Americans Today...
9 years ago
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Steve Gets Owned at Two Drive Thrus...
With all the driving I do for my job, I have affinity for drive through fast food places, coffee houses like Starbucks, banks, Mailbox Stores and (cough!) car washes. Nothing like dealing with drive throughs. I write about it a lot. My second post back in November of 2004 dealt with a lady in a large SUV. (Check the sidebar for the link about Carl's Jr in November 2004, it's a riot), I have written scores of words regarding proper ettiquette when dealing with the public.
Today I got owned. Not just owned but PWNED!!! Twice.
First was this morning at the Dixon Starbuck's drive through. At around 6:45 Am I was cruising through for my Triple Shot Mocha Meth on my way to the Bay. The drive through there is busy as hell. There is no less than 7 cars in line at any given time. Usually if the line backs around to the sign advertising the "other"coffee shop near the taco place, you park and go inside. Today it was just 20 feet from that so it was still quicker to hit the drive line.
You can NEVER hear the speaker very well with the traffic along Interstate 80 blazing by at 75mph. Especially if the dude with the mini dreads is "manning" the head set. He's cool and always very nice. But today, I got the new chick. And with it came some attitude. You see apparently after she greeted me with the "Welcome to Dixon Starbucks" greeting that you hear any day you visit this business, she asked, "How are you today?" Starbucks is doing this lately, have you noticed? They ask this question like it means something. I don't know... Do drug dealers greet their clients with, "Welcome to Home Grown Flavors, How are you doin, man?"
I truly did not hear her. I swear. I just continued with my, "Triple Venti No Whip Lo Fat Mocha and..." And SHE CALLS ME ON IT!!!
"Hey" she says abruptly. "I ain't doing anything until you answer the question, HOW ARE YOU DOING? I AM WAITING!"
My answer... "Uh... I could just drive off..." She ends my order and tells me to pull forward. I wasn't done, I wanted a bottle of water and she ends the order and says pull up to the window, sir.. She did not make eye contact with me.
Holy Crap.
Incident 2.
Late this afternoon I wanted a burger so I darted into Wendy's. I ordered a number 2 with a Coke and the Hispanic voice behind the speaker asks, " So small medium or large drink?"
"Um, " I say, " Just what ever comes with it..."
Dead silence ensues for like a minute. Seriously, it seemed like an eternity. (A simile?)
I wait and then say, "Hello?"
She goes... " I asked if you wanted small, medium or large drink!"
Holy Crap... totally owned, twice in the same day.
Today I got owned. Not just owned but PWNED!!! Twice.
First was this morning at the Dixon Starbuck's drive through. At around 6:45 Am I was cruising through for my Triple Shot Mocha Meth on my way to the Bay. The drive through there is busy as hell. There is no less than 7 cars in line at any given time. Usually if the line backs around to the sign advertising the "other"coffee shop near the taco place, you park and go inside. Today it was just 20 feet from that so it was still quicker to hit the drive line.
You can NEVER hear the speaker very well with the traffic along Interstate 80 blazing by at 75mph. Especially if the dude with the mini dreads is "manning" the head set. He's cool and always very nice. But today, I got the new chick. And with it came some attitude. You see apparently after she greeted me with the "Welcome to Dixon Starbucks" greeting that you hear any day you visit this business, she asked, "How are you today?" Starbucks is doing this lately, have you noticed? They ask this question like it means something. I don't know... Do drug dealers greet their clients with, "Welcome to Home Grown Flavors, How are you doin, man?"
I truly did not hear her. I swear. I just continued with my, "Triple Venti No Whip Lo Fat Mocha and..." And SHE CALLS ME ON IT!!!
"Hey" she says abruptly. "I ain't doing anything until you answer the question, HOW ARE YOU DOING? I AM WAITING!"
My answer... "Uh... I could just drive off..." She ends my order and tells me to pull forward. I wasn't done, I wanted a bottle of water and she ends the order and says pull up to the window, sir.. She did not make eye contact with me.
Holy Crap.
Incident 2.
Late this afternoon I wanted a burger so I darted into Wendy's. I ordered a number 2 with a Coke and the Hispanic voice behind the speaker asks, " So small medium or large drink?"
