when a customer....

...comes along wanting to purchase balloons, I am usually the person who will stop another task and go fill with helium. Everyone I work with is capable of doing it, and there is often someone much closer to the tank, sitting in the floral area. But they will all look up when they hear about a 'customer needing service', hoping they will not be the one to do it. Thinking if they wait long enough I will drop everything and trot up to the customer awaiting assistance and offer to help. Either filling the ones purchased on line, or the balloons chosen from our selection.

I was at work last Sunday, talking to a customer as I filled the balloons she wanted for a birthday party. I noticed one of the Mylars she wanted had 'sweet sixteen' on it, and thought of daughters who are so excited about getting driving permits. Teenagers thinking of that time when they pass the milestone, reach the age of thinking they are capable of independent driving. I told the customer I had a story to tell her, that was not amusing when it happened, but now so far in the past the daughter willingly tells it on herself.

The day she turned sixteen and got her license to drive was a Wednesday. I know that because we attended a mid-week dinner at church, and she asked if she could drive home. Which was not a big deal, because I would be in the passenger seat, and her younger sister would be along as well. I don't recall if I was the cook/kitchen worker, but it has been so long ago I think not. We just went to eat, have a short program and go home. Leaving her dad at church for choir practice, with daughters needing to finish school work and get to bed.

I am still, after nearly twenty years, not sure just exactly what happened when we got home. But there was an accident that occurred with the newly minted independent driver: She drove into the carport and did not stop when she got close to the back wall. Crashing into the sheet rock and busting the hot water heater that was in the storage room on the other side of the wall. My guess is that she meant to apply the brake and pressed on the accelerator instead. It was definitely not the first occasion for her driving into the carport, as she had been practicing for a year with a 'learner's permit'. It just happened and there we sat, stunned at the results.

That's what you have insurance for, right?

I relayed the Cliff's Notes version of this story to the balloon customer, and said the lesson to be learned from the tale was fairly simple. I recommended that she just not let the daughter drive all the way into the carport. Tell her 'just stop right here, I will move it later', as protection against having to purchase a brand new water heater! I'm glad we can all laugh about it now, as it was sad and pretty traumatic when it happened. Thankful we do not have PTSD from an exploding water heater...