Not so Fast.
Dec. 27th, 2011 05:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogThe day dawned relatively early for me in terms of being out the door; it was Blood Draw Day. Part of the process of figuring out if anything's going on with my blood pressure other than it just being high. I made the appointment online with the local chain of phlebotomists, and as usual they had nothing anytime soon at the nearest venue, but the smaller one up the road had one this morning, so I grabbed it with glee.
It had become something of a tradition for me, after fasting all night before the bloodwork, to then break said fast across the parking lot, at the marvelous old-school pancake place that's been there since before I first moved here. I haven't had pancakes since visiting the Perkins Tabernacle of them withbluesilverkdg and headbanger118 in Tennessee over the summer, so much as I didn't look forward to the fasting or the early-wakeying, I had visions of an Alice's stack in my head as I wended westward on Sheridan.
The blood went fine; even though the nurse dropped some paperwork and then said, "oh yeah, I always have a problem with my thumb," it didn't stop her from nailing the vein and popping out the samples (plural- I'm over 50, so I got a prostate screening all included in the one low price) without me even feeling a thing.
Except for slight stupidity. She never asked if I'd fasted, or when I'd last eaten. Turned out these particular tests didn't even require it. I just assumed- and you know how THAT goes-
No matter, though. There were still pancakes to be had. Well, today, anyway. Here's what greeted me inside the door:
Can't say I was surprised, and my brief stay took any shock out of me. The restaurant, two blocks from a regional mall on a major after-Christmas shopping day, was less than half-full, and I'd guess the average age of the patrons to be somewhere in the mid-60s- of the staff, probably five years older than that. "Going out to breakfast," one of those middle class rites of passage in this country, has largely gone the way of the Country Squire station wagon and the shared experiences of network prime time television shows. Mickey D's and Starry B's have captured so many of the discretionary dollars for this sort of thing, and even chains like Terri's beloved Perkins have found their way into Chapter 11 with no guarantee they'll ever come out.
All the same, the food was tasty and the service stellar, from one of the younger waitresses in the room (i.e., probably not supplementing her Social Security with her tips- yet). I overtipped as a thank you to the years of occasional patronage, remembering so many others also gone over the years.
And the way things go around here, most likely Alice's Kitchen will be torn down and replaced, at town or county taxpayer expense, with a medical building. With vending machines for the patients and staff, if they're lucky.
----
Two other odd moments from right before and after:
As I exited the diagnostic joint, which apparently also does a wang-up business in drug testing, as well, I saw a sign on the refrigerator in the employee break room:
FOR FOOD ONLY- NO SPECIMENS!
I'm so glad I wasn't there on the day THAT sign became necessary.
Then, after leaving the restaurant, I shot up the street to the Wegmans in those parts for the one truly necessary item on our grocery list: CAT FUD. It was my only purchase, and so it was a little weird when the 7-item-or-fewer cashier handed me my change and receipt, saying, "Enjoy!"
I would've cracked back with something, but on an earlier trip, I saw that one of their maintenance guys in that store is named Dexter. I've seen those "ashes of problem customer" urns on some peoples' desks, and any store employing a Dexter is entirely capable of filling one of those.
It had become something of a tradition for me, after fasting all night before the bloodwork, to then break said fast across the parking lot, at the marvelous old-school pancake place that's been there since before I first moved here. I haven't had pancakes since visiting the Perkins Tabernacle of them with
bluesilverkdg and headbanger118 in Tennessee over the summer, so much as I didn't look forward to the fasting or the early-wakeying, I had visions of an Alice's stack in my head as I wended westward on Sheridan.The blood went fine; even though the nurse dropped some paperwork and then said, "oh yeah, I always have a problem with my thumb," it didn't stop her from nailing the vein and popping out the samples (plural- I'm over 50, so I got a prostate screening all included in the one low price) without me even feeling a thing.
Except for slight stupidity. She never asked if I'd fasted, or when I'd last eaten. Turned out these particular tests didn't even require it. I just assumed- and you know how THAT goes-
No matter, though. There were still pancakes to be had. Well, today, anyway. Here's what greeted me inside the door:
Can't say I was surprised, and my brief stay took any shock out of me. The restaurant, two blocks from a regional mall on a major after-Christmas shopping day, was less than half-full, and I'd guess the average age of the patrons to be somewhere in the mid-60s- of the staff, probably five years older than that. "Going out to breakfast," one of those middle class rites of passage in this country, has largely gone the way of the Country Squire station wagon and the shared experiences of network prime time television shows. Mickey D's and Starry B's have captured so many of the discretionary dollars for this sort of thing, and even chains like Terri's beloved Perkins have found their way into Chapter 11 with no guarantee they'll ever come out.
All the same, the food was tasty and the service stellar, from one of the younger waitresses in the room (i.e., probably not supplementing her Social Security with her tips- yet). I overtipped as a thank you to the years of occasional patronage, remembering so many others also gone over the years.
And the way things go around here, most likely Alice's Kitchen will be torn down and replaced, at town or county taxpayer expense, with a medical building. With vending machines for the patients and staff, if they're lucky.
----
Two other odd moments from right before and after:
As I exited the diagnostic joint, which apparently also does a wang-up business in drug testing, as well, I saw a sign on the refrigerator in the employee break room:
FOR FOOD ONLY- NO SPECIMENS!
I'm so glad I wasn't there on the day THAT sign became necessary.
Then, after leaving the restaurant, I shot up the street to the Wegmans in those parts for the one truly necessary item on our grocery list: CAT FUD. It was my only purchase, and so it was a little weird when the 7-item-or-fewer cashier handed me my change and receipt, saying, "Enjoy!"
I would've cracked back with something, but on an earlier trip, I saw that one of their maintenance guys in that store is named Dexter. I've seen those "ashes of problem customer" urns on some peoples' desks, and any store employing a Dexter is entirely capable of filling one of those.
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no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 10:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 04:01 am (UTC)Begging the question of why I didn't do all my moving of boxes in the garage when it was 50F out there instead of the roughly 19 that it is now.
And the cat fud was just fine. I'm still alive, so they can't have any complaints.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 11:22 pm (UTC)Once day she took home batch of fresh material that had been dropped-off late, putting it into the family refrigerator. My future brother-in-law asked her if he could have some of the "tomato juice". When she informed him of what it was, he lost his lunch.
He was, and still is, very squeamish about "messy" science. He's a physical chemist and is strictly inorganic.
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 11:35 pm (UTC)I've been in lots of labs that have those (chem, med and forensic archaeology). I now, however, always think that John Watson will one day put a sign like that up in the kitchen. Which Sherlock will completely ignore, but never mind. :P
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 11:47 pm (UTC)(And you saw, yes? We're BBCA-enabled! No deduction required to watch right along with you this weekend!)
no subject
Date: 2011-12-27 11:55 pm (UTC)btw, since I'm going to a preview showing of 2.2 next week, do you want spoilers or to wait until it airs?
no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 02:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-28 11:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-12-29 08:08 pm (UTC)