A Cold Day in Hell
05/01/19 07:33
Build the goddamn wall already, Mr President! Trump promised it rally in and rally out in the months leading up to the general election and now I expect him to build it. We hired a builder when we hired Trump, amongst other things, so let's see him build that big beautiful wall on our southern border. So now we have a government shutdown because Pelosi's democrats who took control in January did not include $5b in the budget for our wall. Many on the conservative side of the aisle are wanting him to make a fireside address to the nation to talk about the wall and our country's need for same.
I don't know why he's reluctant to do that if that is why he hasn't done it to date but I think it's not a bad idea. You don't come a billionaire builder and president by not being a good salesman so I say do it. Let's get that funding, build the fucking wall, and stop the flow of drugs and illegals into our country. I don't care what it's made of, just build it.
It all started out innocently enough when Nancy decided to tell the Ross-man that she expected to come into work over the weekend despite having seen probably the worst of her cold come and go. She wanted to let him know in the event that he might elect to have her not come and work with him knowing full well that he has surgery scheduled in the next few weeks. No need to further complicate an already dicey matter as matters go.
I think Nancy's instincts were on target in letting him know about her cold. I think she wasn't expecting him to say what he said about her maybe wearing a face mask. The very thought of having to do that for 6-7 hours is so completely out of the question in her mind that I'm not sure she even wants to try to do it. Let him wear the mask if he is so concerned. Maybe they can take turns.
Nancy and I were sitting in my car in the parking lot of the local Starbucks a little after six last night wondering what, if anything, we might bring home for Evan for dinner. I finally downloaded the Starbucks app and now order my beverage on my phone before arriving at the store to pick it up.
We even talked about ordering it on the app while sitting in front of the store window so we can see them put it up for pick up but decided that was a little too weird. We usually get the same thing so we're now simply removing the monotonous and unnecessary elements of the transaction from the process.
That is to say, no more waiting in line, no more exchanging niceties with the cashier, no more reaching into my wallet to pay for the purchase, and no more making the same request day in and day out. I don't know why one or more of the people who take our order hasn't suggested that we order via the app but they haven't. Maybe it's a job security thing. Sooner or later, if everyone orders using the apps, they would need to hire fewer and fewer people to take those orders. They could have a line for "Luddites Only" when all is said and done.
So we called the Ev-man to have a discussion about dinner and what, if anything, he wanted us to pick up for him before returning home. He was noncommittal about wanting anything but there was enough slack in the conversation that I decided that he probably did want something but he just didn't know what.
After running through the usual options, most of which had little or no appeal to him, he decided that he might like to have a bacon cheeseburger (medium rare - with pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, and onion) from the 99 restaurant which was coincidently right next door to Starbucks. How convenient!
Nancy and I would make something at home for ourselves, or at least that was the original plan, until she decided that she too would order something off the 99 menu. We were a little surprised after the fact to see that the restaurant charged a packaging fee for the take-out order and didn't tell us about it. It was on the slip so it was a done deal.
I'm not sure had they informed us up front that we wouldn't have placed the order anyway. Not every establishment does this although the 99 seems to be marketing this particular service for some reason. People like their food but don't like to consume it on the premises?
They were doing a brisk business when we arrived so eating in-house didn't appear to be an issue. And I would hasten to add that the packaging was tasteful and appropriate considering the items that we ordered. It was easy to carry and everything was still hot by the time we arrived home. It was everything you would expect from a take-out order and maybe a little more. Was it worth the $3.62 that they charged us? The jury is still out.
We took a casual stroll around the plaza going from storefront to storefront while waiting for our order at the 99 and lamented or simply observed the fact that there were no crosswalks where one might expect to see crosswalks to facilitate safe passage between stores; that after sticking our heads in the doorway of the local Japanese restaurant to review their specials of the day that we didn't dine there more often; that the recently constructed apartment complex in the rear corner of the plaza was nearing full occupancy given the number of lighted apartments as seen from the ground floor; that the Big Lots store was probably out of reach given that we had only a limited amount of time before we had to turn back towards the 99; and that the Subway store on the corner across the way from the 99 had but a small handful of customers and that was probably enough to keep them in business if that is all they had day in and day out.
We looked at those apartments once and we were not impressed. The Feng Shui was horrible and we noticed it the minute we walked into the model apartment. Nancy, as is her inclination, pointed out to the fella showing us the unit that the drawers in the kitchen either didn't open fully or opened into an obstruction of sorts. Oh yes, and the closets were bigger than the bedrooms. Can you imagine?
Did I mention that we remarked as well as we neared the end of our walk around the plaza about that little window in the door at the rear of the 99 restaurant? It was roughly 2x2 inch window probably no larger than a deck of cards that was large enough for an employee inside the store to see who might be knocking with a delivery but small enough so that you could step away at a moments notice if someone put a revolver up to the window in an attempt to gain entrance to commit grand larceny or worse.
