Month: June 2005

Lunchtime observations

All the “meadows” (i.e. weed fields) I noted a while back have been mowed down and just look like dead brown grass. The one where I stopped and watched birds and butterfies has a few flowers that have popped up since then, but is otherwise pretty much dead.

Speaking of dead grass, the traffic island where I took the picture of the Grass Under Renovation sign is almost completely dead now.

Jamba Juice gets really loud when they’re making lots of smoothies.

A green tea boost turns mango smoothies green. I’d hate to see what it does to a berry smoothie. With luck it’ll look sort of like a mocha… but it sure won’t taste like one!

I suspect the local schools are out, since there were a lot more teenagers than I’m used to seeing on a weekday. That’s part of why Jamba Juice was so busy.

As I was leaving with my smoothie, a pair of girls waiting to pick theirs up suddenly hugged each other and started dancing in circles for no apparent reason.

Many of the trees along the path from the building where I work to the Spectrum shopping center are purely decorative. The sidewalk along Irvine Center Drive is lined by trees on both sides, but only a few shadows managed to touch the sidewalk. As for shade for someone walking at high noon? Not a chance. Maybe in a few more years they’ll be useful. Or maybe if the city doesn’t trim them back so far next year.

This lack of shade may be connected to the lack of pedestrians. Today, for instance, I encountered no one on the way to lunch until I reached the office building across the street from the center. On the way back there was one guy carrying a soda and a bag from fye, and a woman jogging with an iPod. And they were both on the first block out, before the first signal.

Speaking of that first signal (second if you count the one crossing the street from the Spectrum itself)…drivers don’t expect pedestrians there either. A truck was turning right in front of me as the light changed, and another car zoomed right behind it despite me stepping forward into the street. By the time I got three steps in, the “don’t walk” signal was already flashing… and this is nine lanes worth of street.

3-day weekends can really mess you up.

I’ve spent the entire morning anticipating the monthly release of patches from Microsoft. The lack of announcements or even commentary struck me as odd, until I realized that while June 1 was the second day of the work week, it was actually Wednesday. Today isn’t the second Tuesday of the month, it’s the first.

Back to web development….

Current Mood: working

Random Restroom Rants

The restrooms where I work have automatic sinks. In theory, motion detectors determine that your hands are below the faucet and turn on the water, then shut the water off when you pull your hands away. In practice, you tend to wave your hand around trying to get its attention, give up and move to the next sink over…at which point the first sink starts running. I keep meaning to draw up a 4-panel cartoon to illustrate this, but I’m not sure my limited drawing skills are up to the task.

I have actually washed my hands, gone over to the towel dispenser, dried my hands, opened the door, and walked out…with the sink still running (and no way to turn it off).

These sinks have been made worse in recent weeks. You see, someone decided they needed to turn up the water pressure. The faucets are angled slightly outward. Placing your hands under the faucets provides a surface for the water to bounce off of, and it splashes forward… over the edge of the sink… landing just below the belt.

Then, of course, there’s dealing with people who don’t wash their hands. It’s easy enough to use an extra paper towel on the handle, but what do you do when there are no paper towels? The place I went for lunch today had an air dryer, complete with the usual blurb about how much more environmentally sound and sanitary air dryers are compared to paper towels (which I think is mainly there to give you something to read while you wait for it to actually dry your hands), but the restroom door opens inward, with a handle on the inside. I walked in and there was a guy standing next to the sink, as near as I can tell waiting for someone to open the door so he wouldn’t have to touch the handle!

Account of the bank

At lunch I stopped by the bank to pick up some rolls of quarters for laundry. (The next time we move, a washer/dryer hookup will be part of our criteria.) For some reason, the teller was acting really nervous. When I asked to withdraw two rolls of quarters, she stammered that I should swipe my card while she went to get them.

This in turn made me nervous. I watched her talking to one of the other tellers, wondering what was going on. Did I have a doppelganger on the FBI most wanted list? Was I acting suspiciously without knowing it? Was I just really jittery from all the coffee I drank this morning? Is there some unwritten rule about how many rolls of coins one may reasonably withdraw at a time? Was I going to spend 20 minutes talking to the security guards before they were satisfied that all I wanted to do was withdraw some cash from my own account?

She came back with the quarters, I evidently managed to mistype my PIN, but I got it right on the second try, and the transaction went fine (except for her pronouncing my name wrong)—though I decided to keep my hands in plain sight, just in case. All told, it was an odd experience.

Current Mood: 😕confused