Life in the slow lane.

First off let me apologize for my recent Thankful Thursday post. I made lots of mistakes. I have excuses though and here they are:

I was tired. It was 4 am.

I wrote the post earlier but forgot to save it.

I was in a hurry, running around like a chicken with my head cut off trying to get ready for an appraiser.

Speaking of that you should see my chickens. You remember the cute little chickens we got this spring? Well they have gotten quite big now. And three of the “hens” are bigger than the other three. And these three tall “hens” have gotten quite aggressive. I am guessing we aren’t going to get many eggs from those three “hens” because they seem to have an attitude. It may be time to trade these three for some shorter chickens.



Anywhoo, back to the slow lane……

Some days on my way to work I stop in at my favorite gas station for a cup of coffee. It is my favorite because they do have great coffee and it is always fresh. Well most of the time anyway. Also there is a girl that works there that often gives me my coffee for free. I am not sure why, she just does it. I am guessing it is because I am always smiling and in a good mood and that is rare at 430 in the morning at a gas station. I guess I stand out because I look out of place.

This gas station also sells lottery tickets. But like many gas stations they only sell them from one cash register. I think it has something to do with accounting and keeping track of lottery sales. But whatever the reason they do it. So somewhere up in their food chain,(AKA upper management) someone decided that it would be a good idea to put up a sign so everyone knows which line to get into when they want lottery tickets. That part makes good sense but here is where the plan went astray. Obviously someone passed the buck down the chain (to the worker bees) when it came to hanging this sign.

Now I am not ragging on the gas station employees. There are some great ones. I put the girl who gives me the free coffee at the top of that list. However there are also some employees there that ummmm how do I say this gently….. there are some employees there that aren’t working their way through law school or medical school. Case in point; I had the good fortune (NOT) to talk with someone the other day while in a fast food restaurant line and he said it best: (and this is a quote) “Some of them people aint too bright. I know I cus I used to work there. I quit cus I had problems with the manager. That’s where yer problems really is. Them managers is morons.” Now who can argue with that!!!!

OK where was I? Oh that’s right, the lottery line. So somehow the people at the bottom of the food chain at the gas station were told to put up this sign to make things work more smoothly. Now if it had been me, I would have hung the sign high over the lottery cash register because it says “Lottery this register only” This would have allowed anyone checking out to see the sign. But where do you think the worker bees put the sign? That’s right, taped to the counter where the only one who could see it was the person already there at the register. A lot of good that did. It kind of reminded me of those directional arrows that they paint on the road just before you get to an intersection. Unless you are the only one on the road, good luck seeing them. Usually they are covered up by the cars in front of you and you are forced to change lanes quickly at the last minute. Soooooo……

Yesterday on my way to work, I felt the need for more caffeine so I stopped. The line was particularly long so my coffee friend came out from the back and opened up the other line. She was seeing two customers to one compared to the other cashier. (Can you tell where the problem was?) So I am up to third in line when the other person finally says; I will take the next customer. The guy in front of me switched to the other line and then said; I want 5 power ball tickets to which the cashier said: (you guessed it) sorry you will have to get in the other line. Here’s your sign. Grrrrrrr. Someone else got in that line so I stay put because it only made sense. OK OK I was hoping for free coffee. And I did get it along with a free doughnut. Double Bonus!!!! Life is good!!!!

When I left the gas station I was in a good mood and I settled into the slow (right) lane to enjoy my ride. But I had one of those special people behind me. I was doing the speed limit but this person felt the need to get right on my bumper. He was so close to me that I couldn’t see his headlights. It made me nervous since it was in a construction zone so I moved over to the fast (left) lane and let the moron pass me on the right. I tried to rationalize what he was doing thinking he must be turning right soon so he wanted to stay in the right lane. Wrong!!! After he passed me on the right he moved into the left lane just ahead of me and turned left.

On second thought just leave the lottery sign where it is. It wouldn’t do any good. You can’t fix stupid.

Have a great day,

Greg