Something for Nothing!!!!!

I remember being a kid and looking through the Sears catalogue, mostly at the toy section, dreaming of what I wanted or making a Christmas list. However, there were two other sections that caught my childhood fancy. The first was the section with all the giant wooden swingsets, I envisioned how perfectly one would fit in our backyard. But the section I spent most of my time with was the metal detector section.

I dreamed of getting one and walking around our neighborhood, beaches, and parks finding untold fortunes. Ever since I was a little kid I've been a bit like Peter from Office Space. I haven't really had career aspirations and I don't really want to work. That being said, I am very hard working, my parents raised me with a strong work ethic. BUT, I dream of getting something for nothing, of striking it rich without actually "working".

I think this is part of the reason I've been so attracted to poker. To me, while its hard work, its not really "working". I still dream of getting a metal detector, of finding a valuable painting hidden behind an old canvas, or of winning the lottery (even though I rarely play).

I must not be the only one with these weird childhood fantasies. This one has faded less over time than my other childhood fixations, such as UFOs, Bigfoot, Nessie etc. I recently discovered a show called, The Best Place to Find Cash & Treasures.

This show is awesome! It's on the Travel Channel and basically each episode has a woman going on some sort of treasure hunt. She pans for gold, mines for diamonds and hunts for meteors. Then she takes what she's found, gets it appraised, and sometimes sells it. Many of these place are free to the public. There area places out west where you can go mine things like gold and sunstones for free!! I want to go!! She's hunted for fossils, prehistoric shark teeth, and geodes as well. At the diamond mine she found other miners who collected tens of thousands of dollars of diamonds but don't sell them because are part of their collection. Trust me, I'd sell mine so fast!!!

New England doesn't seem to have many locations for this kind of activity. Perhaps I could find some gold fillings from a corpse somewhere on Revere Beach. Whitey Bulger, if you are reading this, get cracking on some hits. Unless I take a vacation I might be SOL when it comes to finding my treasure. I think the show is great, check it out and then buy me a metal detector damnit or at least take me panning for gold!!

http://travel.discovery.com/tv/cash-treasures/cash-treasures.html