The Week of October 19-23

This week was an odd week for me, I had an early breakfast on Tuesday and worked half days Wednesday and Thursday and did not go into work on Friday. After my thoughts on routine from last Friday this was a very odd week because there was very little regularity. This also did a number on keeping track of what I saw when so I'm doing one post for the whole week. Hopefully this will not be super long, I'll try to be brief.

At different points I drove through a drive-through and picked up takeout. I need to explain something first, we eat Steak-Out a lot. I didn't realize how much we ate Steak-Out until a few months ago. I walked in the door and they said "Hey, Mr. Treen, how are you today." I hadn't called in an order so I know they didn't just look it up on the screen; they actually know who I am. They also know my car so when I pull up, if I've called ahead they have my order ready by the time I get inside. I know this is a little sad but the food is good and marginally better for us than fast food. These people have stopped seeing me as customer X and started seeing me as Mr. Treen (which is humorous in and of itself). I try to be nicer to them now too; I'm not anonymous anymore.

Regardless, I drove through a fast food restaurant this week. Here I am, interacting with another human being while I'm in my car! It's exactly what I've been writing about this whole time. Well, not exactly because they weren't in a car but still... I found myself thinking about the person at the window. Rather than a tool or obstacle to me getting my food, this is a person. What are they going through today? What is going on in their life? Is this a temporary job or is this their career? I gotta say, once I started thinking of them as people it changed the way I interacted. I made eye contact and said thank you.

I've been out with friends in restaurants where I have been embarrassed by how the servers were treated. They were talked down to and treated like second-class citizens. Please don't do this! Think about the fact that every food-service worker is fundamentally a person. They deserve the same level of respect that you would give your friends or anyone else you respect.

• I saw a truck moving a big house on Drake. The house took up both lanes and I'm pretty sure that they were going to have to take some signs down that were in the middle of the road to get the house through. I wonder what is so important about that house that people are going to the trouble of moving it. 
• The Rock Family Worship Center got a new sign, it looks good and very 2010. It'll be fun in 10 years to be able to look back at styles and think "that's soooo 2000's".
• I saw a self storage facility that had a sign that said "Climate Controlled Storage". There's nothing interesting about that except that Storage was on the bottom line and had flames coming from underneath it. I couldn't help but think that the sign should have said "Climate Controlled Storage FROM HELL". 
• This reminds me of another storage facility I pass regularly, you may have seen me post this on Facebook but I think it's worth posting here too:

Yes, this is a Funeral Home/Climate-Controlled Storage. 

Hopefully this week I can get back into the routine of posting every day. Thanks for reading!