Swiping Plastic

He only needed some bread, some meat and some cheese. It didn't take him long to get to the checkout line. Of course, waiting was different. He spent more time in the line than he had been in the store.

When he finally got to the register, he handed his credit card to the cashier. She handed it back and gently said to swipe it thru the device on the counter in front of him.

He chuckled to himself, just loudly enough for the cashier to hear. And he swiped his card, but nothing happened. He swiped his card again. And again. And again. Still nothing happened.

The cashier reached out and turned his card around. She told him to swipe his card with the magnetic strip facing forward.

He chuckled again and then muttered, It's not really rocket science.

Well I guess you should know, the cashier said, and she gestured to the embroidered NASA logo on his sweater.

There was a time, long ago, when he worked there, writing middleware for a control center, writing navigation software for robots. There was a time when rocket science was his life. But that was then, and the times had clearly changed.

He looked at the cashier (who was smiling). He looked down at the logo. He looked at the credit card in his hand. And he swiped it again.

It worked.

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