The farther I get into retirement, the more reluctant I am to go “downtown” to run errands. Yesterday was no exception but the dearth of vegetable choices made a trip imperative. Then I realized I needed to send valentine cards to my grandkids, return library books, and get toothpaste. The minutiae of life and so many things on my mind that I even had a list.
First stop the bank because I had no cash and I’m old-fashioned enough that I find it handy at times. Our bank branch has a new ATM with a touch screen, bright colours, and huge fonts. It should be the easiest thing to use and it is. My mind “buzzing” with ‘all the things I had to do’ and the fact that I was parked a little close to a driveway had me grab my debit card and run. Yes, I got the debit card but left the cash hanging out of the ATM.
I returned my library books, chatted with our librarian, (it is a small town), and signed out a couple of new reads. Then to the drugstore to pick out valentines. It was only when I sat down to address them, I noticed that there was no cash in my purse. Plummeting heart…what a waste of $100.
On the off-chance that an honest person returned the money to the teller and that they might be able to trace which idiot didn’t take it, I returned to the bank.
The ATM is way smarter than me. When I didn’t get my money, it sucked it back to safety. I had to wait for a teller to go and retrieve it from the “box” in the cash machine. I am not the first person and the sympathetic teller said, not likely the last to have walked off and left their money. To say I was relieved is an understatement.
I would like to have someone to blame or to say that ATMs invite mistakes. Having a human to facilitate financial transactions like this would have saved me from making such an error. A human would have called me back immediately if I left money laying on the counter. I would like to but I know it was all me. I had a few errands and in a moment of distraction, it was me who left the money hanging.
themildsidelinda 