We all know that it’s a truism. No good deed goes unpunished.
I’m convinced that Satan is the author and enforcer of the rule, for obvious reasons. Do a good deed, be punished. If it happens often enough, maybe you’ll stop doing the good deeds.
Today was simply my turn to be punished for a good deed. I only did something simple — visited a friend in the hospital. So how was the punishment meted out?
First, I thought a small iced coffee would be good. But the clerk told me that iced drinks only came in Grande, despite the sign saying it came in small. I pointed out the sign, only to be told again, that iced drinks only came in Grande. So defeated, I moved on to the parking garage, inserted my token, paid for my parking, retrieved my token, and went to the car.
When I got to the exit and inserted the token, instead of the gate opening, it told me I owed $3. I assumed the phone call I made before trying to leave the garage put me over the grace period to exit, and fed the machine my credit card to pay the other $3. The machine wouldn’t take it. Or my other card. And people started honking at me because I was keeping them from leaving. So I reparked and went to the payment station (unmanned) to pay. Except it wouldn’t accept either card. It was mad at me because I’d tried it before, I guess. Fortunately, there was an ATM adjacent, and it didn’t know that it was supposed to be mad at me and gave me cash which I then fed to the mad machine, which at last was happy.
And, after waiting in line for someone else being punished by the parking garage minion of Satan, I managed to successfully exit. And yes, by the time all was said and done, Valet would have been cheaper.
I’m not really complaining, just documenting the facts. And reminding myself, and hopefully you as well, who the guy is behind being punished.
And I also bet you have much better stories than this that you could share!
by Jim Hughes
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