I’m the OP from “Darkly A-Mew-sing.” Our kitty has been happily ruling over our cousins’ farmhouse with an iron paw for six years. One of my brothers (not the one in the first story) visits them about once a month, both to hang out with our cousins and dote on the cat.

One night, as my brother and our cousins are eating dinner, they hear a tornado siren go off. Everyone freezes, drops their silverware, and leaps into action. They have maybe five minutes to secure the entire farm before the tornado touches down. One person goes to secure the goats, the other the cows, and my brother runs through the house calling for the cat.

No luck. He can’t find her. He refuses to stop looking until one of our cousins hauls him into the basement shelter while he’s almost crying about how he can’t find her, where could she be, what if she gets hurt?

He then looks up and sees her sitting on a shelf, her front paws crossed all prim and proper, looking down at them as if wondering what the silly humans were up to.

She received many snuggles, and my brother claims this incident took a year off his life.

I work for a popular Midwest one-stop grocery store in the pick-up/curbside department. My favorite part of the job is picking items in the store. While I don’t enjoy taking items out to customers in their cars, it is something I am capable of doing.

I came into work on a Tuesday (one day before a big winter storm is projected), and the department is crazy busy. People have to wait much longer than normal for their groceries to be taken out to their car, and shopping is behind. It is a mess.

One of my coworkers, who is responsible for taking orders from customers in the parking lot, is stressed. Again, while I do not enjoy taking orders out to customers, I am capable. I tell my coworker to go ahead and take a break, and I start getting things around for the next order, scanning them, placing them on the takeout cart, etc.

I walk outside and to the designated parking spot, the customer rolls down the window, and I cheerfully say:

Me: “Good evening. Mr. [Customer Name]?”

Customer: “What the h*** has taken so long? I have been sitting here for an hour and a half!”

Me: “I apologize, Sir. The impending winter storm caused an influx of orders that we just were not staffed to cover. These are not excuses. I understand you had to wait for a while, and that is not right. If you would like, I can request a coupon for your next order?”

Customer: “I have a lot of things to do today. A lot of things. Waiting here isn’t one of them.”

Me: “I understand. Would you like me to provide you with the phone number to customer service?”

Customer: “People shouldn’t have to wait for their orders.”

Me: “You are absolutely right, sir. Would you like me to get a manager to see how we can rectify this?”

Customer: “I mean, other people have gotten their order, and I am just sitting here. I don’t have time to sit here.”

At this point, I am noting how odd this is. He is complaining that he has had to wait for an hour and a half, and we have now had a long conversation on top of that, and nothing I am doing is working. I proceed to load his groceries into his trunk, close it, and then tell him:

Me: “Have a nice day, and I am very sorry about your wait, sir.”

Customer: “It’s just, you know, I shouldn’t have to wait.”

Me: “No, sir.”

I try a different tactic.

Me: “Well, since I have kept you an additional few minutes now and you have other things to do, I am going to step away and let you get on with your day.”

Customer: “Finally! Thank you.”

I don’t understand why he needed my permission to go. So strange, but it worked.

A category three hurricane is projected to make landfall at our coastal town within twelve hours. The staff have been told to go home, but the manager and a few of us who live closer are loading up sandbags and locking the store down for safety. A customer marches up to the front door as we’re closing.

Customer: “Wait! You’re not closing! I need plastic cups. I’m having people over!”

Me: “Ma’am, there’s a hurricane coming.”

Customer: “Well, not right now. You’ve still got time.”

Me: “We’ve got employees trying to get home before the roads close.”

Customer: “Oh, please. I’ve lived here for years. These storms are always overhyped. We’ll be fine.”

Me: “That’s great, ma’am. You can argue with the wind if it shows up early.”

Customer: “Unbelievable. You’re seriously not staying open?”

Me: “Ma’am, a category three hurricane will be here by tonight.”

Customer: “Well… this is a category five inconvenience!”

She complained to the manager as we were locking up. I just about overheard:

Manager: “I’d be very surprised if any of your guests come, ma’am, but if they do, tell them it’s BYOB: bring your own barricade!”

Related:
A Storm Of Entitlement, Part 4
A Storm Of Entitlement, Part 3
A Storm Of Entitlement, Part 2
A Storm Of Entitlement

I am sitting at an outdoor café in Paris. A couple of American women are talking with their French friend about the weather. It becomes quickly apparent that the Americans are talking in °F and their French friend is talking in °C, but none of them has realised.

American Friend #1: “So you don’t have air conditioning?”

French Friend: “It’s very rare here. It doesn’t get that hot, rarely above 30°.”

American Friend #1: *Confused.* “But… It’s way more than that right now?”

American Friend #2: “California gets brutal summers! I’d die without my AC! It can go over 100°!”

French Friend: *Gasping in horror.* “But… I would die at that temperature! Aren’t your pools boiling?”

American Friend #2: *Confused.* “No? The pools feel great in the heat!”

French Friend: “You Californians are something else. Does it get cold there?”

American Friend #2: “Winter can get cool, but nothing like here, I would imagine. How cold does it get here?”

French Friend: “Winter hovers around 5-10° in the city? Colder in the countryside.”

American Friend #1: *Alarmed.* “People must freeze to death!”

French Friend: “Oh, no, it’s not that bad. I have my sweater…”

I wanted so much to intervene, but I just listened in, hypnotised…

It’s 5:30 AM, and my coworker and I are opening up our coffee shop. There was a blizzard overnight, but as corporate didn’t close the store, we have to come in before the roads were plowed and while the city is still in a “No Travel Advised” state. 

Thankfully, my husband has a pick-up truck and we picked up my co-worker on the way. Even in a truck, it’s super slow going, but we are able to get to the store.

While my coworker does the actual opening jobs, I shovel out the employee door and the front door for customers. The biggest problem is the HUGE snowdrift in the drive-thru. It’s almost completely covered the menu board, and there’s no way a vehicle could get through. So, I leave the menu board light off and head inside to wait for the plow to come clear out the parking lot and drive-thru.

Not ten minutes later, my coworker comes over the headset:

Coworker: “You… you need to come up here.”

I head up front to see her looking out the drive-thru window. Apparently, a little two-door car had tried to come through the drive-thru. They had paused when they saw the drift, but then decided to GUN IT, causing them to get stuck in the snowdrift.

We watch for about twenty minutes as these two people get out, walk around the car, and start moving snow and pushing the car out. FINALLY, they manage to get the car out and push into the parking lot. They then drive it to the front of the store.

One of the guys comes in and, without making eye contact, orders two coffees.

My coworker puts them on the counter and says:

Coworker: “They’re on the house. You clearly need it.”

The guy turns bright red and runs out. We watch him get in the car and try to gun it out of the parking lot, only to get stuck in ANOTHER snow drift in the parking lot.

Since we had no other customers, we pulled up chairs and watched them struggle for another forty minutes before the snowplow for the store showed up and helped them out.