A little story

This post at Strange in San Antonio reminds me of a little story I could tell.

Back in the days of my previous job, when I was either reading gas & electric meters for the S.A. company who provides those utilities, or dropping off final cut-off notices for people who didn't pay their bills, I had a notice for the Zachry company.  Every time I see one of their trucks these days I'm always reminded of this and smirk knowingly.

You might wonder why such a big company had a bill that was overdue enough to deserve such a notice.  Well, you might be surprised at who gets these notices sometimes.  I once delivered one to the AT&T Center for several thousand dollars.  I kept getting passed off from one person to another; no one wanted to accept the notice.  I knew that the Spurs were going to play the Lakers there that night, so finally I said, "Look, if this isn't taken care of, they're going to shut you down and you're not going to have any electricity tonight."  It was totally untrue, but I had to deliver 125 of those things every day and I was tired of their bullsh*t.  It was like I had kicked an anthill.  It didn't take them long after that to find someone who would accept the notice.

So anyway, back to the original story.  I took this notice to the Zachry company and they pulled the same trick.  No one wanted to take this thing from my hand.  I got fed up and just put the pink slip down on the nearest desk and started to walk out.  One of their goons yelled at me that I couldn't leave it there, and I simply said, "It's my job to leave it there."  His face got very dark and he said, "You don't wanna make Zachry mad at you, boy."  I involuntarily snorted and very short snort of laughter and then found myself replying, "What're you gonna do, pave my driveway bad?"

After a second or two of utter silence, he stomped away shouting "somebody take care of this."  I walked out, leaving the pink slip where I had already dropped it.  I guess they paid their bill.  I never got in trouble for my crass behavior.