Special Snowflake Stories

[greencat]

EmmaJ wrote:

"Every Panera restaurant I've ever been to has major design flaws."

I suspect that's because it doesn't seem like that franchise takes any control over site layout.  For example, if you get a McDonald's franchise and then set up in a mall or storefront, you're required to have corporate site designers come in and lay out the place to McDonald's site standards, and they'll do stuff like line planning or moving walls and stuff to make it work.  Panera places always look more like they provide setup but leave layout to the local owner, and because of that a lot of them aren't laid out very well.  We have one of the rare ones where the layout is superbly done, with a foyer corral that leads right to the counter and proper separation of the serving and dining areas and everything.  It's a great place to go, and after that place I started to notice it when a Panera is badly designed.

Virg

There are five or six Paneras near me that I've been in, and every single one of them looks like the owner said "Design my restaurant for the worst possible traffic flow through the order/pickup/soda fountain/condiment areas."

[twiggy]

I thought people parking under no parking signs at preschool was bad, but it's nothing compared to what I saw the other night right outside my house! This is confusing, and I have a hard time explaining the layout, but I'll give it a try. There is a street (Knight St) that ends at the street my house is on (Dragon Ave). My house is right at the T, on Dragon Ave. When I come through the neighborhood and drive down Knight St, I can drive straight into my driveway. There is a stop sign for traffic on Knight street, and after they stop they have to turn left or right. (Or, if it's me, drive straight )

The other night I was outside and I heard someone laying on the horn. I looked up and saw a truck flying down the road. They kept honking and then ran the stop sign, took the turn so fast that they almost ended up in my driveway and flew down Dragon Ave. I have a suspicion about who the truck belongs to, and he would be furious to hear that DS is driving like an idiot. Especially since he's a cop. It will be an interesting conversation when I see him at church this weekend 

[snowdragon]

A few years back the brother of a friend of mine was in a serious accident. Serious enough that the family spent a few weeks literally living at the hospital, we brought food and clean clothes to them. One day when I was there dropping of clothes and talking to her another woman walked into the very crowded waiting room, where people were watching tv, reading and sewing and turned off all the lights and the tv, went towards the back and took over a couch laid down and tried to fall asleep. We were all dumbfounded. My friend asked me to reach the TV and turn it on and she turned the lights back on. The woman came back and tried to shut things off again. She was so insistent that folks would sit in silence and dark that security had to be called to make her leave things on.
  She eventually had to be escorted out because since folks would not allow her to sleep she made a foulmouthed nuisance of herself. 


My friend said that they eventually found out that she was a staff member from another part of the hospital and everyone in the room at that time reported her.

[Dr. F.]

I just spent some time traveling*, so I have  few stories for here.

1. The woman seated in the bulkhead row of a completely full plane I was boarding. She and her companion were standing *in the aisle* chatting for maybe 5 minutes after I got there. There were maybe 10 people of the 250 people on the plane seated. They were hanging out at the very front just nattering. The flight attendant was standing behind them, looking at me despairingly. After about 5 minutes of both of us saying "EXCUSE ME!!" they finally clued in and moved (grumpily). There were only about 100 people behind me at that point. The flight attendant rolled her eyes and me, and I gave I shoulder shrug in response. What can one do about terminally clueless people? We both did our best.

2. What is with the people who stand in the middle of walkways in busy public areas? You have a group of 6, DON'T stand spread out across the entire walkway to stop everyone to consult with one another. Really?

3. There was a man in a very public part of a very popular tourist attraction in Central Florida (font color changed if people are susceptible - I will move to Gross Out if desired) pulling his nose hairs and wincing after each one. Seriously?

I'm sure more will occur to me as time goes on.

*See my post in "Good News!"

[Mental Magpie]

I just spent some time traveling*, so I have  few stories for here.

1. The woman seated in the bulkhead row of a completely full plane I was boarding. She and her companion were standing *in the aisle* chatting for maybe 5 minutes after I got there. There were maybe 10 people of the 250 people on the plane seated. They were hanging out at the very front just nattering. The flight attendant was standing behind them, looking at me despairingly. After about 5 minutes of both of us saying "EXCUSE ME!!" they finally clued in and moved (grumpily). There were only about 100 people behind me at that point. The flight attendant rolled her eyes and me, and I gave I shoulder shrug in response. What can one do about terminally clueless people? We both did our best.

