One highlight from this weekend was the Coke vending machine outside the resort home we were staying at in Orlando (actually Kissimmee I guess). How could it be a highlight? Well, I wanted to get a bottle of water on Friday night as I'm not completely sure the water in Florida is actually drinkable. I feel like the entire state is a glorified Mexico anyway. So I tried to put a dollar into the machine (I needed $1.25) and it wouldn't take the dollar. Great. Why the hell wouldn't it work??
Turns out there was a dollar somehow jammed in there. After borrowing a pair of tweezers from my hosts, I was a dollar richer and could now get my water. Joe up $1.
So I put a different dollar in the machine, which was now working, and inserted a quarter. Jammed. Damnit! The quarter slot was jammed too!!! Joe up $.75.
After inserting another dollar, I got my water and $.75 change, so I was going to leave it at that. But then I started thinking about the jammed quarter. It wasn't just ONE jammed quarter, there were a bunch of them. Maybe I could use the tweezers to get the quarter back. So I went back outside and gave it another shot with the tweezers. No go. They collapse upon entry into the coin slot. I needed two independent "blade like" things.
Answer, two butter knives. Quarter one retrieved easily. Joe up $1.
The other quarters were further back though and the knives weren't working anymore, so ended the day on a good note. After missing my flight on Saturday, I noticed that the machine hadn't been fixed, so I pondered my next move.
On a trip to the car earlier, I had seen a large paperclip. Well that could be fashioned into a hook that is just the width of a quarter I bet! If only I could find the clip. Back outside I went and there it was. Sweet. Now to bend it at just the right places to make a quarter width hook. Success. The next quarter came easily. Joe up $1.25. I'm single handedly going to save the economy!!!
Some minor alterations to the clip allowed me to reach yet another quarter and I was up a solid $1.50. Unfortunately I couldn't unjam the coin slot as the problem resided much lower in the machine than I could reach.
When your softball team is getting killed on the field, you sometimes have to make your own fun!!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
I envisioned a nature film crew all huddled in the bushes, watch you make ingenious use of your opposable thumbs and tool-making skills.
That's really good Alexis.
Joe - you are wierd
Oh Joe. That is hilarious. I picture it some what more Macguyver-ish however. Maybe you needed a tampon!
Joe, I know you like to play small ball.
I'm confused -- is this why you missed your flight?
Actually, I'm imagining the look on Joe's face if a security officer happened to walk by as Joe was trying to MacGyver the Coke machine. Hilarious!
Post a Comment