Senior Cititzens: Bogging down the Internet

(Before we begin, I just want to give myself a pat on the back for remembering to blog again this week...This has been like the adult version of potty training for me....if I can blog at least three times a week for a month should I buy myself a new toy?...)

Anyhow, as I was working today, things were going pretty smoothly. We've actually been over-staffed in the office for the past couple of days, as we are training two new employees. Well, anyway, it was getting towards the end of our shift--only about an hour to go--and this sweet little old lady came up to the window, saying she would like to renew her season tickets. (Luckily for me, I was in the back making copies at this point. So, she was being help by my soon to be ex-coworker and one of our new trainees...)

What this kind and wizened woman failed to mention was that she was also going to be renewing tickets for seventeen (count 'em) of her friends. I could hear the silent "Oh holy poo on toast" racing through the brains of people out front, ringing out of their ears, beaming through their now plastered-on smile, and smashing through the walls until hit me over the hum of the copier.

Now, generally speaking, I consider myself a strong and moderately brave individual. But there are times in life when you know better than to get involved in something: day-after-Thanksgiving-sales and blue-haired-bitties-at-customer-service-desks are prime examples. So I stayed out of eye and ear shot until I found a different customer to help.

An hour and half--13 phone calls and 6 patrons--later, she smiled at us, said "thank you for being so accomodating" and tottered out the door.

After the door gave that happy clicking sound of finality we all sat and listened to the wheeze of the printing machine (it sounded like it had asthma after all 136 tickets). It was then that I realized that she was probably a champion of chain mail forwarding...you know, one of those "send this on to ten of your best friends or you will be brutally hacked to bits by the starving children you could have saved with this email" types. I bet she probably sees those ominous closing statements as some weird kind of karma-related insurance.