Friday
This has been a weird morning. Drove over to the mainland to pick up a prescription (an antibiotic for a small infection). Heading down the island, a highway-type beer truck emerged from a private school we denizens call "St. Eddie's."
And I'm thinking, "teachers must be more desperate than usual."
So I get to the drugstore, transact (seems like more fiddling with the charge card than usual), and decide I'll take fhe first tablet on the spot. "Um, child-proof bottle," so I try to open it -- only to find it has a way-different cap. Can't squeeze it, or any of the usual moves .
Fuck it! I ask the druggist, and find there's a tab (cap says "hold down & turn) on the side of the bottle). Cap is white; bottle is amber -- damned good camoflage, since the blocking function has ALWAYS been on the cap, NOT the bottle...but, shit, mission finally accomplished.
I then proceed down the block, and into a McD's. Go in, and find they have new, very elegant "ordering machines." The old cashier station is deserted. Anyway, let's just say the thing ain't user-friendly.
Ordering a McMuffin and coffee is fucking existential: the TWO things are on different menus, and the coffee menu (!) resolutely refuses to give up a "small coffee" -- hustling the erstwhile client to play "coffeehouse roulette" for a few minutes.
Eventually I get it to accept a small coffee, and THEN we get to "flavors." Including, yes, there it is: "sugar" -- but, cripes, how MANY?
I boldly essay a singleton, then go back to the main page, where I must get the two orders to merge. Then it's the charge card -- which is isolated from the rest of the program, and NO on-screen instructions.
There was a friendly human at the next station. It turns out that you MUST remove the thingie that directs the server (a human on McD's payroll, I note). Anyway, he pulled a "here I am" table tag from its stack by the order-a-thon. THAT crucial move gets the card-reader to check you out!
Fuck, can they actually "sense" when you pick up the thingie??
So I take the thingie and put it on a table. The former cashier soon brings me my coffee -- in a lidded cup, even though I had informed the management that I would be "dining in, thanks." I remove the freaking lid (I dislike lidded cups), and taste the coffee -- not enough sugar!
I already know one McD's thing for certain: they do NOT leave sugar and other stuff just lying around. So I went over to the former cashier, and plaintively asked, Dickens-style "could I have more, sir?" And eventually he gave up two precious packets.
By this time, the meal had arrived, wth another cup of coffee (lidded, natch!). Good thing I had asked for two sugar packets!
I take insane pleasure that all this dumb activity killed McD's profit on my visit, what with the former cashier -- unbidden -- serving me an extra cup of cofffee and then making an extra trip to bring the extra sugar.
It promises to be a very weird day...
And I'm thinking, "teachers must be more desperate than usual."
So I get to the drugstore, transact (seems like more fiddling with the charge card than usual), and decide I'll take fhe first tablet on the spot. "Um, child-proof bottle," so I try to open it -- only to find it has a way-different cap. Can't squeeze it, or any of the usual moves .
Fuck it! I ask the druggist, and find there's a tab (cap says "hold down & turn) on the side of the bottle). Cap is white; bottle is amber -- damned good camoflage, since the blocking function has ALWAYS been on the cap, NOT the bottle...but, shit, mission finally accomplished.
I then proceed down the block, and into a McD's. Go in, and find they have new, very elegant "ordering machines." The old cashier station is deserted. Anyway, let's just say the thing ain't user-friendly.
Ordering a McMuffin and coffee is fucking existential: the TWO things are on different menus, and the coffee menu (!) resolutely refuses to give up a "small coffee" -- hustling the erstwhile client to play "coffeehouse roulette" for a few minutes.
Eventually I get it to accept a small coffee, and THEN we get to "flavors." Including, yes, there it is: "sugar" -- but, cripes, how MANY?
I boldly essay a singleton, then go back to the main page, where I must get the two orders to merge. Then it's the charge card -- which is isolated from the rest of the program, and NO on-screen instructions.
There was a friendly human at the next station. It turns out that you MUST remove the thingie that directs the server (a human on McD's payroll, I note). Anyway, he pulled a "here I am" table tag from its stack by the order-a-thon. THAT crucial move gets the card-reader to check you out!
Fuck, can they actually "sense" when you pick up the thingie??
So I take the thingie and put it on a table. The former cashier soon brings me my coffee -- in a lidded cup, even though I had informed the management that I would be "dining in, thanks." I remove the freaking lid (I dislike lidded cups), and taste the coffee -- not enough sugar!
I already know one McD's thing for certain: they do NOT leave sugar and other stuff just lying around. So I went over to the former cashier, and plaintively asked, Dickens-style "could I have more, sir?" And eventually he gave up two precious packets.
By this time, the meal had arrived, wth another cup of coffee (lidded, natch!). Good thing I had asked for two sugar packets!
I take insane pleasure that all this dumb activity killed McD's profit on my visit, what with the former cashier -- unbidden -- serving me an extra cup of cofffee and then making an extra trip to bring the extra sugar.
It promises to be a very weird day...