Fringeville Edition #38, November 01 2011

I lost three prime door-knocking days over the last two weekends.

I did get in a full afternoon of door-to-door in Plains on Saturday the 22^nd.  But I lost Sunday the 23^rd due to working a double.

This past weekend, I lost Saturday to the early snowstorm. My knees have had multiple surgeries over the years and I simply can’t do walks in ice or snow. I’ve also got OI, so a fall for me is probably something broken (and I’m overdue to break something. It’s been years since I’ve broken anything, largely because I’m very careful).

I hoped to make up some ground on Sunday, and instead had to travel to Allentown to reboot a switch. I got home shortly before 10PM, and that shot another day of door-to-door straight to heck.

It’s been one thing after the other since June, but for some reason I feel like I just might pull this out even though it seems impossible for me to campaign.

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I mentioned a trip to Allentown. Since I hadn’t eaten at all that day, I decided to pick up fast food on the way home. We do a fair amount of takeout in the O’Meara household, but it tends to be pizza, Chinese, or stromboli.

Well, I had a hankering for a burger.

I spotted a place I like (I can’t mention the name, because for a few more weeks I’m still in the food business). I hadn’t had one of their burgers in a long time, and I think they make one of the best in the business.

I went inside. Just two people in front of me. Six minutes later, I was standing in the same spot, the same two people in front of me, and no one at the counter.

But outside, the drive-thru was going like gangbusters. Car after car pulled up to the window, picked up their orders, and left.

That ticked me off.

Here’s how I see it: folks at the counter should always get the preference. We made the effort to leave our cars and walk INTO the restaurant. That earns a nod. We burned some calories to get inside. We braved the rain, the cold, the scorching sun, hail, meteor showers, tornadoes… so we’re extra hungry.

We’ll probably buy more food, too, because we can look at the menu right up until the second we order, versus being in the drive-thru lane and having to read it quickly before the S.O.B. in the Toyota starts laying on the horn.

I turned and walked out.

Two miles down the road, I found another famous burger chain. I went inside. I got my food and was in the car in less than two minutes. And the food was just plain awful. The cheeseburger tasted synthetic. The fries, no longer bathed in tasty trans-fat oil and dusted with salt, had the flavor and consistency of chewy cardboard.

My only consolation was that the drive-thru was backed up.

One bright spot: They had Dr. Pepper. I sipped that puppy all the way home…

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JimboBillyBob