So today I tried to earn a few extra shekels to add to my meager pile by working lunch, and got a pickup at a local KFC. When I got there, exited the car, and tugged on the front door expecting the dining room to be open, imagine my disgust to find the joint locked up tighter’n Dick’s hatband instead. Naturally, the drive-thru line I would now have to endure sitting in my beloved Yaller Streak under a blazing sun, awaiting my turn at the window, snaked completely around the building and out into the street.
If I haven’t mentioned it before, the Yellow Peril Focus is without A/C at the moment. I glommed a replacement compressor out of a junkyard already, but am still trying to accumulate the scratch to cover labor. Hence, y’know, that whole working-lunch thing, something I hardly ever bother with since you make hardly anything, there’s only available work for an hour and a half, two at the outside. Plus it’s getting uncomfortably warm out there. Working nights is a whole lot better all the way around.
Anyhoo, having already accepted the KFC run—which paid beans, by the way, just to rub salt in the wound—there was no way out of it but through it, since they penalize you for failure to complete a run kinda harshly, as well as declining one. Your driver status drops, which in turn affects how many runs you’re offered. Having only recently clawed my way back up to Top Dawg level after falling a notch due to a bonehead error on my own part and seeing how that impacted my income, I have no intention whatsoever of letting that happen again if I have any say in the matter. Which I do. Which meant I was definitely stuck, but good.
As I sat sweating and gasping in the excruciatingly slow line, I got to thinking (frightening, I know) and it hit me how ridiculous it was for the KFC dining room to still be under lockdown, even after the edict commanding it had been so graciously rescinded by Komrade Kooper weeks ago. Then I thought about all the quaking nitwits out there who are still masking up all over the place despite the planet-killer virus having failed, in spectacular fashion, to live up to its planet-killer billing.
This all gave me what I consider to be a pretty good idea. To wit: Any restaurant, bar, or fast-food franchise whose dining room is still closed at this point will be legally required to keep it that way, forever. If you can sustain your business via drive-thru sales alone, fine and well. Do so, and be damned to you. If you can’t, well, tough noogies.
The only allowed exemption is for those establishments struggling with staffing problems, which many are and the aforementioned KFC may well have been. They get a bye, along with my sympathy and best wishes. Everybody else? BE SAAAAAFE!™
Likewise: All craven Branch Covidians still wearing a mask in Wal Mart, the grocery store, just wandering around out-of-doors, and especially—MOST especially—those drooling neurotics who wear one while driving in their car alone, are now legally required to be masked at all times. All day, every day, from now until the Sun goes supernova. Yes, in your home. Yes, whilst lying in bed trying to sleep. Yes, in the shower, pool, or hot tub.
Moreover: any Karen or Ken who has ever given a sane person so much as a dirty look over walking around barefaced without an Obedience Rag on must double-mask, as urged by the heroic Herr Doktor Fauci. Forever. NO exceptions, NO exemptions.
AT. ALL. TIMES. Hey, seems fair enough to me.
Hi. I have had that same opinion. But, in the smaller town I live in, several restaurants are open limited hours due to the fact they simply can’t find employees.So, maybe be lesh harsh passing judgement.
Our local favorite pizza joint is staffed by the age 60’s owner and some of her age 60’s friends,, working for free to help her out. We patronize her often to throw business her way, (also as her pizza is divine as well as her calzones). She ultimately does not know what she will do. She can only be open 4 days a week and still has to pay rent on 7 days a week.
And this is the country that tooled up to win a world war in a matter of a few years. What sacrifice by my ancestors, wasted for greed and power.
In the words of Theoden, How did we get to this place”?
Everywhere I go, I see Help Wanted signs — restaurants, landscapers, delivery services. If the “pandemic” unemployment benefits were to be cut off tomorrow, the economy would be in recovery by the end of next week.
(Executing every politician and bureaucrat who was responsible for the shutdowns and lockins would help more, but that’s another topic.)
