Find a Penny

Arriving bright and early at the University yesterday, to gather game supplies, I was surprised to see so little traffic going in and so few cars parked on campus.

Thinking perhaps classes were starting late, I decided not to risk parking, coming back later to find I’d been ticketed. So, instead of taking advantage of the empty lot, I played it safe and parked on that side street about a quarter mile away.

After crossing the road, walking to where I was now on campus property, I looked down and spotted a bright new shinny penny.

Inasmuch as finding a penny is a good luck omen, I picked it up and recited the ritualistic, “Find a penny pick it up. All the day you’ll have good luck”.

I have absolutely no idea where I got that from, but it’s something I can’t remember ever not doing -- something I thought was universally done until, walking the golf course with a friend some time ago, spotting a penny, picking it up, reciting the ritual, that friend found it strange, saying she’d never heard of it.

I can’t be the only person that does this?

On campus, I later stopped to take a photo of a group of students climbing that big deal wolf statue I’d taken that fake being bitten pictures with a week or so back, but I’ve since been informed “It’s not a wolf. It’s a coyote”.

When I stopped to take that photo, a young man passing by smiled, greeted me and said, “I didn’t get the message.”

“What message is that?”

“That there’s no school today.”

“Ohhhh! That’s why the lot is empty. What’s going on?”

“It’s some kind of holiday, Veterans Day.”

Everything began to fall into place … the empty parking lot, all the facebook photos of friends who’d been in the armed services and/or family members who’d served/serving.

“Since I used the gas to get here, I figured I might as well study, but the Library is also closed”, he went on to say.

“LOL. Well you’re not the only one. I didn’t get the message either. I heard the message, saw the message, but it didn’t register.”

Apologies to our Veterans for my having failed to acknowledge your day, and a sincere thank you to all who defended and are defending.

I can only attribute my faux pas to waking up yesterday, brain fried from current events, feeling as though I was living in a dream state and would, at any moment, wake up.

Elsewhere on campus …

Veteran's Success Center

On tap for today is resting up for tomorrow. Not planning on anything other than Virtual 5Ks remainder of the year, I ended up registering for the famous Mission Inn Run. So it's up and out early tomorrow for what, after a whole lot of nothing but the living dead here at the complex, I hope to be a fun day with lots of active people and a simultaneous health and fitness fair.

Did finding a penny bring me luck you ask?

In a manner of speaking, yes, it did.

A $2 Day of the Dead scratch off lottery ticket, turned into $10, which I rolled over into a $10 ticket, which ticket parlayed itself into an $80 win.

Eighty dollars isn’t anywhere near the millions I'm looking to win but, I’ll take it.