On a midday bus ride in San Francisco, a man in the back was holding forth on drugs, smoking, rehab, and the like, eventually comparing notes with a woman about all the drugs they used to do.
A woman in the middle of the bus remarked, “I feel like I’m in my own reality show.”
Another man responded, “Yeah, it’s called San Francisco.”
A few weeks ago, I received six half-dollar coins in change. Since then, I’ve spent five* of them at counter-service fast food restaurants, and every single one has managed to confuse the clerks handling them. I suppose it’s understandable: fifty-cent pieces aren’t exactly in wide circulation, though I remember seeing them somewhat regularly when I was growing up in the 1980s.
Wendy’s – Clerk turned it over, examining it for several seconds, before she finally entered it as fifty cents.
Wasabi – Clerk peered at it for a few seconds, then asked, “This is a dollar, right?” I corrected him.
Wahoo’s – Clerk turned it over for a few seconds, then finally asked me how much it was worth.
(Weird: I can only remember three of them, but all three start with W!)
All of them took the coins without argument, though, unlike the classic story of the Taco Bell that refused to accept a two-dollar bill. What really surprised me were the two clerks who weren’t able to figure out how much it was worth on their own. It says “Half Dollar” right there on the coin. I guess all those collectible dollar coins and quarters are, in fact, confusing people.
*I left the sixth as part of a tip, along with two quarters and the appropriate number of dollar bills.
A few weeks ago, I stopped at the post office on the way to work. As I walked to the door, my eye was immediately drawn to the big hole in the wall where, apparently, a car had crashed into the building while trying to park.
Whatever vehicle had done the damage was long gone, and the area around was cordoned off with yellow caution tape. Since I like to take pictures of weird stuff, I snapped a photo with my cell phone. (No, I didn’t cross the tape; it’s just not visible in the frame.)
This morning, I stopped at the same post office again. This time, my eye was drawn to a new addition to the facility:
One of these bright yellow posts stood in front of each parking space along the building. You can still see where the concrete has been spread around the base, and absolutely no paint has worn off. Clearly someone decided not to take any more chances with wayward cars!
Does it really accomplish anything to turn on your hazard lights when you stop your car in a no-parking zone for loading and unloading? It seems like it would have all the legal force of crossing your fingers on the witness stand.
As I walked out on the streets of Laredo,
As I walked out in Laredo one day,
I stopped in the mall just to visit the bookstore.
The bookstore was closed, it’s been taken away.
The only bookstore in Laredo, Texas, a city of 250,000 people, has closed. The nearest one is 150 miles away in San Antonio.
Bad idea of the day: “I’ll be back before the rain starts again. No need to bring my umbrella.”
I’m sure you can see where this is going.
I actually would have made it if I hadn’t decided to finish re-reading The Briar King. Three pages from the end — WHOOSH! Instant cloudburst!
So I finished the book, zipped the full-sized hardcover into my jacket, and proceeded to run from Coffee Bean to the parking structure, pausing under overhangs when I found them. There’s a surprising lack of shelter at the Irvine Spectrum, not counting the stores themselves. It wasn’t until I got to the structure that I realized I’d been running with a coffee cup in my hand.
Amazingly enough, even though I got soaked, I managed to keep the book dry!
(Reposted from LiveJournal.)
I put the Pushing Daisies soundtrack CD in my computer and it rebooted. Fortunately it took less than a minute….
Of course I tried it again to see if it was a fluke. Same thing. Then I decided to try with another CD. Apparently any audio CD crashes it. Shows how often I use CDs these days.
At least the DVD-RW drive works. IIRC it doesn’t have CD-audio hooked up, but the player seems perfectly happy to just read it digitally.
I guess I’ll have to set aside some time on Sunday to figure out what’s causing the problem. It’s a bit late tonight, and tomorrow’s going to be busy!
