Hello my Blogville friends, welcome back. I hope that you are looking forward to what 2024 will bring. Today I am sipping on a simple orange pekoe tea, with milk of course, as I reflect on past travel experiences and consider how it might be fun to share some of them with you. (Stepping away from the adoption theme for a moment.) Heck, its a new year, why not?
So while travelling in Southern Ontario this past summer a small group of us ordered, then pulled up to the drive-thru window at a Tim Hortons location to pick up and pay for our order. It so happens that we drove up just as a staff member was trying unsuccessfully to put a commercial-sized milk bag into its container which appeared to be quite the challenge. Noticing the struggle, her colleague took over (with a little heroic swagger I might add) and started fitting the milk bag into the large container. From the drive through window we had a perfect view as the events unfolded inside the restaurant. Coming over to the window, obviously still flustered, she tried to give us someone else’s order. Just as we were repeating our order for her we watched, mortified, through the pickup window as the milk bag literally exploded, sending milk everywhere. The ‘hero’ colleague was simply standing there in shock (and covered in milk) while a third employee quickly grabbed a mop and bucket to help the other two staff members with the massive clean up. Once the bulk of the mess was mopped up, the third employee finally comes over with our drinks and apologizes for the delay. He tries to explain that they had a little accident, to which we say, “yes, we saw”. He looks into our vehicle and quietly says, ‘and I wet my pants’ pointing down to them. Despite how he had phrased it, we knew he meant from trying to help out with the milk disaster, not that he had actually ‘wet’ his pants. We are also pretty sure that, in the middle of the night, this young man woke up reliving the milk disaster and suddenly realized that he had told a truck full of customers at the drive through window that he had wet his pants! On another day of this same trip our group decided to go into a Starbucks, yes folks, don’t tell Tim Hortons but sometimes I have a chai latte (with cinnamon of course) from Starbucks. Anyway, I am about to go and use the washroom when someone in my party warns me, “it’s one of those washrooms where you have to push the red button to lock the door”. I’m not that old yet, I think to myself, a little offended. I was able to lock the door uneventfully as per the instructions written under the big red button. However, as I sat there I suddenly looked around and realized there are no clear instructions about how to unlock the door! I remember thinking, “Oh no, how will I get out?” Okay, maybe I am that old after all. Anyway, I finish my business and use the provided bottle of soap to wash my hands. No taps on the sink means it is one of those designs that I have to wave my hands in front of the sensor in order to rinse the soap off of them. However, no matter how much waving I did, no water appeared. So, just out of curiosity, I reach over to the hand-wave-activated dryer. Nope, nothing. A power failure perhaps? No, the lights are on. Anyway, I grab some toilet paper, wipe the soap off my hands, and then finish cleaning them with soap from the little hand sanitizer container that I always carry with me. Reaching over with the rest of the toilet paper I pushed the red button to unlock the door. Nothing. Oh no, I’m trapped. Trying not to panic, I take a deep breath and try the handle, the door opens. Crisis averted, I’m free! In the meantime, my husband has been waiting patiently for his turn to use the facilities, so as we trade places in the tiny hallway I warn him that neither the water or the hand dryer work. “Just use your hand sanitizer”, I offer helpfully. With a questioning look on his face he steps into the washroom a little further, reaches over, activates the water effortlessly, then reaches up and dries his hand by activating the dryer. What the heck? Apparently I’m invisible. So I flippantly add, “oh and you don’t need to push the red button to unlock the door, just to lock it”. He gave me a rather sarcastic-looking ‘thanks for the tip’ expression as the door was closing. I hope you have read in a previous blog my adventures during multiple hotel stays in one trip so that you are aware how adventurous my trips tend to be. Recently we stayed at a Northern Ontario hotel where one of the rooms was being used like a waiting area, while another room was occupied by a white haired, white coated fellow who really, really looked like a doctor. Clip board in hand, a young woman was moving between both rooms escorting folks from the “waiting room” to the room occupied by the white coated gentleman. An elevator repair man and I were speculating that maybe folks were selling organs or something when he asked the young lady with the clip board what was going on. She pleasantly replied that a Southern Ontario hospital was holding a pre-surgical clinic for Northern Ontario residents. Who knew? I mean, it goes practically without saying that our room was located between the ‘waiting room’ and the ‘clinic room’. The sound of frequently opening and closing doors is still much less noisy than hotel hallway hockey practice, or having any hotel room adjacent to the pool area! When we returned home from our trip we of course needed some groceries. Exhausted after a full day of travel we stopped off at a local grocery store where we picked up a few basic supplies, eggs, milk, and such just to get us through the next couple of days. Then we headed for the nearest open checkout lane. At one point in the transaction I held up my phone for the the young cashier to scan my points card to which she said, “oh that one doesn’t work here” with a knowing grin. Confused, I looked at my phone and saw that it was my Tim’s points card app, not my grocery points card app. Just as we were awkwardly laughing at my error, the 6 potatoes I was purchasing suddenly flew out of the little plastic bag, and rolled across the conveyer area, one or two of them even hitting the floor. The young cashier and my husband located and gathered them all up. The cashier reached under her counter and handed my husband a new bag. They got the potatoes re-bagged and my husband closed the knot with a final tug, picked up the bag and the potatoes immediately flew everywhere again. I literally laughed out loud at the scene. Together they repackaged the potatoes, this time using a double bag approach and we were on our way. As I looked back she was still grinning and I imagined her thinking she did not get paid enough to work there. I hope you enjoyed a lighthearted blog in an effort to help you start 2024 with a smile! As ever, please feel free to leave a comment, so I know you stopped by, or if you have more private questions or thoughts please feel free to send me an email at [email protected] Please be assured that no one but me can access my emails. All the best in 2024!
4 Comments
Loriann
1/4/2024 06:24:36 pm
Wow what crazy adventures you have had ,love reading about them ❤️❤️❤️
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Deb
1/5/2024 07:41:17 am
Happy New Year Lynn! Great adventures!❤️
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Krista
1/12/2024 04:07:27 pm
Another excellent blog!
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Krista
1/12/2024 04:08:37 pm
Excellent blog!
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