Saturday, March 07, 2009

Casualties of Sticking it to the Man

Greetings Readers

Casualties. There are always an innocent bystander(s)

My faithful Readers will remember me "Sticking it to the Man" from a while ago.

Long story short - I was "bent" that the Coca-Cola machine price of a 16 oz of Coca-Cola went up from $ 1.00 to $ 1.25. I was "bent", and I guess I still have a little "bentness" about the price increase. Again, for the record, the price of a Coca-Cola increased 25% percent. 25 percent % is a lot, even though it is low expense.

I have made the necessary changes in my life to counter that increase and have been bringing in Coca-Cola from the grocery store or Gas stations on route to work.

However, there are days that I do have to buy Coca-Coca from the Coke machine since I may have run out of Coca-Cola or just did not have the time to stop at the store that morning before work.

Anyway, that is the back story. Fast forward to this past week. I spent my allowance for the week and when that happens I try not to charge or go to the bank for more money. If I mismanaged my allowance I need to "pay" for spending it all so quickly.

Hence, that is what happened. I have told you Readers that I have three empty bottles of 1.75 L Absolute Vodka Bottles on my mantle where I put my pennies, nickels and dimes from my many purchases. Well, I try not to go to the change bottles, but when I spend my allowance there is really only one choice to go to. The jars. I decided to empty some dimes from the dimes bottle and use that for anything I may need - example - Coca-Cola.

Now, I was standing in front of the Coca-Cola machine with my zip lock bag of dimes. I started to drop the dimes into the coin slot and I heard the familiar coin noise going through the machine. Then, I heard the dime actually hit the bottom of the coin container in the machine. Clink! Clink after Clink. Hmmmm.

I put in $ 1.25 pushed the button for a regular Coca-Cola and then got my Coca-Cola. I put the bottle of Coca-Cola on the counter behind me and then started to put in some more of my dimes into the Coke Machine. Clink! Clink! I reached $1.30 and then briefly paused and then pushed the coin return knob. I heard the Coke machine return my money to me in the coin return slot. Clank. Clank. Clank. 5 Clanks I heard. That meant I got 5 quarters in return. hmmmm.

Minutes later and all my dimes gone I had all quarters in change. Pretty cool I thought to myself. I just unloaded about 39 dimes and got 15 quarters back.

I went home that night and could not let that go. I saw all the nickels in the nickel bottle and thought to myself - why not.

I emptied the entire bottle of nickels into a zip lock bag - and there was a lot.

The following morning I got to work early since I was going to do the same thing again. This time I needed some personal time, as opposed to company time, to feed in the nickels into the Coke Machine.

Thirty minutes later and $ 15.00 dollars in quarters I decided that I had better start work. I was about 2/3 through the zip lock bag and decided I could finish up at lunch or make myself take a break in the afternoon.

The afternoon break was when I went back to the Coke Machine. I started feeding the Coke machine the rest of the nickels that I had remaining in the zip lock bag. It was not about $ 3.75 later that the machine was dispensing dimes back to me.

I had taken all the quarters from the machine. Damn, but good. Well..... Hey, it takes two nickels for every dime I thought to myself quickly.

With that mentality I thought of further sticking it to the man. I am going to dispense the rest of the nickels and get back dimes instead.

Oh yes Readers, shallow and probably not going to matter to the Coca-Cola person, but there was a certain satisfaction by getting rid of all the nickels I had and supposedly filling up the coin container inside the Coke Machine. I heard the "Clink" two days ago, but soon I could heard the familiar sound of coin hitting coin inside in the Coke machine. I was filling up that coin container inside the Coke Machine.

Well, I was done. Mission is accomplished, for now.

But I had all these dimes. Hmmm. There are always innocent Casualties. In this case the Pepsi Machine. I loved seeing the bag of quarters I got in return from the Coke machine and like the dog with a bone that sees his/her reflection in a pool of water - I wanted more.

I started dropping my dimes into the Pepsi machine and soon hit $ 1.30,which at that point I hit the coin return knob again and soon heard that familiar sound of "Clank" in the coin return slot.

Minutes later I was at my desk with a zip lock bag full of quarters and one dime left over. I dumped out the zip lock bag of quarters and started counting out 4 at a time and lining up in a row on my desk.

$ 25.00 dollars worth of quarters.... well actually nickels since that is what I started with. Wow. I was amazed that I had that many nickels.

A friend came by and wondered what's going on. I told him/her flat out what I did. No shame. He/she said remarked well how do you feel about the next person who puts in two $ 1.00 bills and gets dimes in return since you took all the quarters. I responded - innocent casualties on the war on sticking it to the man. He/she smiles and shakes their head in disbelief -

"Oh you are something else. And you know that Coca-Cola person that who is going to empty that coin container in the Coke Machine will probably get upset."

"Probably, but you forgot about the big stink I raised about the 25% percent increase last year. Well, I finally am able to get back in the only way I can and that is feed that Coke Machine full of nickels and take all the quarters in return."

"That Coke person is not even responsible for the increase, it is Coca-Cola and you targeting him/her."

"I don't make up the rules. I take them as far as I could. In the grand scheme of things I deposited my nickels and then changed my mind on getting a bottle of Coca-Cola and pushed the coin return for my money"

"What 20 times?!"

"Yeah." me smiling "And that is the story I am sticking to."

"Mr. Charley you are something else."

Now, I have all these quarters and they are just beckoning to be spent. Now, what can I spend my new found wealth on...

Until the next time

Daryl Charley
The Fallen Athlete

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