I need a break.

I got up this morning to find Sunny clearing off some of the bookshelves in the living room.

As I walked in she handed me a foreign banknote that she's found in one of the books. It was a mint-condition 1000 Cruzado note from Brazil.

On the off chance it was worth something, I hopped online to look up how much it was worth in US dollars. I figured it wouldn't be worth much, but looking it up online costs nothing, and five minutes effort could either net me nothing, or it could be worth fifty or even a hundred dollars.

My jaw hit the floor when I found that 1000 Cruzados is worth approximately $660 US dollars. I didn't exactly start mentally spending the money, but I visited a few more sites to confirm the exchange rate.

Just when I was starting to convince myself that we'd had a nice windfall, the other shoe dropped. 1000 Cruzados was, indeed, worth $660 dollars, but brazil changed from the Cruzado to the 'real' in 1994, meaning the banknote was obsolete and completely worthless.

Figuring that a mint-condition bill that went out of circulation 16 years ago might be worth something to a collector, I looked up the current worth to a collector.

A mint condition 1000 Cruzado note, formerly worth $660 face value is currently values at one… dollar.

Then, this afternoon, I discovered our hot water heater is leaking, That if it can't be fixed is going to cost around 300 dollars we don't have to fix.

So I started today up $660, then found myself only up by $1…and end in the evening with a leaking hot water heater that's ruining the floor that we can't afford to replace for a least a month.

How was your day?

[Edit] Just went into the bathroom to the sound of running water. The TP Valve is jammed open, and after an unsuccessful attempt to flush it, I had to turn it off and the water going to it...which means no hot water until at least april...and that's only if my stepson and I can work out how to install the damn thing.