2. What is with the people who stand in the middle of walkways in busy public areas? You have a group of 6, DON'T stand spread out across the entire walkway to stop everyone to consult with one another. Really?

3. There was a man in a very public part of a very popular tourist attraction in Central Florida (font color changed if people are susceptible - I will move to Gross Out if desired) pulling his nose hairs and wincing after each one. Seriously?

I'm sure more will occur to me as time goes on.

*See my post in "Good News!"

I had that problem with my own group while in London and Paris.  There were about 20-30 of us, and I constantly found myself telling adults to squeeze in and to not block other people!  It only took 2 or 3 days of me (and a few others here and there, depending) reminding them to stand right on the escalators before I had to stop reminding them.  I was constantly floored at how inconsiderate they were being!

[Hmmmmm]

EmmaJ wrote:

"Every Panera restaurant I've ever been to has major design flaws."

I suspect that's because it doesn't seem like that franchise takes any control over site layout.  For example, if you get a McDonald's franchise and then set up in a mall or storefront, you're required to have corporate site designers come in and lay out the place to McDonald's site standards, and they'll do stuff like line planning or moving walls and stuff to make it work.  Panera places always look more like they provide setup but leave layout to the local owner, and because of that a lot of them aren't laid out very well.  We have one of the rare ones where the layout is superbly done, with a foyer corral that leads right to the counter and proper separation of the serving and dining areas and everything.  It's a great place to go, and after that place I started to notice it when a Panera is badly designed.

Virg

There are five or six Paneras near me that I've been in, and every single one of them looks like the owner said "Design my restaurant for the worst possible traffic flow through the order/pickup/soda fountain/condiment areas."

POD to this.  I quit going to the one closes to me at lunch for takeout as there is no place to wait for your order other than in front of the drink machines or standing by occupied tables.

[siamesecat2965]

I just spent some time traveling*, so I have  few stories for here.

1. The woman seated in the bulkhead row of a completely full plane I was boarding. She and her companion were standing *in the aisle* chatting for maybe 5 minutes after I got there. There were maybe 10 people of the 250 people on the plane seated. They were hanging out at the very front just nattering. The flight attendant was standing behind them, looking at me despairingly. After about 5 minutes of both of us saying "EXCUSE ME!!" they finally clued in and moved (grumpily). There were only about 100 people behind me at that point. The flight attendant rolled her eyes and me, and I gave I shoulder shrug in response. What can one do about terminally clueless people? We both did our best.

2. What is with the people who stand in the middle of walkways in busy public areas? You have a group of 6, DON'T stand spread out across the entire walkway to stop everyone to consult with one another. Really?

3. There was a man in a very public part of a very popular tourist attraction in Central Florida (font color changed if people are susceptible - I will move to Gross Out if desired) pulling his nose hairs and wincing after each one. Seriously?

I'm sure more will occur to me as time goes on.

*See my post in "Good News!"

I'm not sure why the FA couldn't simply ask them nicely to move to others could board the plane.  I would think that would fall under their spehre, no?

[Dr. F.]

I just spent some time traveling*, so I have  few stories for here.

1. The woman seated in the bulkhead row of a completely full plane I was boarding. She and her companion were standing *in the aisle* chatting for maybe 5 minutes after I got there. There were maybe 10 people of the 250 people on the plane seated. They were hanging out at the very front just nattering. The flight attendant was standing behind them, looking at me despairingly. After about 5 minutes of both of us saying "EXCUSE ME!!" they finally clued in and moved (grumpily). There were only about 100 people behind me at that point. The flight attendant rolled her eyes and me, and I gave I shoulder shrug in response. What can one do about terminally clueless people? We both did our best.

2. What is with the people who stand in the middle of walkways in busy public areas? You have a group of 6, DON'T stand spread out across the entire walkway to stop everyone to consult with one another. Really?

3. There was a man in a very public part of a very popular tourist attraction in Central Florida (font color changed if people are susceptible - I will move to Gross Out if desired) pulling his nose hairs and wincing after each one. Seriously?

I'm sure more will occur to me as time goes on.

*See my post in "Good News!"

I'm not sure why the FA couldn't simply ask them nicely to move to others could board the plane.  I would think that would fall under their spehre, no?

