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Yesterday's activities
Aug. 23rd, 2006 11:40 amYesterday at lunch, I dropped by Harpo's, as I often do on Tuesdays and Thursdays, to take advantage of their $2 hamburgers on those days. The only problem is that the service is so variable there. Sometimes I get great service…sometimes it's kind of blah. Case in point, this time they were out of sliced tomatoes and had to give me tomato wedges to eat with the burger instead. (Last time, they were out of onions.) But that was all right, I got by.
But then the waitress tried to charge me $3 for the bottle of cheap American beer I had with it—instead of the $1.50 it was supposed to be. She went off and talked to her manager, and instead of recalculating my ticket, just elected to subtract $1.50 from the $5.28 ticket manually. (Which disregarded the sales tax, but that was all right; I subtracted a dime from the tip I'd left on the table to cover it.) So I handed over a five, and she gave me a quarter, and I waited. she was like, $5.28 minus $1.50 is $4.78. And I was like, no, no it's not. And then she actually pulled out her cellphone (a Motorola RAZR, how is a waitress able to afford that?) to use the calculator function to "prove" that she'd given me the correct change. And I waited as she punched the numbers in, and said, "$5.28 minus $1.50 is…$3.78." I tried not to smirk as I accepted the dollar. Don't know whether I succeeded. Anyway, what are they teaching these kids in high school these days? Clearly not basic math.
Yesterday afternoon was kind of fun. After work, I headed up to the Midtown branch of the public library to pick up a book I'd requested, on the way up watching the kids playing in the splashy fountain in the east section of Founder's Park. I've often been kind of tempted by that fountain, but never really had a swimsuit with me. And anyway, I needed to get to the library.
On the way back, I decided to check out the western section of Founder's Park; I'd never been there before. It has all these great big blocky constructions of concrete that look like some giant carelessly dropped his building blocks—and also, I noticed as I got there, a big waterfall with two or three levels of wading pool underneath it. There were a bunch of signs, saying things like, "No dipping—hands and feet in water only," and "No climbing on the cliffs" and "No running or horseplay." So, of course, there were a bunch of people there, adults with kids in swimsuits dipping and wading and splashing, climbing on the cliffs, and running and engaging in horseplay. And it was a hot day…so what the heck. I took everything out of my pockets and put it in my backpack, and took my belt, shirt, shoes, and socks off. And I joined them. It was nice and cool and refreshing. After that, I got out, let the sun dry me off a little, and headed over to the western portion of the park, figuring I might as well play in that fountain a little too. I had to wait around half an hour or so for it to cycle back on, but it was fun enough for a while when it did. Then I headed on back home.
But then the waitress tried to charge me $3 for the bottle of cheap American beer I had with it—instead of the $1.50 it was supposed to be. She went off and talked to her manager, and instead of recalculating my ticket, just elected to subtract $1.50 from the $5.28 ticket manually. (Which disregarded the sales tax, but that was all right; I subtracted a dime from the tip I'd left on the table to cover it.) So I handed over a five, and she gave me a quarter, and I waited. she was like, $5.28 minus $1.50 is $4.78. And I was like, no, no it's not. And then she actually pulled out her cellphone (a Motorola RAZR, how is a waitress able to afford that?) to use the calculator function to "prove" that she'd given me the correct change. And I waited as she punched the numbers in, and said, "$5.28 minus $1.50 is…$3.78." I tried not to smirk as I accepted the dollar. Don't know whether I succeeded. Anyway, what are they teaching these kids in high school these days? Clearly not basic math.
Yesterday afternoon was kind of fun. After work, I headed up to the Midtown branch of the public library to pick up a book I'd requested, on the way up watching the kids playing in the splashy fountain in the east section of Founder's Park. I've often been kind of tempted by that fountain, but never really had a swimsuit with me. And anyway, I needed to get to the library.
On the way back, I decided to check out the western section of Founder's Park; I'd never been there before. It has all these great big blocky constructions of concrete that look like some giant carelessly dropped his building blocks—and also, I noticed as I got there, a big waterfall with two or three levels of wading pool underneath it. There were a bunch of signs, saying things like, "No dipping—hands and feet in water only," and "No climbing on the cliffs" and "No running or horseplay." So, of course, there were a bunch of people there, adults with kids in swimsuits dipping and wading and splashing, climbing on the cliffs, and running and engaging in horseplay. And it was a hot day…so what the heck. I took everything out of my pockets and put it in my backpack, and took my belt, shirt, shoes, and socks off. And I joined them. It was nice and cool and refreshing. After that, I got out, let the sun dry me off a little, and headed over to the western portion of the park, figuring I might as well play in that fountain a little too. I had to wait around half an hour or so for it to cycle back on, but it was fun enough for a while when it did. Then I headed on back home.
