Lines

Is it just in Alabama that you can get postage stamps from your ATM?  That's incredibly convenient, but I haven't seen it here - at least at my bank.

Lunch errands - only 3 simple errands that shouldn't take long at all.  Make a deposit, get some stamps, and some lunch to take back to the office.  No worries.

First stop; the bank.  I'm quite accustomed to long drive-thru lines at the bank in Huntsville.  Redstone is notorious for slow drive-thru service because they'll have one teller for 3 or 4 lanes.  Here, I bank at Chase.  They have lots of branches, and they offered me $100 to open a checking account.  Well, I'm no fool - free money and convenience all in one?  I'm in!

I pull up to the drive through and luckily (I thought) there were only 2 cars, one in each lane.  I watched for who I thought would be out first, and saw a tube making it's way down to one of the cars.  I pulled up behind it, and after some back-and-forth between the driver and the teller, realized he was not quite finished.  The other car then received their tube, only to stuff something else in it and send it back.  Hmmm.  I waited.  Eventually the first driver got the tube back again.  Finally!!! My turn!!  Oops, he's sending it back.  Same with the other guy.  What the heck (I'm censoring)!!!!

This went on for 10 or so minutes before I decided enough - I'll go inside.  Inside there were no lines, and there was one lonely teller that got her "can I help you??" out before I barely made it through the door.  2 minutes tops and I was out and back on the road.  Lesson learned.  Oh, I asked the teller if the ATM had postage stamps.  She looked at me with a "oh you poor thing" expression and sweetly said "No ma'am, but you can get them at the POST OFFICE across the street...".  Maybe it's a southern thing.  Or a Redstone thing.

Portillos a block away, home of some pretty doggone good italian beef and pretty quick service, too.  This time there weren't 2 cars to wait on...the drive-thru line stretched around the building and out into North Avenue, causing all kinds of problems for people trying to get in or out of the parking lot.  Still, it was moving pretty quickly, and I determined the sandwich was worth it, so I made my way into the line and out again a few minutes later with my #4 with iced tea and hot peppers in hand.  Ahhhh...someone is going to have to introduce Huntsville to italian beef.

Last stop - Post Office, where evidently I can get postage stamps according to the nice teller.  Of course they have no drive-thru (but isn't that a nifty idea??) so I have no choice but to go in.  They had no vending machine for stamps either, so another line.  Complete with tiny Latino children wreaking havoc all over the PO.  And two postal workers who looked ready to go postal.  At least the wait was not long and I could get back to my desk and my Portillos.  All in all, it took an hour to run my three simple errands and get back to my desk.  None of this was more than 2-3 miles from the office, so it left me wondering how it took that long.

I can be a fairly patient person, and my blood pressure no longer shoots up into record levels when I have to wait.  I've learned that it is what it is and getting upset is not going to make things go faster or make people less...frustrating.  But it does seem to help sometimes to let an expletive fly (roll the windows up first) or to bang the steering wheel.  Then all the world is well again and I'm at peace with the gods of patience and kindness.  As long as the idiots get out of my way.