It was a tough day. I got up, got ready, took a shower, did all that, and off we went.
We went to the warehouse to buy some Sprite, and Lipton canned tea. Ron wanted to get a water, too, but I told him we wouldn't have room for it on paratransit.
We had to wait an hour between getting dropped off, and getting picked up, from the warehouse. I drank some diet caffeine free soda they had on their soda fountain (of course I paid for it), and we waited.
We were going to work, said the plan, and then going to the bank. After we went to the bank we would go home and then we'd go to Burger King, a few hours after that.
Ah, plans.
We went to work. Things went well for an hour until a regular customer confronted me about "problems" with the bottled vendor. I opened it up to find a horrific coin jam. I got my tools. There was one part on the top I could remove, when I did coins cascaded all over the floor. I picked them up, thinking I should leave them so people could pay their own refunds. I got the top part clear, apparently. I had to work on the bottom part. I took it out. It had cylinders to hold stacks of coins. I had to stick my fingers in the "good" holes and smack the unit against another vending machine, trying to dislodge the large, troublemaker, coin.
Someone had put a dollar coin (a JFK) in the machine, and that caused all the trouble. Upside down didn't work. I set it down, and some of the coins fell through to the ground again.
Again, I picked them up. I was sweaty and annoyed. And of course that's when people wanted to buy drinks off me, because the machine clearly wasn't working. I helped them after I put half the unit into my box of Little Debbie Snack Cakes. I didn't want change flying all over and it was the only intact box I had on hand. I mash up all my used cardboard when I'm done, and put it in the recycle bin.
Back to the unit: I got the picks. I finally extracted the [censored] coin. I mounted the mechanism. I mounted the top part. Why is the red light flashing? I cleared the jam!
There are two lights, red, and yellow. You don't want either of them flashing.
I went into tube fill mode and tried to fill the empty coin banks. The coins either got stuck, or ran through to the coin return. [bad word] [censored] [censored] I was not happy.
I'm still sweating and I can literally feel my hair frizzing with frustration. I'm so aggravated I want to throw something.
"Is it working?"
I took a deep breath. "No."
"Oh, can I buy a bottle of water?" I sold it to them.
I told Ron he had to call the repairman. He has to call him anyway because the coffee machine dumped the water tank again. Ron asked me to "try" to fix the bottled vendor. "It's our best seller".
I worked on it some more, to no avail. I made sure everything was mounted OK. I cleaned the top part. I got sweat all over my glasses working so I had to wash them. I told Ron, no go, this was beyond my help.
Something is going on beyond the coin jam, or something is jammed where I can't find it. But I couldn't get it to work.
Ron began texting the repairman.
I closed the machine and left a note. I discovered it isn't taking $1 bills, either. The repairman texted Ron back, he would come tomorrow.
We left and went to the bank.
They recently went "bulletproof" at the bank and put the tellers in cages. I can no longer stack the money up on the counter, and count it, when I give it to them. I didn't think it was a big deal. Ron had told me the amount, I was pretty sure, so I handed it through the airlock without counting.
At the end of the transaction, the amount seemed to match what Ron had told me. But he was on the phone so I couldn't ask. When he found out the total, he went nuclear. He said it was $100 less than what he counted. I told him, I watched her count it, twice. It was $X. Ron insisted it was $Y.
I asked him if he wanted to see the manager and he said no, but he was very angry at me for "letting" him be robbed. I couldn't help but wonder if he had been drinking while he counted the money. But I do admit I didn't count it, myself, so it could have been what Ron said. He began screaming at me.
I offered to give him the $100 out of my pay, if he wanted it. No, he said, he wasn't a jerk, he wouldn't do that. Instead he kept screaming at me in front of the whole bank. "I should beat you for this!" etc.
I asked if he wanted to wait outside, he said yes. He had called a cab to go home. He was still shouting at me when it pulled up. It was a muslim driver. The guy was very uncomfortable.
Then Ron tried to pay the guy with $80 in 20's, instead of $20 in fives. I had to correct him and he shouted at me some more. He finally gave a $20 to the cab driver (it's not often I feel sorry for a muslim, but in this case I did). I got the wheelchair out and brought it to Ron.
He got in and we went in the house. Thank God he did not start drinking. The dentist called, there was a problem with our discount plan.
Apparently, when they called to verify us, they couldn't find us in the computer. Well, him. But I assume I am included. He was on the phone, of and on, for a while.
I went to bed while it was still quiet. I heard Ron on the phone, off and on. He turned up the air conditioning, I reached for a blanket. I didn't want to get into a dispute with him over the temperature, especially considering everything else that had happened.
I fell asleep. I didn't sleep well but I did sleep. I felt better once Torbie came to bed and joined me. She has been neglecting me, lately.
Which reminds me, I need to clean the litter box.
I got up after Ron went to bed. It's after 5 now so I hope he made the trips for tomorrow, 5 PM is the cutoff.
Tomorrow I need to take out the trash and at some point I need to do a load of laundry, but that can wait a while.
Oh, I'm tired. Tomorrow looks to be even busier.
No comments:
Post a Comment