License to Pay

On Monday I returned my kayak. This was the third time I've returned a kayak, but this time it wasn't my fault. My large butt (I guess that was it) broke the plastic seat area.

So I headed to Sam's Club to gas up my trusty Protege for the drive to Auburndale, and prepared to load up. But the card reader at the pump would not read my Sam's card. If you're not a Sam's member, then know this-you must have your card read; they don't just want your money, they want your information. Or something like that.

So I continued to slide my card into the reader back and forth numerous times. In my mind I cursed the Sam's Club card readers, as well as the card makers. After all, I was on my 2nd card because my last one got too worn out. After probably 15 slides and 3-4 cancellations, I turned my card over to take a better look. It was my stinkin' drivers license.

No wonder it didn't work. The State of Florida doesn't make dual purpose drivers licenses.
After feeling brilliant for a second and seeing that no one else had witnessed my brilliance, I found my real card and then pumped to my heart's content.

It's amazing how often we make simple, stupid mistakes. The other day I was getting overly frustrated with the Verizon customer service (who had really gaffed on my bill in a few different ways). Apparently they needed to contact my wife before they could give me ANY information on the account. I was quite upset and it showed in my voice inflection. But after about 5 minutes, I realized I had given her the wrong number.

Sometimes knowing that you've screwed up before helps increase patience with others. Sometimes knowing that you could be screwing up even now also helps. At least it would have with me.