She tried, I tried. They were ignoring both of us COMPLETELY. It was amazing.

I knew there was another one. I was walking through a museum when a security guard came up behind me and grabbed my hair (I had it in a long braid that day) and asked me if I was planning on donating it. When I said "no, not really" (I was kinda unnerved), she gave me the stink eye.

[CrochetFanatic]

I've had that happen to me too!    Not only does it get on my nerves to have someone come up to me and touch my hair without permission, but I don't think anyone has the right to scold me for wanting to keep it.  I've had people ask me if I was going to donate it (that's fine), or tell me flat-out that I should donate it (not so fine), that it would grow back, and don't I want to help someone out?  Well...maybe if it was my own idea, and if I didn't have a horrible track record for getting bad haircuts!  Either way, selfish or not, it's my hair.

[Twik]

A few years back the brother of a friend of mine was in a serious accident. Serious enough that the family spent a few weeks literally living at the hospital, we brought food and clean clothes to them. One day when I was there dropping of clothes and talking to her another woman walked into the very crowded waiting room, where people were watching tv, reading and sewing and turned off all the lights and the tv, went towards the back and took over a couch laid down and tried to fall asleep. We were all dumbfounded. My friend asked me to reach the TV and turn it on and she turned the lights back on. The woman came back and tried to shut things off again. She was so insistent that folks would sit in silence and dark that security had to be called to make her leave things on.
  She eventually had to be escorted out because since folks would not allow her to sleep she made a foulmouthed nuisance of herself. 


My friend said that they eventually found out that she was a staff member from another part of the hospital and everyone in the room at that time reported her.

I was inclined to be a bit sympathetic at first, thinking she might be an exhausted relative who had spent so long with someone in critical condition that they weren't quite rational from fatigue and mental stress.

But she was staff, who expected to turn a crowded waiting room into her own bedroom? That's bizarre.

[2littlemonkeys]

I thought people parking under no parking signs at preschool was bad, but it's nothing compared to what I saw the other night right outside my house! This is confusing, and I have a hard time explaining the layout, but I'll give it a try. There is a street (Knight St) that ends at the street my house is on (Dragon Ave). My house is right at the T, on Dragon Ave. When I come through the neighborhood and drive down Knight St, I can drive straight into my driveway. There is a stop sign for traffic on Knight street, and after they stop they have to turn left or right. (Or, if it's me, drive straight )

The other night I was outside and I heard someone laying on the horn. I looked up and saw a truck flying down the road. They kept honking and then ran the stop sign, took the turn so fast that they almost ended up in my driveway and flew down Dragon Ave. I have a suspicion about who the truck belongs to, and he would be furious to hear that DS is driving like an idiot. Especially since he's a cop. It will be an interesting conversation when I see him at church this weekend 

Is it possible he was having a brake failure?  That's what we were taught to do if we ever found ourselves in that situation.  Lean on the horn and try to keep control of the vehicle.  I had to do that once when I found myself on black ice just as I was trying to stop at a stop sign.  (we had school in spite of Mother Nature gifting us with an ice storm.   ) Thank DIETY there was no one coming on the cross road.

[Mental Magpie]

I thought people parking under no parking signs at preschool was bad, but it's nothing compared to what I saw the other night right outside my house! This is confusing, and I have a hard time explaining the layout, but I'll give it a try. There is a street (Knight St) that ends at the street my house is on (Dragon Ave). My house is right at the T, on Dragon Ave. When I come through the neighborhood and drive down Knight St, I can drive straight into my driveway. There is a stop sign for traffic on Knight street, and after they stop they have to turn left or right. (Or, if it's me, drive straight )

The other night I was outside and I heard someone laying on the horn. I looked up and saw a truck flying down the road. They kept honking and then ran the stop sign, took the turn so fast that they almost ended up in my driveway and flew down Dragon Ave. I have a suspicion about who the truck belongs to, and he would be furious to hear that DS is driving like an idiot. Especially since he's a cop. It will be an interesting conversation when I see him at church this weekend 

Is it possible he was having a brake failure?  That's what we were taught to do if we ever found ourselves in that situation.  Lean on the horn and try to keep control of the vehicle.  I had to do that once when I found myself on black ice just as I was trying to stop at a stop sign.  (we had school in spite of Mother Nature gifting us with an ice storm.   ) Thank DIETY there was no one coming on the cross road.

