A LOT OF WORK... & play too (Part 158h)

A LOT OF WORK… & play too (Part 158h)

When we’d finished counting the bigger bills the total was around $2,200. Most of them were 5’s and 10’s with only a few any larger. There were a lot of singles but we put off counting them. After getting the girls tucked away for the night we went back to pick up the mess we’d made. I remember laughing as we tried to put the money in stacks and then having them recoil themselves. When we finally got done we sat there looking at the paper bags we’d put it all in and laughing once again. But then it was time to try and figure out where it had come from and who it had belonged to. I’d already found money hidden in the back of the the cedar closet up in Anne’s bedroom soon after we’d moved in. I pretty much figured out that it had belonged to the family that had built the house and took steps to return it. They didn’t know if it was or wasn’t theirs and suggested that we give half to our church or to a charity and to keep the other half. I felt that was fair and it sure helped us out at the time. At this point in time we’d reached the point where we’d winnowed down the ‘need’ portion of our want/need list and were looking forward to attacking the ‘want’ side. Here was the opportunity… but… my conscience got in the way when we started talking about what to do with the money.

As I’ve written previously, I’d had it in mind to do something special for our 10th wedding anniversary coming up in October. We’d not had an actual honeymoon and, until we went to Florida a few weeks earlier, had never been on a vacation trip. I’d managed to put some money away for our anniversary but had dipped into it during the trip to Florida. The money I’d just found would more than take care of that so that’s were my primary thought was. I was about to tell her of my plan for that when my conscience took over.

We ended up discussing the fact that it probably belonged to the people who’d built the house just like the money found hidden in the closet. But, we couldn’t figure out why, if it was the same person, they had chosen to bury it in a jar out in the garden. We agreed that it was probably a completely different individual… but there was no way find out or to know. Because of that we were leaning towards the idea of not even trying to find out who might’ve buried it. But my thoughts went back to solution put forth on the ‘closet money’ where I gave half to charity and kept the other half. When I expressed that to Elle she said I was being way too generous. She pointed out that some of the ‘want’ items on our list were for the house citing for one, the need for aluminum screen and storm windows for the second floor. Her one complaint about the house was that it was always drafty. I couldn’t disagree but I knew I’d feel guilty if we took and used all of the money. We decided not to make any decisions that night and to sleep on it. However, in my case, I couldn’t sleep.

In spite of my continuing desire to go to the early service at church I waited and went with Elle and the girls. It turned out to be the solution to my dilemma. For a reason that I no longer remember, our minister wasn’t there and we had a Franciscan monk in his place (sandals and all). The talk he gave was very inspiring and practical as well. Rather than ‘fire and brimstone’ or the Gospel, he implored the parishioners to dedicate their time and resources to making sure our infrastructure (the church building) was strong so that there would always be a place to worship. It hit home to me since I was on the vestry and knew of all the things that needed to be done… primarily a new oil burner. By the time we returned home I knew what I was going to do… purchase the needed furnace. After paying for it, whatever was left we’d keep for ourselves. Elle, reluctantly, agreed.

I stopped at the plumbing and heating company that service the burner at the church on my way to work. I told the owner what I was going to do and got him to agree not to charge for the installation. Total cost… approximately $750. Driving to work I was excited because that meant Elle and I had at least $1,500 that we could call ours. (and we still had to count all the singles ($1) that we’d initially ignored). I found it somewhat amazing that I’d continued to find money. It was the third time for a sizable amount. 
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It’s sort of funny, writing about this right now, at this time. Yesterday I found a prepaid debit card in the parking lot of a local supermarket. There’s no obvious way to know who it belongs to. Figuring that the owner wouldn’t realize that it was lost for a while I headed back to our apartment planning on calling the market after a few hours to inquire if anyone had either called in or had stopped back inquiring about losing a card. Since it’s just like cash I was reluctant to just give it to the store to hold. In any case, I called after a few hours and they said that no one had made an inquiry. I tried again today with the same result. So, I called the telephone number on the card and was told it was classified as a “Gift Card” and, as such, there was no way to trace the owner/purchaser since it was free to be used in any manner that cash would be used by the holder of the card. In other words, it’s mine (ours) and the value left on the card is $626… :-)
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To be continued…