donger need food.

Never Force Anything...

"...Cuz if you have to force something, you're not doing it right, and you might break it."

So said the clerk at Keeble and Schuchat Photo as he was instructing me on the finer points of operating the 503CW rental camera. Advice that I've long known about, and have always made efforts to heed. Not so, on this cloudy, overcast and dull Friday in San Diego. And I failed in glorious fashion...

I possessed two checks that were sitting in my car; given that it was a nice day-off for myself, and the low-visibility weather foiled any attempts at a successful photography expedition, I decided to run some errands. Get the car washed, deposit the checks, possibly consider getting the radiator fluid changed...I found myself down the street from my favorite hand car wash, in an all too common strip mall off Clairemont Mesa Blvd. A little BofA Versateller ATM was standing all by its lonesome amidst Tea Station and Lolita's Mexican Food and Thomasville. Pulled into a parking spot and decided to clean the car before going to the car wash -- you know, just put all the crap into the trunk so they can vacuum the floor.

After getting that taken care of, I proceeded to head toward the ATM. Walking there, I noticed a guy getting back into his car -- That's curious, I thought...he sure was quick. Uh-oh, I hope the machine's not broken. Turning the corner to the front of the machine, I breathed a sigh of relief -- screen was working fine. Cool.

Stuck my worn ATM card (due for a replacement soon) into the slot and bang. Something's blocking it. Hm...try again. Still no luck. Maybe if I push it in a little harder. Nope. And that's when this little voice in the back of my head started echoing that camera clerk's words of infinite wisdom..."Don't force it". Now, if logic were to prevail, I would turn around, walk away, and go to the next branch which was a short drive away. But no, let me try one more time. Just push it in a little harder this time, and maybe wiggle it a bit.

Oh cool, it worked!

Deposit envelope in my left hand, I punched in the PIN with my right. ...Wait a minute. There's no deposit menu!! Looking down, there's no deposit slot!! Grrr...Cancel. Hit the cancel button, you dork.

Beep beep beep (while Please remove your card flashes on the screen) beep beep beep

But no card comes out. Lots of whirring, lots of beeping, but nothing.

Right. The machine had eaten my card.
Revenge, I guess...for all the amazingly bad food I've been eating this whole trip down in the Southland. There was chili cheeseburgers and chili cheese fries courtesy Tommy's on Wednesday. Then deep fried turkey and ribs on Thanksgiving. Then a carne asada taco & 3 rolled tacos w/guac+sour cream courtesy Lolita's for lunch on Friday. Then hot pandesal for a snack, and then Karl Strauss Amber Lager (fresh on tap! mmmm...mmmm...good!) and a damned good pollo asado burrito from Valentines for dinner.

And tomorrow's outlook isn't any better, with dinner at the cousin's house...and they love to make prime rib & seafood.

How da heck did I keep my weight down when I was living here? :)

posted by VirtualErn @ 2:41 AM

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