This is the working part of a change machine, the device that automatically rolls your coins into the little cup beside the cash register. I repaired this one at Quizno’s. It was a feat of inductive reasoning, as nobody has been able to fix it for months. It kept randomly shorting people 2 cents but otherwise worked fine. I’ll give you a couple hints to see if you can find the solution.
First, notice there are three tubes containing pennies. Next, I quickly concluded the problem was not random, but occurred only after the second to last previous customer had gotten three pennies in change. I did this without touching the machine, which I had never seen before, and it took me 30 seconds looking at just what you see here. How long will it take you?A few Wednesdays back I posed a programming question over some C code that didn’t work. Did any genius types from Ontario come up with the answer? (I friggin doubt it.) The problem was that the counter, “i” has to be declared as a local integer, or by the time it reaches the second loop command line, it is obsolete.
In keeping with my search for a decent musical partner, I hit all the major bulletin boards in town with my new ad for a guitarist. You know I don’t care for the guitar, but it is still the basis of Yankee music and easiest to carry on the bus.
At the end of all today, I’m going to ask you how your day went. Mine wasn’t great, but it was adventurous. Details today are in chronological order. I left here late y’day afternoon and drove the scooter to JZ’s, who was over at dad’s. He’d left five minutes before I arrived. My new scooter, under warrantee, died in the driveway. JP’s brother was there and boosted me. It was getting dark so I drove to Alaine’s.
Would you like any mangoes? I have plenty. From there, failing to contact JP (it seems there was a basketball game on TV), I crashed in their home office, which is fully equipped with a bed, lamps and books. Which is, certainly, everything to make me comfortable.I used their computer to locate a scooter battery. Meanwhile, Alaine’s husband cooked up this incredible meal of nothing I’d ever had before. Black grouper (a white and tender ocean fish) with mango salsa. I know I said they were lucky with their business location, but that is not the whole story.
They have cooking degrees from reputable colleges as far back as 1993. I can’t say, but if I did, you would recognize the famous schools I mean. Both are world-class chefs who enjoy cooking much as I like music. While waiting for waiting for JP to call back, which never happened, I completed the weekend crossword, jumble, sudoku, anacrostic, and wordfind.
JP had forgotten our plans of last Thursday to meet up tonight. I won’t ask for a show of hands when this has happened before. I wound up till 4:00 AM reading a documentary on every major island in the Caribbean. But don’t give me a quiz since after the first dozen, I kept nodding off. Saint what?
Alaine is putting a swimming pool in the back yard. That meant the sacrifice of a huge mango tree, explaining the food said above. I never ate or cared for mango before arriving in Florida. Are you sure you wouldn’t like a box or three? I happen to have have extra. And the coconut tree? That is gone, too.
Oh yea, I said I'd ask. How was your day? What did you get done? What things were new? What did you learn? Did you write it all down for posterity? There, I asked.