That was my thought, too; that his brakes were out and he was just getting people to "look" at him so they knew he wasn't going to stop because he couldn't.

[snowdragon]

I've had that happen to me too!    Not only does it get on my nerves to have someone come up to me and touch my hair without permission, but I don't think anyone has the right to scold me for wanting to keep it.  I've had people ask me if I was going to donate it (that's fine), or tell me flat-out that I should donate it (not so fine), that it would grow back, and don't I want to help someone out?  Well...maybe if it was my own idea, and if I didn't have a horrible track record for getting bad haircuts!  Either way, selfish or not, it's my hair.

  I've had it happen too.  I don't think it's ok to ask, I think it's part of my body and no one else gets to question how I keep it. I had a co-worker once who harassed me for a month about it. I finally told her off, after a month of politely declining and she went to HR saying how  "rude and hateful" I had been to her. And she told them that she had been "talking to me about donating her hair, just like I did everyday" HR finally got it as I had reported her after the third time of her telling me that I "had to donate" my hair and the poo-poo'd me.  When they called me in I told them I could care less what they wrote me up for but this was going to stop and NOW.  They then tried to calm me down,,,and when I did they said SHE had complained about me and that she had admitted to "talking to me about it everyday" - I was just there for them to find out if I wanted HER written up!! Finally.  I told them that what they did about her was their business but that if it continued I was filing with my union rep and letting them sort it out.
  I think the rudeness in asking once comes in the idea that someone else deserves part of my body more than I do.

[Elfmama]

I thought people parking under no parking signs at preschool was bad, but it's nothing compared to what I saw the other night right outside my house! This is confusing, and I have a hard time explaining the layout, but I'll give it a try. There is a street (Knight St) that ends at the street my house is on (Dragon Ave). My house is right at the T, on Dragon Ave. When I come through the neighborhood and drive down Knight St, I can drive straight into my driveway. There is a stop sign for traffic on Knight street, and after they stop they have to turn left or right. (Or, if it's me, drive straight )

The other night I was outside and I heard someone laying on the horn. I looked up and saw a truck flying down the road. They kept honking and then ran the stop sign, took the turn so fast that they almost ended up in my driveway and flew down Dragon Ave. I have a suspicion about who the truck belongs to, and he would be furious to hear that DS is driving like an idiot. Especially since he's a cop. It will be an interesting conversation when I see him at church this weekend 

Is it possible he was having a brake failure?  That's what we were taught to do if we ever found ourselves in that situation.  Lean on the horn and try to keep control of the vehicle.  I had to do that once when I found myself on black ice just as I was trying to stop at a stop sign.  (we had school in spite of Mother Nature gifting us with an ice storm.    ) Thank DIETY there was no one coming on the cross road.

It happens. I was pulling up to a toll plaza once and a car screamed past me with the horn blaring.  It plowed into a car stopped at one booth.  Never found out for certain, but it certainly looked like their brakes had failed.  This was pre-airbags, so it's probable that people were killed or badly injured.  It was also pre-EZpass, so there was  no moving or clear lane that they could have gone through.

That's a dilemma for you.  Do you hit another car or a truck?  If you hit another car, you won't hit quite as hard because you'll shove the other car forward, possibly minimizing injury to yourself at the expense of possibly hurting someone else.  If you hit a truck, you're not likely to hurt the driver, but you will hit harder, since that truck can't be moved by the impact of your car.

[faithlessone]

I've had that happen to me too!    Not only does it get on my nerves to have someone come up to me and touch my hair without permission, but I don't think anyone has the right to scold me for wanting to keep it.  I've had people ask me if I was going to donate it (that's fine), or tell me flat-out that I should donate it (not so fine), that it would grow back, and don't I want to help someone out?  Well...maybe if it was my own idea, and if I didn't have a horrible track record for getting bad haircuts!  Either way, selfish or not, it's my hair.

I once had someone do that do me. I asked her if she'd ever actually looked into hair donation. Most donated hair does not go to make lovely wigs for sick people. The plain fact is that a great deal of hair is unsuitable for wig-making. Frequent washing, blow-drying, straightening/curling, hair dye, and styling products can all make hair weak and unusable. The majority of donated hair is sold or discarded.

Shut her up immediately! I really don't think that the people who make these kind of comments actually think about what they're saying.