Tuesday, May 31, 2005

A quest for change

Today is laundry day, and I quickly realized that we didn't have the right change. The washer and dryer both take $1.50 in loonies and/or quarters, 2 loads, so $6 in change in total. We had $2.25 total in the right types of change (1 loonie, 5 quarters). This was clearly insufficient.

I took the laundry downstairs with the change I had, plus a toonie from my brother's change pile. I bought a chocolate bar from the store to get the other loonie I needed to start the wash.

I now had 33 minutes to go out and get some change. I didn't want to leave the laundry sitting in the washer for any longer than I needed to, so I had to be quick or go somewhere close.

Weighing my options, I saw two potential sources for change. I could either go to Mac's just below Baseline, or I could walk across the Experimental Farm to Tim Hortons. Mac's won out because a) it's closer and b) it has an ATM in it.

The walk was unexciting as it always is. My Wunderbar gave me a quick boost of energy in the early going, and there were cute girls out and about, so I temporarily forgot about laundry, but not my mission. I also abused some commas into a grammatical nightmare, but that's neither here nor there.

Upon arrival at Mac's I got money and then decided on what to buy. I didn't want to spend more than 2 dollars. I needed 3 in change, and I didn't want to break a 5 just for that purpose. The goal was to get change, not spend a lot of money on convenience foods, after all. I finally decided on a 600mL bottle of Diet Coke, and as the cashier got my change I told him I wanted some quarters.

I didn't realize until he had already closed the change drawer that he was going to give me 4 quarters and a toonie, but by then the store was starting to fill up and the cashier really didn't look like he wanted to open the drawer again just to make change for me, so I took my change and my drink and got out of there with 15 minutes left on my washer.

I drank as I walked, but all the cute girls were gone. An old guy on a motorized scooter gave me a dirty look at the corner of Baseline and Fisher, but I didn't have time to wonder why, I had another stop to make.

After finishing my drink, peeling off the label for the all-important PIN under it (this one could be the one I win a TV on, here's hoping!), and throwing out the bottle in the lobby of the building, I ran downstairs and back to the little store. I quickly asked for two loonies, and apparently the way I was speaking "loonies" sounded like "bus tickets", and it took a minute or two to sort out what he thought I said and what I thought he had heard, but in the end I got my loonies.

Having misjudged the time a little bit, I burst into the laundry room and ran to my washers, only to find I had 7 minutes to spare.

The laundry room is boring. As in, really boring. A good place to try sensory deprivation if it wasn't for all the washer and dryer noise. Those 7 minutes were the longest of my life.

Finally I got things in the dryer, deposited my change, and completed the quest. I forgot to stop off to check the mail so I'll have to do that when I go back down.

When I walked in I was hit by the unbelievably awesome scent of chili. I turned on the crock pot at 12:30, and while I was gone it hit that level where it starts to smell good, and by now the entire floor should be able to smell it. I'm drooling just thinking about it.

Mmm, chili.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home