200 thoughts for the bus

I realized late last night that I was going to have to take the bus early this morning and neither Eric nor I had any single bills or more than a few stray pennies in our wallets.

I took a moment to wander aimlessly around the apartment in search of inspiration or some pile of small bills I had put down and forgotten about.

I didn't find any small bills. What I did find was a jar of pennies.

So I counted out 200 pennies, put them in a plastic baggie and put them in my coat pocket for the morning.

Epilogue:
The bus driver gave me a quizzical look as I hauled the sack of pennies out of my pocket.

"I'll just be a sec. You can go ahead - I'm balanced." The last thing I wanted was a busload of glaring non-morning people blaming me for making them late to work, or wherever they were all going.

The bus driver looked at me, may or may not have sensed the potential rage of the other passengers, and decided that driving on would be a good idea. Everyone went back to their reading, napping, or vacant staring, as desired.

It took me two stops to get all of the pennies funneled into the machine. The full fare "beep" was a great, great sound to hear.