BrockLi Soup

The Treasury Department discriminates against millions of Americans who are blind or have poor vision by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish between denominations, a federal appeals court ruled on Tuesday.

This is the kind of thing that most people don’t even think about. I certainly never did, until a couple months ago when I met - pay attention, here - my fiancée’s sister’s boyfriend’s high school friend and her husband, both of whom are blind. He is a lobbyist for a blindness special interest group (I can’t remember now if he’s with American Council for the Blind, who filed the case) and filled us in on this and other issues they’re working on.

A design change in our currency could mean big - and potentially expensive - changes. The most obvious example is the scanners in vending machines that need to recognize different bills, but any kind of electronic money counters may need to be updated. But I’m all for it. As Eric the lobbyist pointed out, there are different options: tactile differences or differently sized bills, for example. He’s not an expert on money, so he’s not trying to say he knows the best way to do it. The Treasury Department, on the other hand, is an expert on money, and it’s their responsibility to figure out a way to make cash accessible to everyone without having a huge impact.

Reuters Article

So, how much was in the bucket?

Honestly, friends, I’m a little disappointed in some of you. Most of you guys were WAY off, and granted, you only had a picture to guess from and couldn’t actually lift the bucket, but I gave you measurements and everything! I think Pete’s was the most reasoned response, with the coins per square inch calculations, but he was still 25% off.

The value of the bucket was $101.43, making Katie the winner with a guess of $100. Katie, you may collect your hug at any time (oh by the way, I decided that instead of giving away the money, I’d use some of it to get some Chinese and see a movie. They were delicious and entertaining, in that order).

Jonson and Heewa, I suppose you may also collect hugs, but mostly just because I like hugs. No anal.

I’ve been tossing all my change into this 2-gallon bucket for the past year and a half, give or take. Once in a while, I’d pull out a few quarters to get a soda from the machine, but since our laundry room doesn’t use coins, it hadn’t been pillaged for quarters.

The bucket is 9.5 inches across, and the coins were about 1.25 inches deep. According to Google, that’s about 88 cubic inches of coins.

I took it down to the bank today and poured it all in their machine. Care to guess how much it was? Whoever is closest wins it all. Or maybe a hug, I haven’t decided yet. I’ll post the winner tomorrow or Monday.

Also, figure out where this penny came from, and you can have that too. Here’s the Queen’s backside (teehee).

When I was trying to find a place in Arlington, I checked Rent.com, because that seemed like a reasonable place to start looking. They have floor plans and photos for a lot of apartment buildings and developments, so you can get a a decent feel for the place before you drive out there to see it.

More importantly, they offered a $100 reward if you find a place through them. And since I did, a Visa debit card showed up in the mail today.

I can think of all sorts of fun things to spend $100 on, but I think I’m going to do the responsible thing and toss it in my glove box for gas money. On the other hand, if my car gets stolen, it will be the most valuable thing they walk away with, so maybe I’ll just spend it on hookers and blow.

Reassuringly, my car passed a safety inspection. Not so reassuringly, it failed the emissions test, but the guy was revving it up something fierce - a Lexus would smoke if you whomped on it like that. So, I can’t register it in Virginia unless I have it repaired (which may involve a new EGR or catalytic converter), which isn’t something I can do right now. I only paid $500 for the damn thing in the first place, so it doesn’t make sense to pour a few hundred more in every few months. I’m starting to think I could get away with replacing the car with a motorcycle, but I have no moneys. I want to find a newer, bigger car, but that will cost even more.

As such, I’m going to my Contingency Plan, which depends on a Lottery win. I tried to buy a Lottery ticket today, but the gas station that does car inspections doesn’t sell Lottery tickets.

I had Contingency Plan B, but I forgot what it was. I’m pretty sure it involved more work, so that leads us to Contingency Plan C, wherein you all send me a dollar. You overachievers can send several dollars if you’d like - in fact, it’s encouraged! - but you don’t have to if you’d rather not.

Worst case scenario, I have to take the bus in to work. So, let’s all pull together, folks - I don’t like mingling with the commoners.