March 21 – “Print Madness”

Early start to the day yesterday.  We took the truck in to be inspected.  Chris followed me in the car so we could drop it off.  However … Dennis the Mechanic said he could do it right then while I waited, so Chris headed back home.  I gotta tell you, owning a classic vehicle is awesome.  And by “classic” I mean “old.”  Any guesses how much the inspection costs?  Try seven dollars.  Yep.  Of course the registration is still the usual $74.  And speaking of registration, I just happened to have the paperwork to get all that done as well, so I headed on downtown.  Apparently 9:15 in the morning is a good time to take care of such things.  Only one other customer anywhere in sight.  I was in and out in less than five minutes.  I’m all stickered for another year.

Next we went to Office Depot to order the worship booklets for the Easter sunrise service.  Every year it seems like such an easy task when I leave the house.  But every year something comes up to make it difficult.  Last year I put the master on a flash drive for them.  But they needed it saved in PDF format.  Not sure why their massive program couldn’t do that if my little laptop could.  They ended up using the sample copy I had printed out as a master, and they did everything by hand.  Same thing happened the year before, but that became a nightmare when the young girl they tasked with the project paid no attention whatever to what she was doing.  The printing was off terribly and the stapling was even worse. 

So this year I anticipated everything.  I saved it to a PDF format on a flash drive.  I brought a completed copy for them to use as a guide.  Guess what?  They couldn’t figure out how to do it.  Three different employees struggled with getting it set up.  Meanwhile the line was backing up behind us.  We heard talk of employee evaluations going on, so there was already a sense of pressure throughout the store.  The manager on duty, who was also trying his hand at the whole mess, was getting more and more antsy.  Finally they asked when we actually needed the order.  I have had experience with that question as well, so I said, “This Friday.”  Had to give myself some leeway to check it out in case they had to do it over again.  I guess that took some pressure off.  Apparently in one of the phone calls for help one of them had made, it came to light that the one person on staff who actually knew how to operate the machine was due to arrive at 11 … thirty minutes.  Since I could wait, they would take all my information and I could pay when I picked them up.  Again, my past history with their service led me to counter with, “How about you call me and let me know how much it’s going to cost before you start on the order?”  Considerably flustered by then, she agreed and hastened on to the next customer in line, happy to be rid of me. 

However, after we got home it occurred to me that I never gave her my cell number to make that call.  Hmm.  Maybe I should go by there and touch base this morning …

Psalms 40:1 says, “I waited patiently for the Lord; he turned to me and heard my cry.”

Father, would you bless the efforts of those two people who had to try to figure out something they had obviously not been trained effectively on.  They did try.  And we do need those booklets for Easter.  Amen.