I went by The Pony's house on Wednesday to pick up his house payment check. The Pony is a good tennant! Always has his payment on time. I put those payments in our credit union, to refill the account we drained to buy and renovate Pony House. No loans for the Hillbilly family!
Anyhoo... that part of my errand trip went without incident. Got the payment, drove it a few blocks, deposited it, then headed out to our bank to withdraw our weekly cash allowance. It was just after 3:00. I saw three vehicles waiting to use the ATM that's in the back wall of the bank. I passed them to get to the three drive-thru lanes.
THEY WERE ALL CLOSED!
What in the Not-Heaven? I looked at the time. 3:10 p.m. Last time I checked, the drive-thru was open until 4:30. Later on Fridays. Yet all the lights were off inside. The shades over the big drive-thru window were down. No green or red traffic-light-thingies on at the individual lanes. No signs posted anywhere. Huh. Looks like no allowance for Mrs. HM!
I drove T-Hoe down the alley behind the bank, making a call to The Pony.
"Hey. The bank is CLOSED! I thought you might look up their hours for me. Just to see if they've changed."
"Yeah. Okay. It says the lobby is open until 2:00, and the drive-thru until 4:30."
"That's what I thought! It's no holiday that I know of. Not sure what's going on, but looks like I'll have to use the gas I just bought to drive back over here tomorrow! I'm going to get here before 2:00, just in case! Then I can at least go in the lobby."
"It's not any holiday. So I don't know why they would be closed."
"Something weird is going on. I'll just have to come back."
Which I did, on Thursday. I got to the bank around 1:50. I was NOT happy to get up so early, heh, heh, so I could shower and drive over there in time.
Two of the three drive-thru lanes had the green light on. Two cars sitting in them. I picked the lane closest to the window. Which now had the shades up, and lights on. Two gals working.
"Hi. How are you?"
"Good. I was actually here yesterday, but it was closed..."
"Oh, yes. We had an emergency. But at least we got everybody home safe!"
WHAT IN THE NOT-HEAVEN?
Were the employees imprisoned in a Russian gulag for trying to smuggle in cannabis vape cartridges? Were they stranded by a blizzard while climbing Mt. Everest? Walking barefoot across Death Valley? What did she MEAN they got everybody home safe???
"Oh. I thought maybe I was here too late. It was about 3:10."
"No. We just weren't able to open. I couldn't pull in anybody from other branches."
You'd think somebody could have at least driven over there and slapped a handwritten sign on the window. Unless they couldn't get out of the gulag/off the peak/out of the desert...
Since when is an inability to get employees into work considered an "emergency"?
ReplyDeleteThey got everybody home safe? Safe from what?
I wonder if there was a bank robbery in progress and getting everybody home safe means no one was injured as the robbers made their getaway?
ReplyDeleteOr something more tame like an electrical fault with loose live wires.
Sioux,
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Since when is THE VIRUS considered a reason for not answering the phones when you can work from home? We had such a hard time when they put a stop on The Pony's credit card, because nobody at that dang branch would answer a phone. And the reps who answered the national phone lines for the bank did NOT help with the issue, despite us sending them documents they requested. And remember how nobody at this branch could get either of the two fax machines to work???
They just really rub me the wrong way here, and I USED TO LIKE THEM, even after that one snippy teller fingered me as a counterfeiter when I tried to deposit my credit union check!
Indeed, HOME from WHERE? She worded it like she alone rowed a boat to save her employees stranded in the recent big-city flooding! Maybe she was working from home, answering phone calls from that area...
***
River,
I have a feeling she would have thrown in such details to be more dramatic. While assuring me that MY money was saved from the robbery/disaster.
I'm surprised Farmer H's "near-catastrophe" at Bev's house didn't make that poop recede so much, it ended up residing in his brain.
ReplyDeleteOh. Maybe it did, if we are to believe your stories about Farmer H's erroneous thinking...
Sioux,
ReplyDeleteOf course you should believe my stories about Farmer H's erroneous thinking! I am not nearly creative enough to write fiction.
I can't imagine Farmer H holding in that poop in his normal poop-place. He must have been a ticking poop-bomb! So your brain theory is plausible.