Incensed at the sensor

Most of us work for a living these days and those who do, usually have tales to tell of some irritating piece of equipment that's a part of our working environment. My current hometown has THE worst water I have encountered. It is so hard it can fill a copper pipe full of lime scale in a 3-4 month period of time. I've had to deal with this several times a year in the bakery of the store I manage. It kills the steam box proofer which helps the bread dough to rise. I've grown accustomed to it's ways at this point. However, the MOST irritating thing this water does at work, is cloud the sensors on the sink faucets in the restrooms. You get your hands all sudsed-up and the damn water won't come on to rinse the soap off , unless you know the "trick" of rubbing the sensor eye. All of the employees know this trick, as do most of our regular customers. This is a University town, so we get a lot of visitors from out of town, for sports and other events.

The faucets had been giving us trouble for several weeks. One particular weekend during that time period, the population had grown considerably with visitors, increasing traffic at the store. I had requested, begged and groveled to my then VP, for new faucets to be installed. He was a very busy man whom I admired immensely, but I had not yet received the needed approval. However, a visitor came along who, unknowingly, helped me get my coveted OK. (these faucets are a high-priced expenditure) Following is a close guesstimate of the e-mail I sent to my VP regarding this unknown person:

Good Morning....................Picture this. My secretary goes to the women's restroom and enters a stall. She hears someone come out of the next stall , then walk to the sink. She hears the pumping of the soap dispenser. She then hears a voice say. "Turn on!" Silence....no water. She then hears a frustrated voice say, "Turn on, damnit!" immediately followed by a "G..damnit, turn on!!", in a louder and angrier voice. My secretary, not wanting to embarrass the woman, and in the back of her mind, thinking maybe she had a Biker Mamma type out there, decides to wait for her to leave. In an instant she hears, even more loudly, "You Mother F..........ing C............S...........er, TURN ON!! Knowing she couldn't hide in that stall forever, Sherry decides to bite the bullet, go on out and face this scary "lady". The person she sees is a little mite of a woman, probably in her seventies, dressed in a beautiful, and obviously very expensive, red wool suit, along with the perfect heels and matching bag; silver hair in perfect order and beautifully manicured nails. The lady looks at her, then smiles sweetly, as any lovely little Grandmother would do. Sherry shows her the "trick" to get the water on. They wash their hands and leave the restroom with nary a word. Sherry immediately tells me of the incident, which I am now relaying to you.............. Have a great day!

Within five minutes of hitting the Send key, I receive a phone call. It's my VP. :) Between his laughter and the tears I can almost see running down his cheeks, I am told. "Go ahead and get new faucets installed." There are indeed, angels out there, sometimes dressed to the hilt and using a restroom at the Grocery Store. I will need her to visit again sometime in the future.