Rants

Sporks

Breakfast at Popeye’s. Would have went to Hardee’s but I’m too impatient 😉 to make the 2 mile trip to the southside ATM, when I can just pass right by the downtown one on the way to Popeye’s. The biscuits are about the same, but Hardee’s sausage gravy is richer and has more sausage bits in it. There is one other reason, at Hardee’s you get a real plastic fork, but at Popeye’s you get a spork, which is a spoon/fork hybrid. Unfortunately it is more spoon than fork and is just not good for stabbing at sausage chunks.

Don’t be so impatient.

Our usual commute to work takes us by the entrance to an elementary school. Teacher work days, school recesses and holidays are the nicest drive to work days, so much less traffic. I love summer because all the chauffeur Moms are still at home and I hate winter because besides the usual lack of attention paid to the road, things are compounded by putting on coats and hats and wiping off the fogged up windows.

The entrance and exit from the school parking lot is the same road which T’s into a road with a speed limit of 45MPH. Of course there is a steady stream of traffic from both directions to get into the school. The folks leaving the school and are going right usually have no problem, it is the left turn folks that are a danger. About once a week somebody pulls out in front of me because they assume that everyone is going to be turning left into the school. They get impatient if they have to wait more than 2 minutes to get a clear lane to turn into. No way they would go right and just make the extra 1/2 loop to get back home….

It Is Lunch Time Isn’t It?

Once a week my wife and I have a lunch “date” and leave the plant to go to a local fast food place to eat instead of the usual microwaved entree. Today we went to Popeye’s. We both like the food there, nice and spicy, it reminds us of when we lived in New Orleans. Should have guessed we were in trouble when there were 3 people waiting off to the side for their orders and two people still in front of us. They only had one person taking orders and one person handling the drive-up and judging by which the speed of the food was delivered to the patrons, only one person cooking. They should have had a few more people working being as it was 12:15 and the middle of lunch time.

Where’s the receipt?

The absolute greatest invention since self-service, has been the card reader on the pump. You no longer need to go inside and have to wait in line behind people buying cigarettes, lottery tickets, 64oz Giant Gulps or whatever. You just pull up, fill up and go. The stations without these new pumps are becoming rarer and rarer and if I stumble on one, I’ll just drive across the street.

Needed to get some gas today. When I was done and returned the pump handle, no receipt came out. So inside I went, ugh. The woman gave me some lame excuse about it being out of paper, but I know better. These corner quick stops must be losing a lot money in lost impulse buys with those pumps, so they are programmed to every once in awhile not print a receipt so that you have to go inside. While I waited for the person in front of me to pay for their gas, I used my superior will-power to not pick up a butane lighter or one of those rolled up astrology forecasts.

Invisible Customers

On the way home from work my wife and I stopped into the Food Lion on the way home, we needed one item. Once we got what we needed, we headed for the checkout lines. There was one right at the end of the aisle that we were coming down so we went there even though the light wasn’t on. There was a cashier and another employee on the register side and a “customer” on the other. They were all deep in conversation. As we got up to them my wife asked, “Are you open?” Perhaps they didn’t hear so we waited a bit and she asked again. Still no response. We turned around in dismay and headed over to 2 other aisles that had there lights on. The first one had no cashier at all and the other one was busy. We looked back down towards the three people at the one we just left and there was still no motion to move or acknowledge us, it was as if we were invisible. Needless to say we put down the item at the empty cash register and left the store. Plenty of other places to stop.

We ended up at a Bi-Lo near the house and got an over friendly cashier. (Almost as bad.)

Low Level Hum

Here is today’s: The old Sear’s chain drive garage door opener was jerking and spasming while opening and closing the door. It was almost 8 years old and considering it is the main way in and out of the house it gets used at least 4 or 5 times a day it was time for a new one. Replaced it with one of the Genie screw drive ones. Works faster and a lot quieter, but when it is not in use it generates a low level hum. Not loud, not annoying, just a sound that used to not be there when in the garage.

Why does my new $159 thing make a noise? Is it normal? Is it about to explode, showering the car below with shards of white hot metal bits?

That Hosting Company

This is really yesterday’s rant. ThatHostingCompany that webhosts the Miata Club website I do, disappeared from the face of the internet for about 5 hours last night. Even their site was unreachable! Did somebody kick out the plug on the server? Was the custodian dusting and accidentally flipped the switch to off?

No big deal, you say, well this seems to happen with alarming frequency. And on their about page they claimed 100% up time in 2001 – HA – they were off the air for almost a whole weekend in October.

They are the genesis for this little blog, I wanted some way to remember all the outages. They don’t go down everyday, just seems like it, so I will have other things to rant about here. Trust me, I am of an age where I am on the cusp of cramudgeondom and lots of things p!ss me off.