Using a Calculator Some of Us Can Make Any Little Annoyance into a Real Catastrophe | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I read an article in my newspaper where the writer went way out of her way to make a Mountain out of a Molehill. I have better things to do with my time like write a Blog about how silly she is...

    "Here's what it's like to buy something at a store these days:

       1. Swipe card.
       2. Get scolded by cashier to use the chip reader.
       3. Insert chip and cancel all foreseeable plans.
       4. Wait.
       5. Wait some more.
       6. Celebrate once you hear that joyless "Remove card" sound.

    Next time you experience this, I want you to remember that it's not you. It's the banks, credit card companies, merchants, payment processors, terminal manufacturers and many others that have created this checkout catastrophe.

    After pulling out the stopwatch for over 50 transactions at various retailers in recent days, I can confirm that it takes twice as long to pay with a chip card than with a card swipe-on average, 13 seconds versus 6 seconds.

    Think about it this way: If you made two purchases every day for a year with a chip card instead of a swipe, you'd spend 85 extra minutes at the checkout counter. That's nearly an hour and a half of your time, to give someone your money."

    (I did the underlining and bolding.)
    Are we really supposed to get upset because we spend an extra 6 seconds at a checkout counter or even 85 Extra Minutes at checkout counters spread out over the span of 365 days?

    Using this writer's logic, was I right or wrong when, as a child, I used to think that, if I spread too much butter on my toast, I would not be harmed from eating too much butter because the too much butter was all spread out too much?

    I think we ought to spend our Get Upset About Time on things that have more of an impact on our lives than 85 minutes in 365 days.

    If we get all wrapped up in this Minutia Challenged Writer's Thinking, we could find ourselves going through this kind of Mental Gymnastics...

       •  In Presidential Elections it takes about 20 minutes to drive to the polling place to vote, 25 minutes to go through the verification process, stand in line and do the actual voting and 20 minutes to drive home (adds to 65 minutes).
       •  If you voted in Presidential Elections every day for a year, that would add up to 23,725 minutes!
       •  Yee Gads! That's 395.4 hours. That's awful!

    All of this makes me think we ought to outlaw Presidential Elections but we really don't need silliness and a calculator to come to this conclusion. A better reason for outlawing Presidential Election is all the craziness we are being subjected to every day and night during this current Presidential Election.

    Want to really get depressed? We have 93 more days to go before this current craziness is over and 94 more days before the Talking Heads start talking their heads about the 2020 Presidential Election.

    Would I kid u?
    Smartfella