Yeah, but I had a penny...

One day, when I was just a little kid, my brother had a dime. Back then we could buy two pieces of candy for 1 cent. So three or four of us decided to head out to the store. I'm not sure our parents would have approved having us little kids walk the mile to the store crossing the busiest street in the city, but I don't think we asked anyone for permission.

Along the way to the store I found a penny on the ground. More candy! However there was a problem. On 10 cents there is no sales tax, but if you spend 11 cents then you also have to spend one cent for tax. So as we walked to the store we devised what we thought was a clever plan. Each of us would pick out our candy and one by one pay for the candy and then pass the change on to the next person.

We thought we were so smart. I picked out a couple of Swedish fish and was the last to buy our goods. But before we left, the sales lady asked us why we hadn't just payed for everything at once. So my brother tells her that we didn't want to pay sales tax. "There is not tax on a dime." she said. And I proudly replied back, "yeah, but I had a penny!"

They teased me about that the whole way home. Actually they teased me about that for years afterwards. I still remember how great we thought it was that we out smarted the system.

At the intersection where I cross Redwood Road on my way to work, there is what I thought was a dime amongst the debris that piles up at the intersection. A few days ago I stopped and picked it up. It actually is a penny that has had all of the copper worn off of it. I've actually noticed a lot of coins amongst the road debris as I bike to and from work. As a kid I was so excited when I found that penny, now I simply ride past quarters, nickels, dimes, and pennies every day. Surely other people see them too but nobody cares enough to even stop and pick them up.

Sorry Dude...

... but let me explain. Ever since that lady intentionally tried to kill me because, in her words, "he was riding his bike on the road," I have suffered from a real bad paranoia.

I still have not been able to ride my bike down that road. When I think about it I get a vision of the lazy lady putting the pedal to the floor and swerving at me, and this time successfully turning me into roadkill. When the Sheriff's department arrives to clean up, the deputy gives the lady a high five for doing her part to rid the roads of non motorized vehicles.

Hmm, blog posts need pictures: our bike ride in Prague a few weeks ago.

So to deal with this paranoia, instead of riding my bike on the 30 mph road I ride down the highway where the speed limit is 55 mph. Of course this means the average speed is something like 70 mph. OK, yeah, this doesn't make sense.

Anyway, as I head down this road I need to make a left hand turn. I like to turn one intersection before the main one so I can get off the highway and on to the pathway. But the problem with this is, it requires me to ride on the left side of the highway for a block or so.

...and that is my excuse, after making that left and heading to the pathway my brain shifted into riding on the left. So that confusing moment when you were riding your bike off the pathway, and you couldn't figure out which way I was going, was just a strange way of me trying to stay alive as I go to work.