells out quickly each year, so I was happy I got in. And this afternoon I learned some more good news, my running buddy Jay is registered as well!

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