How many times do Monday’s start off rainy? Terrence wondered to himself. Are we talking in general for this area or are we talking globally?

It was a rainy Monday morning, after all.

He felt tired from the evening prior. Getting over a small, non-Covid related head cold, NyQuil didn’t work as well as he had wanted it to and he woke up a couple times choking from his nose draining. What a time to be alive, he thought, well over a year into the pandemic and we categorize our sickness into “non-Covid related”…

His random, dreary train of thought, if you could call it that, was interrupted but the first annoyance of the work day.

“Terrence, Lane 1 is out… again!“

How many times are we going to have to endure this before Facilities gives us the nod to just replace the damn thing? Terrence thought to himself as he came out of his office.

“Again? Jackie, we’re going to end up spending more on repairs than we would if we’d just replace it!”

“Mmhmm, you don’t have to tell me that. I know!” Jackie said.

Terrence flipped switch and the LED sign above Lane 1 went from a bright green letters displaying, “OPEN” to luminous red letters displaying the opposite, “CLOSED”.

“Well, at least we have the second and third lanes to help customers with.”

“For now…” Jackie quipped, half joking. Terrence laughed. It was just part of the game.

The second cup of coffee hadn’t began to run through his bloodstream yet, he needed that caffeine twenty minutes ago, at the very least and he was already considering running to the local coffee shop for something a bit stronger.

Bing. One of the drive-up lanes had a customer in it and that bing meant a customer needed something. I bet someone is in lane 1 and didn’t see the sign…

“Good morning, I’m sorry about the inconvenience but this drive through is down. Would you please pull in to the second or third drive through lane?” Terrence heard Jackie ask.

“I need a pen!”

“I understand that, sir, but I need you to go into Lane 2 or 3 as this lane’s tube isn’t working.”

“Well why the hell isn’t there a sign or something?!” The customer asked indignantly.

“I’m sorry for the inconvenience sir, we did turn the closed sign on for this lane a few moments before you arrived. I’ll still need you to pull into the second or third lane.”

“But I just need a pen! Can’t you send a pen out?!” The older gentleman was getting more flustered by the moment.

“Sir…” Jackie said and took a breath, “Sir, I can’t send anything out because this lane is broken, I need you to go to another lane.”

“It’s what?!”

“It’s BROKEN, sir!”

“Oh… well why didn’t you say that to begin with, I’ll pull around.”

“Ok, see you in a moment.” Jackie said, trying to sound more saccharine than snappy. She sighed and looked at Terrence, shaking her head. “It’s gonna be a morning, how about we get some coffee?”

“Sounds like a plan.”