"Um, " I say, " Just what ever comes with it..."
Dead silence ensues for like a minute. Seriously, it seemed like an eternity. (A simile?)
I wait and then say, "Hello?"
She goes... " I asked if you wanted small, medium or large drink!"
Holy Crap... totally owned, twice in the same day.
Saturday, May 27, 2006
The Devil Inside: An Evil Story
My wife and I are dead dog tired today. We both worked hard this week. We put in lots of hours.
All we wanted to do was enjoy a quiet Saturday morning. I cleaned up some weeds as best as I could. I also did some pruning. My wife took a nap for an hour or so. It's nice and cool so we had all the windows and doors open, totally airing out the house. We were enjoying the smells of spring from our yard. The neighbors walking their dogs. It was totally peaceful.
All of a sudden around an hour ago, we hear a bunch of commotion and noise coming from our backyard. It looks like my neighbor had some people over. The talking didn't bother us but the annoying 3 year old girl ticked us off. Maybe she's 3 or maybe she's 5. I don't know.
But her whining. God.. It was so annoying. I could see her trying to play in their backyard but she seemed really upset about something. But it is nothing new. Everytime the kid comes over we just hear this constant crying. The girl just seems to be crying about something every visit. Today though I decided I was not going to tolerate it.
There are a few huge trees growing over the fence. The trees form a dense canopy over the back fence. You can see the neighbors yard clearly from the top of the stairs but they cannot see you from down in their yard. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to shut the kid up. So I ran up stairs and grabbed an air rifle. I loaded it up with a few copper bb's. I jetted back downstairs to my mini pillbox. I went out the back door and cocked the rifle a few times. I stood on the back stoop and took aim. What a surreal event. It felt so natural, just like playing Ghost Recon on my Xbox 360. I was methodical in the process, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves and to make sure I had the perfect shot. She then moved to an open spot around the otherside of the barbeque. I gently squeezed the trigger then "POP!!" right square in the back! All you heard was this "WAAHHHHH!!!!". She sounded like a wounded animal. I laughed my ass off and went back inside.
A few minutes later, the whole family seemed to be hurried. They got in the car and left with the girl crying... It couldn't have hurt that bad... Could it?
I opened the doors back up when I saw their car leave. You can hear the birds nesting in the Crape Myrtle tree. Peace again!
All we wanted to do was enjoy a quiet Saturday morning. I cleaned up some weeds as best as I could. I also did some pruning. My wife took a nap for an hour or so. It's nice and cool so we had all the windows and doors open, totally airing out the house. We were enjoying the smells of spring from our yard. The neighbors walking their dogs. It was totally peaceful.
All of a sudden around an hour ago, we hear a bunch of commotion and noise coming from our backyard. It looks like my neighbor had some people over. The talking didn't bother us but the annoying 3 year old girl ticked us off. Maybe she's 3 or maybe she's 5. I don't know.
But her whining. God.. It was so annoying. I could see her trying to play in their backyard but she seemed really upset about something. But it is nothing new. Everytime the kid comes over we just hear this constant crying. The girl just seems to be crying about something every visit. Today though I decided I was not going to tolerate it.
There are a few huge trees growing over the fence. The trees form a dense canopy over the back fence. You can see the neighbors yard clearly from the top of the stairs but they cannot see you from down in their yard. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to shut the kid up. So I ran up stairs and grabbed an air rifle. I loaded it up with a few copper bb's. I jetted back downstairs to my mini pillbox. I went out the back door and cocked the rifle a few times. I stood on the back stoop and took aim. What a surreal event. It felt so natural, just like playing Ghost Recon on my Xbox 360. I was methodical in the process, taking deep breaths to calm my nerves and to make sure I had the perfect shot. She then moved to an open spot around the otherside of the barbeque. I gently squeezed the trigger then "POP!!" right square in the back! All you heard was this "WAAHHHHH!!!!". She sounded like a wounded animal. I laughed my ass off and went back inside.
A few minutes later, the whole family seemed to be hurried. They got in the car and left with the girl crying... It couldn't have hurt that bad... Could it?
I opened the doors back up when I saw their car leave. You can hear the birds nesting in the Crape Myrtle tree. Peace again!
