Donna in Hollywoodland

Rain Rain and Gas on 10/17/05

Its pouring. And thundering .
Usually in Los Angeles, if we really have a Storm - it happens in the evening.
Todays storm has been happening all day long.

I work in a highrise building. The power kept flickering on and off. About 5 times.
Luckily, our computers were okay.
But the elevators got messed up, and some of them stopped working.

I had to run some errands on my lunchbreak.
Pick up my evening gown from the Drycleaners, pay the phone bill - that kind of thing

I stopped at a Gas Station.
I put in my ATM card. I filled up my tank. And its very expensive now.
I waited for the confirmation asking me if I wanted a receipt.
Nothing.

The ATM thingy was frozen.
I hit a few buttons. It went back to square one "Select Grade, Slide ATM card".

So in the pouring rain, I got my purse and ran into the gas station.

"Pump #4 - I just filled my tank, and your ATM froze. Did my transaction go through?" I said to the cashier.

"No, it didn't" the sour-puss cashier stated. He was grumpy.

"Ha, ha - gee - Does that mean I get free gas ? Or do you want to put my card through again?"

He gave me a semi-dirty look. "Yeah, give me your card."

I said "Oh, I work in the high-rise over on Vine St, we have been having power outages all morning."

He seemed surprised. "Oh, its power outages." Like he didn't realize the thunder and bad storm could do this kind of thing.

No "thank you". No nothing. Just bad attitude. And here I was being honest, and paying for my gas.
Not one nice word from the cashier.

Well, I figure its more to my benefit to be honest anyway. One time a grocery charge didn't go through on my ATM.
And it showed up 2 months later after the supermarkets accounting office balanced their books. After 2 months, I didn't know what it was and had to call the store to verify it.
So I figured I might as well say something, with modern technology, they are just going to catch the problem eventually.

But whatever - the cashier should have at least said "Thank you".