During the OSR Magic tournaments, the basic unit of monetary tracking is “the wad”.  It contains all the small bills collected from single sales and at the end of the event a portion is kept to use as change for the next week, usually $50 in ones.  When removing my laundry from the dryer today a few ones fell out.  I appear to have laundered 50 ones, taking them from their almost military perfection and send them to chaos as depicted below:

Makin' It Rain

 

As I folded laundry, ones kept falling out of  clothing and I pulled a few more bills from the lint trap and washing machine.  $44 made it back into the change wad meaning I still have $6 floating around in my shirts, pants, and drawers somewhere.  It’s like a scavenger hunt for things you already own!

The last campfire I had was about seven years ago and while I was still working at RadioShack in the deep dark long long ago when the restricting resource was money over time.  Now things were reversed and I felt like I got a deal getting food for 20 people for under 100 dollars which I later compared to the bank-breaking $87 I spent way back then but loathed the hour I lost grabbing what I needed.

I set things up using a LED headlamp that didn’t exist in 2003 except as a bulky almost miner helmet.  I called my dad to see if I could throw rocks in his truck bed; a convenience I lacked in 2003.  As a final act, I took a picture of the arrangement as a reference using a camera whose technology would have been beyond bleeding edge then.

I was running late to the bank today and decided on using the drive-thru to try and expedite my exchange.  Push button, over box, place check, place deposit slip, close box, push button…wait…wait…wait…voice from box, “How do you want your cash back?”, “hundreds”…wait…wait…wait…”are fifties ok?”, “yes” (should have said no or twos)…wait…wait…wait…”sir, your IDs expired, please send another”….wait…wait…wait….open tube, grab driver’s license that was misread, replace with school ID, press button….wait…wait…wait…see woman counting cash like 9 times through the exterior window (it’s 8 50s is that so hard?) receive tube…. “Ma’am, you didn’t include the receipt” “my mistake”… place box, press button, receive box, open box, get stuff return tube.

Four people walked in and out in the time my rather milquetoast was processed.  Next, time I walk inside.

I’m slowly becoming more active in Playwicki District and was tapped to head up a Webelos weekend.  It’s a bit of a weak weekend which lasts less than 18 hours, but hey they’re kids.

I’m reasonably good with Publisher and combined with Google image search one can create a reasonably snazzy form with a little knowledge of fonts.  So, I made a form for the event and passed it out at the district committee meeting and the response was stunning.  I had no less than three people go “this is good”.  The professional was impressed it was in color.  This is from the man who sent me a form by printing it out in color, scanning it to black and white, and sending me the pdf of the original publisher document.  At the end of the meeting someone said to me “you’re doing a great job”.  How!? I just made a fucking form and people are using it as a proxy for the success of the event.  I have almost no service corps, I don’t have a budget and the patch won’t be in by then but I have an awesome form that apparently covers that.  This is the equivalent of judging the fiscal soundness of a nation by how nice its money is.  Which, if it were the case, Zimbabwe would be in a lot better shape.

Duckets of security

Duckets of security