A Cynical Posting???

I'm going to do something that I hate. I'm going to make a cynical posting about something. I would have titled this post "Everything's a racket" but if I came upon a blog with that title I'd probably skip it. So here is the deal.

I was at the airport yesterday to pick up a guy that's coming to work with us for a couple of weeks. When I got there, his plane had been delayed. I left because if I got the car out of the garage in time, I wouldn't have to pay. The first 30 minutes are free. So I got the car out with 5 minutes to spare. Or so I thought. Because the entire parking lot is under construction, it was a maze trying to get out. They had taken 6 lanes down to 1 and it was crowded. It took 15 minutes to get from the Garage to the Toll Booth. When I got there the lady told me it would be one dollar. Now I can live with paying one dollar. But I told her that it had taken me 15 minutes to get from the Garage to the Toll Booth. She told me: "No, technically it doesn't." Really? Because I just drove that distance and it did. I can't believe she said that to me? I was stunned. She said. "We drive it every morning and it takes 5 minutes. You just came at our busiest time." So its my fault I guess. So you actually only have 15 minutes of free parking.

Now its not the biggest deal in the world, but it was kind of shocking to me. So I went off to kill about 45 minutes til I went back. I would be going back as close to the actual time to the plane landing as possible.

I went to this little truck stop and thought I'd buy a soda. 20 oz. sodas are usually 1.09 or something at places like that. But I saw the Dr. Peppers were on sale for 79 cents. So I got one. I didn't actually have any cash on me so I handed the lady my Debit Card. She looks at me and says "Oh sorry. We can't use cards unless its at least a Dollar" What? Why? "They just won't let us." No I have been to the occasional place that wouldn't let you use a card for under 10 or even 5 dollars. But 1 Dollar? Whats the difference? Is there some fee or something that you have to pay on card transactions that makes it not worth it? I don't know. I got a second Dr. Pepper. Then I asked if I could get cash back. She said, "No sorry. We have to run it as credit" Then she pointed to a cash machine in the store and told me that I could get cash from that. I looked at one of those Tiny Gas Station ATM's with the blinking lights and the classy Dollar Signs on them. Great. I didn't get any, and I left.

Don't think I'm overreacting or anything. I just had "one of those" half hours. I was waiting for that tax collector from Popeye to come along at the airport and tell me I had to pay a 50 cent waiting for new employee fee or something.

Alright, enough of cynicism. The world is a good place and whiners are lame. Thanks for listening.
-T