T and I went grocery shopping as we do on weekends. We shop at Walmart and meet near the registers, after filling our baskets - to check out. I watch the register total mount higher while he packs the bags into our empty basket. Once the groceries are rung up, I will hand the cashier my Walmart card and have enough put on it to pay for a tank of gas at the station on the corner of the lot. We like to use that station because they give you 3 cents off, when using a Walmart card. It kind of feels like taking advantage of the system - to get that cents off the price of a tank. Groceries in the back seat, I drive around to the pumps with T. and he gets out to start the pump and fill the tank. Usually things go well.
Yesterday, not so much.
He got out and had a slight problem locating the gas tank door and I got out to show him where it was. I got back in the driver's seat, thinking things would go as usual. Put in the card, choose the grade, begin fueling. It's a routine he is familiar with. He has done it lots of times.
T. called me to come back out, slightly frantic. He had shoved the gas card up inside the receipt slot, instead of the card reader. He couldn't get it back. I got out. We couldn't even see the card. He pushed the pump button to generate a receipt. It seemed a logical step to him. Nothing happened.
The guy on the other side of the pump was kind of peering around the corner toward us. If he had offered to help we might have accepted but I believe he was laughing too hard to speak.
I would just have left the card stuck inside the pump and driven off, except that it did have $30.00 on it.
I told T. to go tell the person inside the little office what had happened and ask her if she could retrieve our gas card. He went. She came. She unlocked the little door and opened it to reveal the receipt roll and our card. She handed it to T. We thanked her profusely and she returned to the office.
T. went ahead and successfully pumped the tank of gas, and from that point onward things ran like clockwork. He mentioned that this was the first time he had ever tried to put the card in the wrong place. Now I know, I can watch him to be sure he isn't repeating the error.
I keep seeing that guy on the other side of the pump laughing without understanding. But you have to keep your sense of humor and it was kind of funny as it unravelled.
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6 comments:
Life is an adventure, isn't it? We are making a journey with my M-i-L where we haven't been before.
And that guy on the other side of the pump? Time will work its magic on him, too, if he lives long enough.
What's that old Chinese curse.... May you live in interesting times?
Your M-i-L has the best people of any she could ask for ~ to go with her on the journey - love, hope and humor help a lot.
Also, sometimes Vicks under the nose is as good as a room full of roses!
Oh my word. Of course. Vicks. If it works for rookie cops, it'll do for me. Sometimes it is a blessing to not have much of a sense of smell. Wonder where it went?
It's okay. It just runs in the family. I stopped to buy gas after long day of school and work. I pulled into the shell gas station thinking everything was under control on my part. As I pushed my ATM card inside the card slot the machine the window read "Can't read card!" Then I tried turning my card around which gave me the same response. So I looked at my card and tried again and again. So I figured, okay I'll try another card. "Can't read card!" By now I’m just plain upset. The cashier walked outside and told me "Turn your card around, not upside down!" Then he went back inside while the rest of the folks had a good long laugh. That’s okay. One of the people may end up in my Court Room.
Ops, one of these people may end up in my Court Room.
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