In this year of strangeness,
I had something happen to me yesterday that had never happened to me before.
But what can you expect from 2020? Strangeness defines this year, so why should yesterday have been any different?
Anyway, what happened is that I wanted to transfer some money from one account at one bank to another account at another bank.
I took out the money I wanted to transfer from the first bank’s ATM machine, and as easy as one, two, three, I was off to the next bank to place my deposit.
I drove to the next bank, got there, and saw that the drive-through was completely vacant—which is very unusual in itself, being maybe the first or second time I can remember it being vacant over the past few months—so I drove right up to the window, where I was greeted by a teller.
This is a bank that has one drive-through, and it is positioned in a not very side area on the side of the bank that is just wide enough for cars and trucks to get through. It is so thin that once a car is at the window, if a person wanted to walk by there, they probably couldn’t, or would have to squeeze through on the right side of the area, opposite the fence that separates the bank from another business right next to it.
So I drive up, the teller extends the draw to me, and I get my money out and start putting it under the clip with my debit card also put in the draw.
I had a number of $20 bills that I was putting in, because the other ATM only gives twenties—some ATMs ask you what denomination you want, and you can get $100 bills if you want, but the one I used only gives twenties, so that it what I had.
Anyway, I start putting the money under the clip, and a gust of wind came, making the drive-through area into something of a wind tunnel because of it not being very wide.
I got almost my entire stack of $20 bills under the clip, but the gust of wind took two of my twenties and blew them away!
I had no idea where they went.
I told the teller in between bursts of profanity that I would move my car up—I could not move my car back because a few cars had come right after me—and I would look for the bills.
That is exactly what I did, and while I was doing so, the teller actually ran out of the bank, found the bills, and after I thanked him profusely, he completed the transaction.
Evidently, the bills did blow beneath the car, and since there were no further bursts of wind like what set this entire thing into motion, the bills laid there until the teller picked them up.
Thank God!
As the teller was processing my transaction, I left my car again, went over to the car behind me, and apologized to the driver about what had happened—I don’t know why I did this, but I felt I was holding her up with what had happened.
As she counted her own money, she waved me on, and told me, “Don’t worry about it.”
Finally, the transaction was completed, I thanked the teller again, and I drove off, breathing a sigh of relief that had to be as fierce as the wind that took my money away from me.
This obviously had never happened before to me, but according to my wife, who has been a bank teller for more than two decades, it happens more often than you think.
A lot of these drive-through areas are set up and become akin to potential wind tunnels during different weather scenarios, and money does blow off every now and again.
Of course, people also drop money on the ground when trying to put it into the drawer or the contraption that is used to carry deposits to the window in the case of multiple drive-throughs at the bank—like at my wife’s bank—and there are other mishaps, like the contraption getting stuck in the process, which also happens on occasion.
But personally, this is the first time—and hopefully last time—that this happens to me.
I am going to try to be even more careful when I use the drive-through the next time, but I just chalk this up to being one of those things that kind of define the year 2020: expect the unexpected.
And while I am at it, I want to wish my father-in-law a speedy recovery from his current ailment.
Like my dad, my father-in-law is a former Marine, so he is as tough as nails, and I believe he will come out of this thing soon.
I wish him the best—unlike the experience I just told you about, no dollar figure can be put on his health.
But what can you expect from 2020? Strangeness defines this year, so why should yesterday have been any different?
Anyway, what happened is that I wanted to transfer some money from one account at one bank to another account at another bank.
I took out the money I wanted to transfer from the first bank’s ATM machine, and as easy as one, two, three, I was off to the next bank to place my deposit.
I drove to the next bank, got there, and saw that the drive-through was completely vacant—which is very unusual in itself, being maybe the first or second time I can remember it being vacant over the past few months—so I drove right up to the window, where I was greeted by a teller.
This is a bank that has one drive-through, and it is positioned in a not very side area on the side of the bank that is just wide enough for cars and trucks to get through. It is so thin that once a car is at the window, if a person wanted to walk by there, they probably couldn’t, or would have to squeeze through on the right side of the area, opposite the fence that separates the bank from another business right next to it.
So I drive up, the teller extends the draw to me, and I get my money out and start putting it under the clip with my debit card also put in the draw.
I had a number of $20 bills that I was putting in, because the other ATM only gives twenties—some ATMs ask you what denomination you want, and you can get $100 bills if you want, but the one I used only gives twenties, so that it what I had.
Anyway, I start putting the money under the clip, and a gust of wind came, making the drive-through area into something of a wind tunnel because of it not being very wide.
I got almost my entire stack of $20 bills under the clip, but the gust of wind took two of my twenties and blew them away!
I had no idea where they went.
I told the teller in between bursts of profanity that I would move my car up—I could not move my car back because a few cars had come right after me—and I would look for the bills.
That is exactly what I did, and while I was doing so, the teller actually ran out of the bank, found the bills, and after I thanked him profusely, he completed the transaction.
Evidently, the bills did blow beneath the car, and since there were no further bursts of wind like what set this entire thing into motion, the bills laid there until the teller picked them up.
Thank God!
As the teller was processing my transaction, I left my car again, went over to the car behind me, and apologized to the driver about what had happened—I don’t know why I did this, but I felt I was holding her up with what had happened.
As she counted her own money, she waved me on, and told me, “Don’t worry about it.”
Finally, the transaction was completed, I thanked the teller again, and I drove off, breathing a sigh of relief that had to be as fierce as the wind that took my money away from me.
This obviously had never happened before to me, but according to my wife, who has been a bank teller for more than two decades, it happens more often than you think.
A lot of these drive-through areas are set up and become akin to potential wind tunnels during different weather scenarios, and money does blow off every now and again.
Of course, people also drop money on the ground when trying to put it into the drawer or the contraption that is used to carry deposits to the window in the case of multiple drive-throughs at the bank—like at my wife’s bank—and there are other mishaps, like the contraption getting stuck in the process, which also happens on occasion.
But personally, this is the first time—and hopefully last time—that this happens to me.
I am going to try to be even more careful when I use the drive-through the next time, but I just chalk this up to being one of those things that kind of define the year 2020: expect the unexpected.
And while I am at it, I want to wish my father-in-law a speedy recovery from his current ailment.
Like my dad, my father-in-law is a former Marine, so he is as tough as nails, and I believe he will come out of this thing soon.
I wish him the best—unlike the experience I just told you about, no dollar figure can be put on his health.
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