The Barn by Ralph Hagen for January 17, 2024

Snap judgment, Rory?

From Not Always Right: We All Have To Weather Judgy Thoughts Sometimes

This is one of those “don’t make a rash judgment” type of stories.

I’m working in a store. It is the middle of winter, around 10:00 pm, an hour before we close. My register is right next to the doors and it is freezing. I am bundled up and have a little heater going on my legs.

The door opens and in comes a man with his wife and their toddler. The husband and wife are bundled up in scarves, gloves — the works. The toddler, however, is in a diaper… and that’s it. During the summer, if a toddler comes in like that, no big deal. But it’s so cold!

I don’t say anything, but apparently, my face does. I am judging them. They look at me a bit sheepishly.

Father: “We’re on our way home, and our son has a stomach bug. It just keeps shooting out the back end, out the diaper, and up the clothes.”

Me: “Oh, my gosh!”

Mother: “We still have two hours to go to get home, but we need to get more clothes and diapers or we’re not going to make it.”

I felt so bad for them — and so bad about my snap judgment on them — that when they came back through my line, I gave them a discount on everything. It wasn’t much since I’m only a cashier and have a limit on how much I’m allowed to do.

))Not my story((

You could have given him your crypto-currency.

I think the ’’operative’’ here is Gravy! Rory and Karl dodged that bullet.

Good Gravy? No, Bad Gravy…

A near miss.

I thought he was talking about the smoothie when he said “Good gravy”!

“Here, have one on the house…”

Good fortune follows Rory sometimes.