The area was not well lit although employees were probably instructed not to open the door after a specific time of day since no deliveries would be scheduled. Nancy wondered aloud why the window wasn't round and I was curious as to why they didn't just have a one of those hotel style peep holes that give you an Alice-in-Wonderland view of the word outside your door at a moments notice. All good questions.
I don't know why he's reluctant to do that if that is why he hasn't done it to date but I think it's not a bad idea. You don't come a billionaire builder and president by not being a good salesman so I say do it. Let's get that funding, build the fucking wall, and stop the flow of drugs and illegals into our country. I don't care what it's made of, just build it.
It all started out innocently enough when Nancy decided to tell the Ross-man that she expected to come into work over the weekend despite having seen probably the worst of her cold come and go. She wanted to let him know in the event that he might elect to have her not come and work with him knowing full well that he has surgery scheduled in the next few weeks. No need to further complicate an already dicey matter as matters go.
I think Nancy's instincts were on target in letting him know about her cold. I think she wasn't expecting him to say what he said about her maybe wearing a face mask. The very thought of having to do that for 6-7 hours is so completely out of the question in her mind that I'm not sure she even wants to try to do it. Let him wear the mask if he is so concerned. Maybe they can take turns.
Nancy and I were sitting in my car in the parking lot of the local Starbucks a little after six last night wondering what, if anything, we might bring home for Evan for dinner. I finally downloaded the Starbucks app and now order my beverage on my phone before arriving at the store to pick it up.
We even talked about ordering it on the app while sitting in front of the store window so we can see them put it up for pick up but decided that was a little too weird. We usually get the same thing so we're now simply removing the monotonous and unnecessary elements of the transaction from the process.
That is to say, no more waiting in line, no more exchanging niceties with the cashier, no more reaching into my wallet to pay for the purchase, and no more making the same request day in and day out. I don't know why one or more of the people who take our order hasn't suggested that we order via the app but they haven't. Maybe it's a job security thing. Sooner or later, if everyone orders using the apps, they would need to hire fewer and fewer people to take those orders. They could have a line for "Luddites Only" when all is said and done.
So we called the Ev-man to have a discussion about dinner and what, if anything, he wanted us to pick up for him before returning home. He was noncommittal about wanting anything but there was enough slack in the conversation that I decided that he probably did want something but he just didn't know what.
After running through the usual options, most of which had little or no appeal to him, he decided that he might like to have a bacon cheeseburger (medium rare - with pickles, lettuce, tomatoes, and onion) from the 99 restaurant which was coincidently right next door to Starbucks. How convenient!
Nancy and I would make something at home for ourselves, or at least that was the original plan, until she decided that she too would order something off the 99 menu. We were a little surprised after the fact to see that the restaurant charged a packaging fee for the take-out order and didn't tell us about it. It was on the slip so it was a done deal.
I'm not sure had they informed us up front that we wouldn't have placed the order anyway. Not every establishment does this although the 99 seems to be marketing this particular service for some reason. People like their food but don't like to consume it on the premises?
They were doing a brisk business when we arrived so eating in-house didn't appear to be an issue. And I would hasten to add that the packaging was tasteful and appropriate considering the items that we ordered. It was easy to carry and everything was still hot by the time we arrived home. It was everything you would expect from a take-out order and maybe a little more. Was it worth the $3.62 that they charged us? The jury is still out.
We took a casual stroll around the plaza going from storefront to storefront while waiting for our order at the 99 and lamented or simply observed the fact that there were no crosswalks where one might expect to see crosswalks to facilitate safe passage between stores; that after sticking our heads in the doorway of the local Japanese restaurant to review their specials of the day that we didn't dine there more often; that the recently constructed apartment complex in the rear corner of the plaza was nearing full occupancy given the number of lighted apartments as seen from the ground floor; that the Big Lots store was probably out of reach given that we had only a limited amount of time before we had to turn back towards the 99; and that the Subway store on the corner across the way from the 99 had but a small handful of customers and that was probably enough to keep them in business if that is all they had day in and day out.
We looked at those apartments once and we were not impressed. The Feng Shui was horrible and we noticed it the minute we walked into the model apartment. Nancy, as is her inclination, pointed out to the fella showing us the unit that the drawers in the kitchen either didn't open fully or opened into an obstruction of sorts. Oh yes, and the closets were bigger than the bedrooms. Can you imagine?
Did I mention that we remarked as well as we neared the end of our walk around the plaza about that little window in the door at the rear of the 99 restaurant? It was roughly 2x2 inch window probably no larger than a deck of cards that was large enough for an employee inside the store to see who might be knocking with a delivery but small enough so that you could step away at a moments notice if someone put a revolver up to the window in an attempt to gain entrance to commit grand larceny or worse.
The area was not well lit although employees were probably instructed not to open the door after a specific time of day since no deliveries would be scheduled. Nancy wondered aloud why the window wasn't round and I was curious as to why they didn't just have a one of those hotel style peep holes that give you an Alice-in-Wonderland view of the word outside your door at a moments notice. All good questions.