Wooden Nickels

Today was the last day of our training, including a final exam. I'm leaving the classroom (and the bug zapper) behind. I am now officially certified as a Subject Matter Expert. Or, more accurately, I have a good baseline to start the real learning "on the job". Our group is preparing to scatter, with several of us headed different directions. It's a waiting game now, as we stand by for flights to our respective bases. In the mean time, we now have plenty of time to... well, there's actually not that much to do other than eat the great food (tonight's "hamsters" a.k.a. chicken cordon bleu, were especially good). I think I've played tourist enough on this base. I could always do more shopping at the bazaar. Speaking of shopping, the Post Exchange (run by AAFES, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service) apparently doesn't like to keep track of change, so when you buy something that doesn't work out to an even dollar, your change comes in "gift certificates" of various denominations from 5 cents to 25 cents. Since paper is made of wood, would that make the 5 cent piece a wooden nickel? Some of us tossed around the idea of getting some card stock and a good color copier to make our own currency, but we decided the card stock would probably cost the same amount as whatever money we'd make. That, and attempting to buy a Playstation with about 500 paper quarters might draw a bit of suspicion. I'm glad that after several long weeks, the training is over and the real job begins. Time to get busy and start making an impact. Well, as soon as I can catch a flight there...