Two Stories: Of Smoking Hellspawn And A Crazy Pertussis Lady

From: Zeacow

Hello again!

Well small update on the husband, he quit. New DM caused problems and singled him out because he was the old DM's golden child.

Got two stories today!

This story was only recently resolved and honestly, is disgusting. When he worked there, he and his coworkers smoked. They would leave their butts in a corner on the ground and at the end of they day one of 'em would go clean up the mess.

Well there's a middle school about a block away, and a few "brilliant'" teenage boys started to notice that some of the cigarettes weren't fully smoked so would PICK THEM UP OFF THE GROUND and light them up and smoke them.

They did this a couple times before my husband caught them in the act and chased them off. He kept tabs on them, and they came by every school day to see if there were any they could "salvage." Well when he called the cops they told him they couldn't do anything.

He ended up setting out a sign that said the following: "Attention kids, one of my employees has hepatitis and is one of the smokers here. You need to talk to your parents so they can go get you tested."

It wasn't long before he got calls from a couple angry parents demanding to know why he infected their little angels. He told them exactly what they did, and the line would go quiet before they thanked him for bringing that to their attention and would hang up. One man even brought his son in to apologize. Never ceases to amaze what some dumb teens will do to smoke.

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The other story is a short one. This one happened the first week of August.

I was almost full term with our daughter and a week prior we had the tour of the hospital and all the information given to us about the upcoming birth, including the warnings that we needed to get vaccinated against pertussis (whooping cough).

We signed the agreement to get the shot as well as our daughter getting it as well. We go back home, and all was well until that week. He and his ASM Honkeymex (his nickname), were catching up on paperwork when a woman comes in looking awful and had a nasty cough.

She walks around and is touching EVERYTHING she can get her hands on and spots my husband. She is to be known as Crazy Pertussis Lady.

Crazy Pertussis Lady: Hey! I need help here, I need a cable, and damn quick, I am sick and need to get home!

Hubby: Sure thing ma'am, what kind of cable do you need?

Crazy Pertussis Lady: I don't know, just a cable! Hurry up and find it, I gotta get home, the doctor just diagnosed me with pertussis!

Hubby pauses and backs up further away from her.

Hubby: Ma'am I have to ask you to not get any closer to me. I am very sorry, but my wife is pregnant and due any day and I don't want to get this and get her and our daughter sick. I will gladly help you, but I cannot get any closer. Now over here--

Crazy Pertussis Lady: HOW DARE YOU!? Discriminating against me because I have a cough? I don't give a damn about your brat and slut wife, if they get sick and die who cares? I WANT MY DAMN CABLE!

Hubby: Get. Out. I said I would still help you and only asked that you didn't get close. Your business here is not as important to me than the health and safety of my family. Leave. Now.

Crazy Pertussis Lady: WHO IS YOUR BOSS? I AM GETTING YOU FIRED!

He points out the card with his DM's name on it and she took one and stormed out. He and Honkeymex spent the rest of the day practically soaking the store and products in Lysol.

He ends up getting a call with his DM (old one) laughing and told him to ignore it. That woman was nuts and he was surprised he didn't throw the woman out the second she let loose her diagnosis.

Honestly, a damn cable was so fucking important that she had to risk infecting everyone? When he got home and told me about that gem, I was a bit pissed at first then busted out laughing. Fucking weirdos everywhere.

--Zeacow

Comments

[Nocturnesthesia]

I get pissed when people with infectious illnesses are so cavalier about spreading shit everywhere. Hell, it even bothers me when people bring their kids with noroviruses or other stomach bugs to the ER when there is nothing the doctor can do and all that accomplishes is endangering the lives of immunocompromised people at the hospital... though that is somewhat understandable with first time parents that get overanxious and don't know any better.
All you can do is wipe everything down with bleach when necessary. Sterilizing things via boiling water is good enough around the house, but if any very sick people have been around it isn't very effective as viruses and some bacteria are unaffected by extreme temperatures. Don't bother with hand sanitizer, it kills bacteria but doesn't affect viruses at all. Washing them down the drain with soap is better, even if it's not "antibacterial" a good handwashing is infinitely more effective than Purell, and won't dry out your hands.
Sorry for the tangent, I'm always trying to help teach people how to stop infectious illnesses when I can. Hopefully your daughter is doing well and doesn't get coughed on by any assholes custy with the plague.

[Raven]

Gotta say, I'd be pretty annoyed if someone told me to stay back because I'm sick.

[framer_fatal]

Raven, we're talking about a highly contagious disease that is long lasting and really horrible for adults and damn dangerous for babies.. If I had a due woman in my house and you brought your whooping cough around me you'd be lucky if I didn't freak out and try to light you on fire.

[RayvenMoon]

@Raven - then if you have something highly infectious you shouldn't leave your home. Its a given to expect that people when they find out you've decided to spread your germs around in a cavalier manner, that they are gonna react the way the op's hubby did.

BTW there is being sick and then there is having something like whooping cough and being a complete bitch when someone with a VALID concern(pregnant wife about to deliver) tells you to not get close.

As for the first story - BTDT and had the kid turn around and ask me WHY I would not give him and his friends(all around 12-14) a cigarette. Because its illegal and my luck a cop would have rolled by.

