Sunday Stress

Sunday morning started off like any other bad day. At 4:45 A.M. on US 29, I had a flat front tire on the minivan. What a great start to the day!! It took about 15 minutes to change the tire. It takes a little longer than people think. You have to get the jack out, lower and remove the spare tire, set up a perimeter and establish a free fire zone. Then you can jack up the car and remove the flat tire. Establish a free fire zone?? If I'm changing a tire in that neighborhood at 4:45 AM, my gun is nearby. I changed the tire and made it to work with plenty of time to spare.

At around 5:30, the phone rang. a woman asked if we took debit cards. We do. She then asked me if we would call and check her balance before she ordered. She told me that she couldn't read the back of the card. Maybe she just said that she can't read, I don't remember. Anyway, the woman who couldn't read her credit card drove a car to Tex & Shirley's. Our cashier phoned in for her, got a balance, and the woman ordered breakfast.

Around 6:30, a guy came in to see me. He claimed to work at the Macaroni Grill across the street. His story was that he was taking inventory and went out the back door for something and locked himself out. He wanted me to loan him $30 so that he could drive home and get his spare keys to get in. I explained to him that I wouldn't loan my own employees $30 and offered to let him use the phone to call someone.Strangely enough, he passed on that offer and left.

At 9:15, a busboy calls to tell me that he is too sick to report for his 9:00 shift. I explain fairly graphically that one must call before your scheduled time.

To wrap it up, one of our waitresses and I had a discussion about what body parts are appropriate to discuss in the dining room. Thirty seven years as a manager and this was my first discussion of this subject. I wanted to go home and take a bath afterwards.