McDonald’s Error

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I noticed on the news is McDonald’s is making changes. I would guess they are having problems, which is no surprise to me. I mean when it takes 15 minutes, literally, to serve a barely warm Big Mac, they are headed for real problems. Marketing is important but it will only go so far.

The company broke into fast food by serving good tasting food fast. Now there are many “nice sit down” places that serve food faster. As a matter of fact, I just visited a good Mexican place that served me a good meal in less than the 15 minutes. It does make me ask, why should anyone go to McDonald’s when we can get a much better meal at not much more cost?

Personally, I have found when I am in a hurry, it’s hard to beat Subway. Unless they have an unusually long line, I’m usually eating within 5 or 6 minutes after entering the door. Chick-fil-A is fast too, but I usually have a long walk across the parking lot. I suppose it is a reasonable price for popularity.

At any rate, it’s sort of difficult for the McDonald’s employees to provide reasonably good service when they are so busy talking amongst themselves. Many-a-time, I have had to wait for the conversation to be completed before I could expect any attention.

Mostly, if people have to wait 15 minutes for less than hot food, McDonald’s will likely just fade away, regardless of any marketing methods.

As an aside, the same thing can be said of other fast food places too. I mean it is basic. People go to fast food places to get food fast.

Don’t Like Cold Weather

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I’ve said this before and I will say it again. I was brought up in southern California, which for sure spoiled me. So, don’t like cold. Don’t like hot. Certainly don’t like humidity.

One might ask, then, why did I leave California? Even more so, don’t like the California politics. Don’t like California taxes. Don’t like California crowds.

Daily writing prompt
How do you feel about cold weather?
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Food Courts

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Before our days of our empty nest, we liked to visit the local malls from time to time. We really liked the Mall of Memphis, which is no more.

The thing is, most of the malls had a place, generally called a food court. At the food court, there were generally close to 10 or 12 different places to eat.

The rest of the family didn’t much care for Asian food, so it was usually the only time I got to eat fried rice and egg rolls. My wife went to the Chick-fil-A. The older son preferred just a hamburger and fries. The younger almost always made a beeline for the pizza place.

A short time later, we gathered at a table and enjoyed our varied lunch together. Not only did we all enjoy the specific food we liked, it always seemed to be the best of what we liked.

Over the years, I have considered it. I have wondered. I’ve given it a lot of thought. Could it be that several restaurants could get together and build something of a free standing food court with the same benefits.

Okay. I’m only thinking about it. I have learned over my many years not to expect too much. And I do believe that is expecting too much. What a shame.

Yep, 3

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The 1st one, arm, took me out of my first year of Little League. I think that was the one that upset me the most. I guess I was about 55 when I shattered my left ankle. The ankle still hurts, especially just before a good rain.

The broken right ring finger I’d call the strangest. I had gone on a walk, for my health. The walk was almost done and I was in the street in front of my house. I carelessly stepped on a pine cone and I was horizontal on street in pain, instantly.

I was in so much pain I couldn’t even sit up. Finally I recovered a little and started brushing the gravel off my sore hands when I noticed my finger was pointed the wrong way.

When the damage report came in, I broke my one knuckle and dislocated another. Ironically, the one I broke is fine now. The one I dislocated will hardly bend after 6 or 7 years.

Important note. I had an enlarged parathyroid causing low calcium in my bones. Had I had it removed years earlier, I very likely would not have broken the ankle and finger, or at least not as badly. At least this is what I was told. Also, the high calcium in my blood led to kidney stones and a lot of pain. For this reason, I would strongly suggest checking calcium level regularly as I have found this to be a common problem. If you look up the parathyroid, you will see that when it is enlarged, it can cause a wide range of symptoms. Also, it is a easy, relatively painless and inexpensive check.

Daily writing prompt
Have you ever broken a bone?
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The Disappearing Little Jobs

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They used to call them service stations. Today, I’m not sure a person can find one. We used to drive into a service station and out an attendant would come running. We’d say fill it up and the attendant would go into action.

He’d start the gas, lift the hood, check the radiator, oil and battery. He’d close the hood and clean the windshield. Most likely the young man was still in high school and did odd jobs and clean up around the station when there were no customers.

Maybe it wasn’t that important of a job but it gave the kids a chance to build a work ethic. By the way, he could also build up a little cash for that all important weekend date.

The cost of gas got rid of attendants. We pump our own gas now. But it wasn’t just the gas but the minimum wage too. Can you imagine paying an attendant now. Hence, the job went away as many others like them.

Those smaller jobs that were good for teenagers to break into the labor market have become ever more rare.

Some might actually like that. I’m not going to say if that is good or bad. I’ll let you you make up your mind. Just figured I would call it to your attention.

Convince Me!

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For those who believe the seas are rising, convince me by moving off the shorelines, like Gore, Biden and Obama. Convince me by building seawalls as in NY, NY and Maryland. Why aren’t we moving our government buildings away from the sea or make big seawalls to protect them. It seems, according to Gore, DC should already be under 5 to 10 feet of flooding.

Maybe someone, somebody might convince me that it is believed, really believed, by pumping ocean water into salt lakes that are drying up… or for that matter, into new salt lakes, creating resorts out of deserts.

If you truly believe in man made climate change, why do we still have drive through restaurants, banks and myriad other things? Why are they permitted? Why do people driving big SUVs and pickups use them? Every minute they wait in lines results in enormous amounts of undesirable gases out into the urban and suburban atmosphere.

What on earth gave anyone the idea to transport half the students of a city to the other, knowing the fuel it would use and the atmospheric warming it would cause? Then again, that had to be done you know. The school systems and the urban areas had to be destroyed, you see. It was the highly successful method of driving the wealthy and whites out of the center city areas. Which, by the way, left only the Blacks and the poor behind. And, by the way, totally destroyed public education.

It would seem you can only destroy the earth if you have a D after your name and you are rich and/or powerful. They do pretty much what they want when they want. Maybe that is why they seek to be be rich and powerful.

Stupid Old Man!

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If Old Joe and his State Department had stayed out of it, the Israelis-HAMAS war would have been over weeks ago. Every time Israel starts getting the upper hand, Old Joe says something to encourage HAMAS. I’m really trying to figure out if that is dumb or stupid. Just perhaps it’s both.

Then again, keeping the war going is his desire. He certainly cares very little about the loss of life on either side. He does seem to be encouraging both.

Auxiliary Battery

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Something all EV cars need is a trailer with an auxiliary battery as an an option. It could add 50 to 75% to the range. Then the auxiliary battery could conceivably be charged at the same time as the car’s battery. This effectively almost doubles the charging rate.

It’s very expensive. Would anyone buy them. Some might buy 2, maybe 3. Maybe not. Maybe it at least rates some marketing research.

One thing I do know is that I am limited to about 80 mile trips as it is. Maybe 150, 160 with such a trailer. One way trips, I’m talking almost 400 miles.

As an side thought, the batteries could be built and added in modules so it wouldn’t hit the old pocket book all at once.