Michigan Drivers?

I’ve already admitted to not being a 9 to 5 kind of girl. That, of course, means I don’t keep banker’s hours and have to rely upon the advent of modern technology to do things like, well, banking. Instead of stopping into my local branch to schmooze with the tellers and score a Dum Dum lollipop, I simply zip through the ATM and conduct transactions from behind the steering wheel of my car. I’ve recently made two observations in this regard.

When PNC merged with Nat City, I discovered its ATM’s language option menu has significantly expanded. It used to offer just English or Espanol, but now I’m seeing German and a whole lotta foreign characters which mean absolutely nothing to me. I know many who would quickly declare, “Hey! If you want to live in America, learn to speak the language.” I don’t mind this though. Whenever I travel abroad (not to be confused with when I travel AS a broad), I try to learn a few key phrases in the country’s native tongue. “Hello!”  “Goodbye!”  “Please!”  “Thank you!”  “Where’s the bathroom?”  “More wine please!” And even though I managed to master using a computer in the Far East with icons which were totally Greek—er, Chinese—to me, I don’t like playing Russian roulette with my money. When I’m far away from home, I’m always happy to discover an ATM with an English language option. Though the thriving metropolis of Grand Rapids is a far cry from international destination cities, I do believe that cultural boundaries are becoming more and more blurred, and the world is evolving into one big melting pot. I have no qualms about this ATM feature.

But the one at the credit union was throwing me for a loop. Look closely … do you see what I see? (Note: “See” is the key word here!)

Yup, that’s right. It’s Braille, the system which allows the visually challenged to read and write through touch. On a drive-thru ATM.

Um, does anyone else find this just a wee bit disconcerting?