[The Last Archimedean]

Pertussis lady should have been home in bed resting and taking her medicine. I've had whooping cough and quite frankly I didn't have the energy to leave the house even if I somehow thought it was in any way shape or form a good idea.

[CoG]

OMG, that first story was a hoot! :D
That CPL was a bitch, though. Her fucking CABLE is more important that your family? I'd say a pox on her, but she'd probably go shopping with that, too.

[Bored at the Bookstore]

Gad, some people. I've had 'em come in the bookstore, choose a few books (after touching dozens), come up to the register to pay and say, "Had to get something to read... They sent me home from work. Been throwing up/hacking up a lung/running to the bathroom/name your own favorite obnoxious disease _all day_!" Or they bring in their horribly sick kids....

Yikes. I keep Lysol spray under the counter for just such moments. The second they leave, the counter, the areas they browsed, and their money all get a liberal coating.

It's a miracle I'm not sicker, oftener.

[NC Tony]

I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall in those kids homes when their parents found out what they did!

In regards to CPL, if she had said that to me, I don't think I would have been able to hold back the curse filled rant that would have spilled forth. Never mind the fact that she's out and about with a highly infectious disease. That's the kind of person you just want to smack, but can't. So you pray for Thrognar to encase her in a giant hamster ball.

[ShelterDoll]

I remember being at the flea market on the Trick or Treat Day for that town a few years ago. This lady had her two kids with her. I asked (out of curiosity) if the kids had finished trick or treat early.

"Oh, my kids are sick, so they aren't trick or treating. I brought them here!"

The woman who runs the toy section drenched her products in Lysol after that (she does a Lysol every week as well). I warned others discreetly that this woman had sick children with her.

[Zeacow]

I honestly don't know where he gets the patience and sense of calm that he does in order to deal with people day in and day out in this town. The kids, a lot of the kids in town do that and some parents will react like the ones who called him did, others honestly do not give two shits if their crotchfruit smoke and get pissed if anyone gets their little "darlings" in trouble with the cops. The sick people like CPL.. most people here in this town, that I've seen, will bull on even if they are sick, though most know well enough to stay at home on their ranches or whatever if its bad enough. Some hold to the "if i can still move and do stuff at home, I can go out in public and hang the rest of society."

[McDeli]

I guess Pertussis woman never heard of Gene Tierney.

[Book Baby]

We have this at the library regularly. I'm sorry, but read what you have at home rather than getting half of our town ill!

[Skittles]

It was ironic reading this while sucking on a niccorette lozenge. You did those kids a favor. As for the whooping cough lady, it's a damn shame we don't use stocks anymore.

[Perky]

@Raven, there is a huge difference between the common cold/stomach virus and Pertussis (whooping cough). I can handle a cold or stomach bug, but due to my asthma and weak lungs Pertussis can kill me. So if someone comes in and announces they have Pertussis damn straight I will make sure they stay the fuck away from me.

[The Singing Library Clerk]

@Bored & Book - Same problem here. People come in with colds cause "I'm bored staying in bed" or they bring in their sick kids. Or bring stuff home for their sick kids. When I started getting pink eye again for the first time in years my eye doctor said to me, "Oh, after nurses and teachers, librarians get the most cases of pink eye. Parents take the books home to their kids, germs get on the books...."

And my coworkers make fun of me for using hand sanitizer.

Whooping Cough Cow needs to be smacked upside the head. Repeatedly. Not just for coming out like she did, but also for what she said. She'd rather have a baby die then go without her cable? Who is she? Casey Anthony?

[MahiMahi713]

@Raven, you DO realize that they are talking about a horribly contagious sickness that was a danger to the husband, zeacow, and the unborn child right? If you go out while sick, touch everything and spread your nasty ass germs everywhere don't be offended when someone tells you to back off.
As for sick kids it's nasty because they touch their noses and eyes and then touch everything, they have no understanding that they are spreading the germs around and are making everyone sick. Now, I'm the last person who is going to make their kid into a bubble child if I do one day have kids. They're going to be playing in the dirt and all that jazz, but I sure as hell will make sure that when they are sick, I sanitize like hell.

[Canary]

I'm pregnant right now if some asshole with whooping cough came up to me in public I might just spray them in the face with freaking Lysol. Really who the hell goes out in public with a possible deadly illness? Not decent people that's for sure.

[Dugong]

@Raven: You would be annoyed if someone told you to stay back? I would be *very* annoyed if I *had* to tell someone like you to stay back! If you are that dumb that you have to be told, cus you don't stay back naturally, then who gives a damn if your annoyed?

Moron...

[xoxoxo]

I have no problem telling selfish idiots like Raven off nowadays. My husband is still on immunosuppressants 2 1/2 years after kicking cancer's ass. Something inconvenient like a stomach bug or a bad cold can land him a few weeks in the hospital. Pertussis could potentially kill him. I've stopped being nice to rude buggers who go out while sick and infect everyone.

[Minidoc]

Pertussis is extremely dangerous to infants and can kill them. It is also very contagious. CPL should have been at home, and her doctor probably told her that.
@Raven: if you have a contagious disease, and go shopping, don't be shocked if the retail slaves want you to stay back. Everyone has the right to keep themselves safe.