Grammy goes High Tech

Good Morning! Hope all you readers are happy and contented. To be in that state is truly a blessing.

At the expense of sounding uninformed, I want to share an experience I had last week. My favorite gas station is forever changed. For some reason their supplier decided to outsource and since I can't go to China for service it required me to change my habits regarding gassing up my car. You see I had used this same station for about 10 years and even though it wasn't full service, Kenneth, manager, would always come fill my tank for me. So I am not versed on the modern gadgets that involve pushing all these buttons, knowing which slot (and believe you me there are lots to choose from) to put the card into etc.

Well, the other day, my red light came on flashing at me telling me that I was real close to the walking stage. Let me digress for a moment, I had this cub that ran out of gas more times in a week than most do in a lifetime. But since he is too far away to return the favor to bring me gas and besides I don't think he would appreciate pink furry houseshoes (private joke), I wheeled into this station with utmost confidence that I could master a little chore like getting gas.

My first challenge was opening the gas tank lid. You know they don't even put knobs or anything to help on those things. After a bit I got it open and was feeling pretty good. The next challenge was to choose which credit card. Boy now I am on a roll. I select the Visa and put my card into the slot above the pictures of the cards. Well the first time I put it in, it spits it back so hard it lands on the ground. I pick it up and this time I shove it in pretty good. Next I push lots of other buttons and still nothing happens. So setting pride aside, I push the button labeled Help. I wait a good long while and finally a voice comes out of nowhere and says, "Could I help you" now don't you think this is a stupid question for someone who had just pushed the help button. Anyway, I say, "Yes, there seems to be a problem with this pump, I put my card in but it still won't work." Since she is overworked and the store understaffed, I have to wait a while longer.

Then this very pleasant young lady comes bouncing out to the pump. When I show her where I put my card, I could see her hiding a smile. She replied, "Don't worry, you put your card in the wrong slot (it happens all the time, yeah right) but I will have to go get the key". After another wait of several minutes she comes bouncing back with a key. She finally dug my card out and gave me a brief lesson on what to do next. I finished filling my car with gas and was feeling better about it when low and behold a light comes on and asked me if I want a receipt. I push the yes button and stand and wait at the slot where I first put my card. You see that was really the receipt slot. Well nothing came out so I just decided they could keep the receipt and started to get in my car to leave. Here comes this sweet young lady again waving my receipt and telling me that somehow the receipt printer wasn't working on that pump at the moment. Duh, some grammy had just crammed her card into the printer slot. This young lady's bright smile and happy attitude just made my day!