May 25, 2015

Patience? Virtue? Me?

Before we get into the juicy, meaty (and for those of you who don't eat meat), tofu goodness of today's post, I would be seriously remiss if I didn't touch on a few upcoming events in the life of me.

1) This past weekend marks the 8 year anniversary of my blogging life. I first started blogging on May 24th, 2008 and happily, have never been the same since. Normally I would be going goo-goo/ga-ga over this fact, but for the past few years, blogging has taken a rumble seat to everything else. So this acknowledgment is the best I can do.

2} On Wednesday, I is turning 50, which in of itself is a milestone. In years gone by, this too would be a weeklong celebration on my blog. However, just like in the previous talking point, this too has taken a rumble seat to everything else. So except for the mention in the post of the previous Thursday, this is about all I will say about that.

And now, for something completely different, a glimpse into yet another personal quirk in the life of G.B. Miller.

Last Sunday (5/17) I went to run my usual errands, which was to have lunch and then shop at Ocean State Job Lot (great discount store if you live in New England). Simple, yes?

For those of you who do not know me like the back of your hand (i.e., have to deal with me in the real world on an hourly/daily basis), I am woefully short on patience. Nay, pathetically short on patience. Like the equivalent of 1/8 of a millimeter on a ruler short. Nowhere is this shortage more prevalent than when I'm out patronizing businesses during the course of my day.

As a rule, I do not tolerate mediocre or stupid service. I don't believe in bad service, simply because I have such a wickedly high threshold that you would almost have to phone it in and flip me the bird to get me to call what you did, "bad". Stupid is self explanatory.

So off I went in search of lunch. I normally go to the Berlin Turnpike (US5/CTRT 15) for lunch, before heading out to my shopping. But, dumb-dumb B-i-L told me about a car accident and that I should eat elsewhere. So off I went yet again, this time to the Silas Deane Highway (CTRT 99). Stop #1 was at Burger King (where you really can have it your way). I was 8th in line when one of the shift managers came out and said, "We'll be with you in a minute." Now as you may or may not know, in a minute in restaurant parlance means five to ten minutes. Since I didn't want to wait five to ten minutes (being a diabetic, I have a tendency to keep a semi-rigid schedule when it comes to meals. on the weekends, it gets just a tiny little bent), off I went in search of restaurant #2.

I was about to head back to Newington (keep that point in mind) when I spotted a Subway. So I changed lanes and zipped over to Subway. Walked in, got in line (5th) and much to my horror, someone was about to order 3 foot longs. While at the first restaurant I experienced mediocre service, the second I had stupid service. Why stupid? Out of the three people working there, one was there just to work the register and nothing more. Poor scheduling/training by the owner caused me to walk out the door  to search for yet another restaurant.

So I headed back to Newington (yes, I just love to spend 35 minutes driving from point A to point B back to point A and eventually back to point B) to the one restaurant that I make a point of never eating at: McArnold's (a shout out to the first person who can tell me one can find McArnold's). Food as prepared at McArnold's does not agree with me 99% of the time.

But..as they say, beggars can't be choosers, so I got there and ordered one of the two things that I don't become ill from: the filet-o-fish meal. Got my lunch, went back to the car, listened to sports radio (Fox Sports radio is for people who don't like listening to sports talk radio and who make nursery school students look positively brilliant) while eating my lunch and eventually went on my merry way.

Moral of this tale: sometimes, the businesses we hate the most often has, hands down, the best customer service around.

(c) 2015 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved.

22 comments:

  1. 50 eh? I unfortunately passed that magic number some years back. But happy birthday to you.

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    1. Yuppers. Definitely a better magic number than 3. :D

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  2. Happy birthday. Like you, it's just a blip on my radar anymore.
    You just reminded me why I don't eat fast food anymore.

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    1. Thanks.

      Kind of weird that it's become a blip on my radar now. Sort of like my wedding anniversary now becoming a blip on my radar (now that's scary).

      I try to limit my fast food on the weekends, and I try not to do chain restaurants much. The happy medium for me is local fast food. A bit more expensive, but well worth the price.

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  3. Happy 8th Blogoversary and Happy Big Five Oh too! You know, they say people mellow as they age so soon you may be able to tolerate all kinds of stupid service!

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    1. Thankee, thankee!

      I'm not so sure about that. I do have to tolerate it at work, but I will not tolerate it outside of work. And that, you can bet your last Canadian dollar on.

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  4. We're bad here with roundabouts, but your junctions on the motorways in America are a nightmare ... I could never seem to get to the place I could see just over there - and always when you're starving with hunger and having to navigate these massive roads... Well done to you for actually get to one of them at all.

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    1. I've seen videos/programs of your roadways, and I doff my cap to you in recognition that you can actually navigate through that asphalt jungle.

      I agree with you on that, especially if you're stuck in a maze of one way streets.

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  5. 8 years blogging is impressive.
    Happy birthday for Wednesday!!

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  6. Happy birthday! We were trying to find a place to have dinner a couple of weeks ago, just after our move, when we discovered it was prom night and every restaurant in the area had an hour-plus wait. We decided to try the Mexican restaurant. Not only did they have immediate seating but they were only half full on a busy Saturday night. You can always count on Mexican restaurants!

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    1. Thankee!

      Now that is a good thing indeed. It's funny how a good quality Mexican restaurant can be half empty on the weekend (I've gone to one some several years ago that even though it won a local alt weekly poll for best CaliMex food, it was always 3/4 empty).

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  7. Happy blogoversary, G!

    I've experienced some stupid service myself recently. :)

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  8. Happy late birthday to you and your blog. Blogging has been a blessing to me.

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    1. Thanks. And that is a very good thing indeed.

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  9. Happy birthday!! Bad customer service pisses me off so much. I think I've blogged about it almost as much as stupid people.

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    1. Thankee.

      Yeah, I think it's a dead heat on your blog.

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  10. Congratulations on the blogging milestone and happy birthday--why you're just a young fellow.

    Happy you found your meal. McDonald's usually meets expectations and I never have high ones when I go there unless it's for one of those flavored coffee drinks.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

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    1. Thanks. And yeah, amongst most of my co-workers, I am. I rarely have any kind of high expectations for McD's, only the simple expectation of not getting sick.

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  11. Tofu goodness! I like that! :-)

    Happy 50th. I can't be bothered waiting in restaurants if I can help it. I prefer to bring a bag lunch if I'm going to be away from home, unless it would be really inconvenient to tote a sandwich around all day. Then I wait in line with all the rest of the suckers. ;-)

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    1. Thankee.

      I normally bag it at work, but there are days when I get lazy enough to semi-bag it and buy part of it before either coming in or at our café. And I even have a lower threshold for waiting at a sitdown restaurant as well.

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