THE DRIVE-UP ATM

Hey there silent reader.  Well, actually, I have received one (such a lonely number) comment thus far in my journey so will no longer refer to you as silent reader. You have a voice and I have heard it.  I have considered my options carefully and have decided upon the perfect greeting.  So on that note read on.

Hey there sagacious reader.  Today was a day much like any other.  Nothing terribly exciting, just a few errands to run which included a quick stop at the bank.  As I would rather avoid going inside (so cold and uninviting), I appreciate banks with drive-up ATM machines.  Even walk-up ATM's are better than going inside and what the heck, I can consider the walk my daily exercise.  :-)  However, I do wonder about the (dubious) character of the people who design and those who install the drive-up ATM machines.  Which leads me to the following diatribe.

I drive a 2003 VW Beetle, not the biggest car on the road, I know.  But really, I should be able to drive up to the any ATM, conduct my business in a timely fashion and be on my way.  It should be an easy, hassle free chore.  But no. Just getting close enough to the ATM without scraping paint off my side-view mirror is challenging in itself.  Then in order to work the machine I have to do one of two things:
1)  put the car in neutral (it's a stick), put on the emergency brake, unbuckle my seat belt, roll down my window, hang half-way out the window (ouch, painful), or
2)  put the car in neutral, put on the emergency brake, unbuckle my seat belt, open my door, lean half-way out (soo awkward);
all just to be able to insert my card into the machine.  Yikes!  And that's just for starters.  The machine has so many options and questions and then more options and questions.  And there I am, either leaning out my door or hanging out my window madly pushing buttons trying to put an end to my ordeal, a tiny part of me wanting nothing more than to put my fist through the screen. Not that i would ever do such a thing....  ;-)

Now I have always preferred smaller cars.  (So sue me.)  I like the feel and handling of them.  It's just the way I roll and I should not be punished for it, right?   So why do I feel as if I am every time I go to a drive-up ATM?  All those people in their bigger cars and SUV's and such, now they don't have that problem.  No, not them.  Just us little guys.  What's up with that crap?   

I say they should install ATM's at different heights to accommodate all of us.   No, I demand it!  (Can't help it, it's the rebel in me...)  Maybe they could have separate lanes like A for small, B for medium and so on.  You get the picture, right?  Or, better yet, install the machines a foot or two lower and let the 'big' guy deal with it - drive a mile in our shoes; see how it is for the 'little' guy.
I mean really, why should the big guys get all the breaks?  Why should they get to do their banking sitting comfortably in their cars while I'm hanging out of mine, painfully or awkwardly, contorted this way or that, being ushered from screen to screen in what seems like (deliberate, malicious) agonizing slow motion?  It ain't right, and I can keep quiet no longer.  (As if I ever could.)

So, to all of those who design the endless morass of maddening machinery that is ATM and those who install the drive-up version, I say BITE ME!