Friday, May 26, 2006
Liberalism's Soft Heart Continues to Infect America..
Been a little while since I wrote a political piece here on my blog. I heard something on the 11 O'clock news last night that kind of gets me riled up a bit.
The subject? Connecticut high school football's new rule.
If high school team wins a game by more than 50 points, the coach will be suspended for one game. You can read about the rule here.
There are many things that play into why this rule is in effect that pretty much will screw with your mind. For one, if you read the story, there seems to be a coach named Jack Cochran who ran up the score to 60-0 and some sort of altercation occurred between him and the opposing coach. Ok, maybe I don't know the facts here totally, but it seems to me Coach Cochran is a bully and the 60-0 thing is something he likes to do when he is upset with another coach. That's fine if you want to punish Cochran but the entire state's football teams and players are now lumped into this?
You read the article a bit further though and the reasoning is different. Routing another team is considered "unsportsmanlike conduct." They have got to be kidding. When I was in little league baseball at 12 years old, we routed a team the first game of the season 35 to 0. It wasn't intentional, their pitching sucked. I mean seriously I got 4 hits in two innings and was walked twice. It wasn't like our coaches were sitting there egging us on. They actually were quiet and were a little embarassed. It's not like it was intentional. They tried to call the game but the other team insisted on playing. We ended up losing the league and came in 2nd place. The other team ended up winning a couple of games.
But in Connecticut's case, why is 50 points deteremined to be the trigger to enact a rout rule? 49-14 is a rout. 51 -26 is a rout. 55-10 is a rout. (Ask Elway and the Bronco's about that number). What if the game is close at half time, say 28-21 and then the leading team scores 7 touchdowns due to stupid fumbles and interceptions. Are you really punishing players who are just better or is it all about someone's feelings? Beat the other team but don't beat them by too much. Tone down the adrenaline. Routs are not always intentional.
In the real world, you can get routed daily. You can get laid off from work. Your super fine girl friend could suddenly dump you for someone else for no real reason. Your party could lose an election, badly. You can miss your exit and have to drive 30 minutes out of your way to come back. Life is full of adversity. Suck it up. You will fail badly sometime in your life.
Liberalism and it's feel good attitude... You are entitled!!!
The subject? Connecticut high school football's new rule.
If high school team wins a game by more than 50 points, the coach will be suspended for one game. You can read about the rule here.
There are many things that play into why this rule is in effect that pretty much will screw with your mind. For one, if you read the story, there seems to be a coach named Jack Cochran who ran up the score to 60-0 and some sort of altercation occurred between him and the opposing coach. Ok, maybe I don't know the facts here totally, but it seems to me Coach Cochran is a bully and the 60-0 thing is something he likes to do when he is upset with another coach. That's fine if you want to punish Cochran but the entire state's football teams and players are now lumped into this?
You read the article a bit further though and the reasoning is different. Routing another team is considered "unsportsmanlike conduct." They have got to be kidding. When I was in little league baseball at 12 years old, we routed a team the first game of the season 35 to 0. It wasn't intentional, their pitching sucked. I mean seriously I got 4 hits in two innings and was walked twice. It wasn't like our coaches were sitting there egging us on. They actually were quiet and were a little embarassed. It's not like it was intentional. They tried to call the game but the other team insisted on playing. We ended up losing the league and came in 2nd place. The other team ended up winning a couple of games.
But in Connecticut's case, why is 50 points deteremined to be the trigger to enact a rout rule? 49-14 is a rout. 51 -26 is a rout. 55-10 is a rout. (Ask Elway and the Bronco's about that number). What if the game is close at half time, say 28-21 and then the leading team scores 7 touchdowns due to stupid fumbles and interceptions. Are you really punishing players who are just better or is it all about someone's feelings? Beat the other team but don't beat them by too much. Tone down the adrenaline. Routs are not always intentional.
In the real world, you can get routed daily. You can get laid off from work. Your super fine girl friend could suddenly dump you for someone else for no real reason. Your party could lose an election, badly. You can miss your exit and have to drive 30 minutes out of your way to come back. Life is full of adversity. Suck it up. You will fail badly sometime in your life.
Liberalism and it's feel good attitude... You are entitled!!!
