Yet another example of why it is a good thing I do not work in retail or food-service

(16:00:37 CDT)

Yet another example of why it is a good thing I do not work in retail or food-service

About 3:00pm, I went for a short walk. I had thought about getting food, but then decided nothing in walking distance sounded all that good to me, and so did this complicated fourth-dimensional figure-eight sort of pattern, curved up and through some local business parking lots and just stretched my legs. The end result of this meandering was me coming back to Julia Street about where Barnhill's parking lot goes right against the street, and then cutting through the parking lot. Which is empty. Do not worry about the specifics if you do not know the area, it is of no consequence, besides to say that Barnhill's (a southern-style buffet) is at the corner of Julia and University and sits in its parking lot in such a way that there is a long stretch of parking lot to the either side (well, 15 or so meters) but the front door is against a narrow section of the parking lot. The building is shaped something like a "T" if the bottom leg was really short and the arms were thick. There is only enough room for a single line of cars to park directly in front of the front doors, where that short T's leg sticks out.

I'm cutting through the thick and coming to the thin when a woman in a red SUV pulls up. Now, this Barnhill's has been closed for a day or two for some reason, and the parking lot is empty (or I would have cut across Julia Street into the old Driving 2000 lot and walked that). It has two signs on the door that read in fair-sized letters: Closed for the Day. It has been more than a day, but nearly every other wording would imply either a longer term, or shorter term, closing than they want. The signs are not necessarily visible at ease from a distance, but they are visible. At the beginning of my walk, when I was cutting around Barnhill's for the first tiem, I watched an old couple pull up, see the signs, and drive off; so some older eyes can see them from a few meters away.

She ignores the general lack of cars (there are some, presumably workers' cars) and the lights being turned down to low. She parked right in that thinnest section. so she has about five steps to the front door once she comes around her car. She looks down for the first couple of steps, and then looks up. At the signs. Reads them. Gets closer. Reads them again. Then she grabs the door and pulls. Then she grabs the other door, and...that's right...pulls. During neither of these frustrated tugs did she take her eyes off the sign closest to her. She mumbles angrily until she realizes she has an audience, looks at me, and then angrily waves her arms in the air. Storms off to her car and drives off.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why I say praise be that I do not work in retail or food service any more.

Si Vales, Valeo

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