It’s the same here. And on the coast where summer jobs were long ago taken by young foreign summer workers, the problem is acute. The cleaning of houses on the two turnover days, Sat & Sun, is a real issue. The work force that was living there for the summer work left, have yet to return. Restaurants are working with short staff. My favorite seafood restaurant had to curtail takeout as they just couldn’t do that and manage the tables inside and out. Need a contractor for remodeling or repair? Forget it.
I can tell the number of new grocery store workers at checkout, because they are in the learning mode.
I think I mentioned that Chick-Fil-A in Sherman/Denison still has their dining room closed to diners even after Abbott lifted the mask mandate and all restrictions.
I remember you told me that. Since then I’ve discovered a couple here that have closed dining and it’s because they can’t get enough workers. One is the closest chick fil a to me. I asked and they actually told me they didn’t have the staff to reopen the dining room. I had assumed it was just because virus.
Lake Texoma area! I love that place. Spent a bit of time there once when I was living in Fort Worth. Beautiful!
I got the impression the town had a pretty big resort-supported economy. How did/has the area handled this whole clown-induced coof debacle?
Long story short: On our side of the Red River, we closed down for nominally April of 2020 and opened on May 1 – actually, everyone except the big corporate outfits like WalMart said “Fuck this” and started opening up and dropping mask requirements around the last week in April.
Medical like Alliance Health and clinics required masks up until recently, and vets offices. Durant Animal Hospital started a policy of having you sign in and wait in the parking lot until called, and then taking the pets in for exam/shots etc without the owner. They backed off on that when I stated flatly that nobody is taking my service dog anywhere without me being attached to the leash.
Bryan County Animal Hospital was a lot more reasonable on that, but they still had a sign in and wait outside until called policy.
Dining rooms have been open since May of last year, some with servers masked, some without. Local grocery stores, Lowe’s, Tractor Supply, and Orschelin never required masks and never shut down.
We lost one (1) restaurant and a couple of small businesses in Durant, and I think a couple in Tishomingo due to the shut downs and other BS.
Schools and SEOSU have been open to on campus classes since fall of last year, despite criticisms from MSN et al (OMG! They’re gonna die!).
Durant’s Mayor and City Manager declared a COVID State of Emergency back in April 2020, but they were pretty up front that they were doing so solely so that they could qualify for Federal emergency funds if they became available. Kinda refreshingly honestly greedy if you ask me.
All in all, life went back to normal here as soon as humanly possible.
South of the River, Texas had a state mask mandate from April of last year, lots of their restaurants were drive in/takeout only, and Sam’s club had an “everyone mask” policy. I wore my Plague Doctor mask through the door, boggling the door guards, and took it off inside and no one said shit.
Churches in Texas either closed or went mask Nazi, at which point I quit paying attention to them.
Otherwise, Fossil Creek liquor and most other stores in the Texas side of Texoma went back as much as possible to normal early this year. Texas finally dropped its mask mandates a couple of months ago.
All in all, I was real happy we moved to Oklahoma in 2013 well before all this shit hit. 🙂
It’s been kinda nice actually living in America through this, Mr. Head.
Glad to see at last one part of the country handled this whole ridiculous ordeal with some practicality & common sense!
You are my new favorite person! That is seven kinds of awesome right there. 🙂
Time for Mr. Fury to hand over the crown. There’s a new King on the thrown!
I don’t even know where to start with this… there appears to be a crisis going on that I won’t even pretend to understand.
No need for formalities, you can just call me Dick.
[I’ve just been waitin’ for someone to set me up with that! 🙂 ]
Ironbear needs to put the mask pictures up…
Oh, sweetie, I would just LOVE that punishment-that-fits-the-crime to be imposed.
But, come on!
Won’t happen. Every culprit – EVERY one – will get back to normal, or as normal as any of them ever get, and develop amnesia about the entire year of events.
The only thing they will ‘remember’ is that:
Orange Man STILL Bad
The 1/6 Insurrection was a Bloody Reign of Terror by Nazis
and, they ONLY had our own good in any of their nasty little edicts. Which, if we weren’t such disgusting Fascists, we would understand.
ALL HAIL KING FURY!
*****************************
Heheh… that one got me.