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Talk About Stressing Out
Sunday night I call my twisted bureaucracy healthcare provider and request a prescription of pain meds. Basically it was a refill but I wanted to expedite the thing so I could get it yesterday. So I called and pushed numbers until I got a real life human being that new what the hell they were doing.
"Hello, my name is Steve and my address and phone number are the same as they have been for the last 3 years and well, I have a prescription I need refilled ASAP so I was wondering if you can handle this quickly so I can get it tomorrow? (Monday)"
Friendly Phone Voice: "Sure Steve, I can handle that."
I give her the number and she says, "OK great, check with us on Monday at noon and we'll get that ready for you."
Great... I was happy because I wouldn't be hurting so bad. So I call yesterday afternoon to check, and all I get is "Prescription is being processed by pharmacy".
So I wait until this morning and call again, "Prescription is being processed by pharmacy". I punch a few more numbers and get a live human being.
Disgruntled Phone Voice: "Ugggghhhh.... So why are you calling?"
Me: "Basically the pharmacy has been saying they are processing the prescription and they have been for the last few hours. It has been over 24 hours since...."
Disgruntled Phone Voice: "BAHHH.... It should take 24 to 48 hours to..."
Me (interrupting): "Yeah, mmmkay, right... But it has been 24 hours and the lady yesterday said I should have it on Monday and well, today is Tuesday almost noon so it is actually pushing on 48 hours, and I am just wondering if it will be..."
Disgruntled Phone Voice: " Well, whoever you called was wrong. We are not the pharmacy. It takes 48 hours to process... she should not have told you what she did..."
Me (interrupting again): "Excuse me, who crawled up your ass and died? All I have is what the lady told me on Monday and your pharmacy phone message recording. Are you calling me a liar?"
I redial the phone and get someone else. and just re-present the facts..
Pleasant Phone Voice: "Hold on, let me get you a live person at the pharmacy. Which pharmacy would you prefer to go to?"
Me, totally suprised: "What you mean I can go to any pharmacy I choose? Not just the inconvenient one 10 miles south of town that takes an hour round trip with traffic, but the one a mile from my house?"
Pleasant Phone Voice: "You have a choice and I can leave that by 5pm anywhere you want to go."
Me: "Awesome!!! You totally rock..." /cartman voice
"Hello, my name is Steve and my address and phone number are the same as they have been for the last 3 years and well, I have a prescription I need refilled ASAP so I was wondering if you can handle this quickly so I can get it tomorrow? (Monday)"
Friendly Phone Voice: "Sure Steve, I can handle that."
I give her the number and she says, "OK great, check with us on Monday at noon and we'll get that ready for you."
Great... I was happy because I wouldn't be hurting so bad. So I call yesterday afternoon to check, and all I get is "Prescription is being processed by pharmacy".
So I wait until this morning and call again, "Prescription is being processed by pharmacy". I punch a few more numbers and get a live human being.
Disgruntled Phone Voice: "Ugggghhhh.... So why are you calling?"
Me: "Basically the pharmacy has been saying they are processing the prescription and they have been for the last few hours. It has been over 24 hours since...."
Disgruntled Phone Voice: "BAHHH.... It should take 24 to 48 hours to..."
Me (interrupting): "Yeah, mmmkay, right... But it has been 24 hours and the lady yesterday said I should have it on Monday and well, today is Tuesday almost noon so it is actually pushing on 48 hours, and I am just wondering if it will be..."
Disgruntled Phone Voice: " Well, whoever you called was wrong. We are not the pharmacy. It takes 48 hours to process... she should not have told you what she did..."
Me (interrupting again): "Excuse me, who crawled up your ass and died? All I have is what the lady told me on Monday and your pharmacy phone message recording. Are you calling me a liar?"
I redial the phone and get someone else. and just re-present the facts..
Pleasant Phone Voice: "Hold on, let me get you a live person at the pharmacy. Which pharmacy would you prefer to go to?"
Me, totally suprised: "What you mean I can go to any pharmacy I choose? Not just the inconvenient one 10 miles south of town that takes an hour round trip with traffic, but the one a mile from my house?"
Pleasant Phone Voice: "You have a choice and I can leave that by 5pm anywhere you want to go."
Me
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