Lunch special discussion.

Like last month or so, the one (Thai) restaurant where I work at now reintroduced our lunch special, where for select items there's smaller portions and a lower price point, and there's also a few other items not on the regular menu, but whatever you order from there or from the main menu, there's a free small side salad with sweet onion dressing.

As you can imagine, it takes a little bit to explain to customers, if they're unfamiliar with it.

So, the other week, there was this one (young 30-something) (white guy) and this like (late 20s or early 30-something) (quiet) (bespectacled) (Asian-from-Asia) woman who had come in, and I had to explain the whole lunch special system to them.

"...and so some people think the lunch special portion is just enough, but others like the bigger portion and think it's a better value or want leftovers to take home, so I don't know what your strategy is," I was like, finishing up my spiel.

And, at that point, the (quiet) (Asian-from-Asia) woman began to order, and she gave me some regular order for like a chicken pad thai or whatnot off of the main menu, and then she was like, "And my strategy is" -- and at that point she lowered her voice to like a demonic growl -- "Eat it all."

And then, her countenance returned to normal, and she placidly returned the menu to me.

Neighborhood excitement.

A couple of weeks ago I was on the phone with a friend in the afternoon and talking as I was going around my yard picking up trash that the wind had blown in, and as I was by the chainlink fence that separates it from the muddy unpaved driveway next door, what do I suddenly see that scares the shit out of me, but a squirrel that leaps up inside the front passenger window of this red car in their driveway, INSIDE the dang car!

I wasn't sure at first what I was seeing, but there it was, like with its front half up against the window so that you could see its whitish underside and its little front paws, and its devious-looking little rat face just resting there and looking out this way and that through its splayed feral eyes, as its chest heaved, rapidly.

At first I thought that it had somehow gotten in the car and gotten locked in there, but when I came to from my shock and started and went to go try the front door to open it and let it out -- it opened -- I could see that the back left passenger door window had been left cracked open, and a light bulb went off and I realized that it must have scrambled through that window like it had gone through an ill-fitting lid to go get into a dumpster.

And, as I opened the front door, it kind of hightailed it out that window.

I wasn't sure what to do at first since I couldn't start the car up to go and close the window, so I went to knock at the door next door -- no-one was home -- and so I ended up going into my cottage and getting a note and leaving it there for them, propped between their screen door and its frame out on their front porch.

I believe it said that the local squirrels were NASTY and VICIOUS little beasts, with those adjectives in capitals and double-underlined, although I don't remember the exact wording, and although of course I no longer have the note in front of me.

Anyhow, like a day or two after, I'm reading on the front porch in the late afternoon and eating some (Thai) takeout after my lunch shift at the restaurant, and I see a (white) (undergrad) girl going into the house next door, so I call out to her if they got my note that I had left them, about a squirrel that I saw in one of their cars.

"Yes," she was like, "Thank you!"

And, she said that the car window is actually broken, and that's why it was down.

"Oh," I was like.

Then, I said that maybe they should stop up their car window with something, then, since the squirrels were jumping into that crevice like they were getting into a dumpster, and who knows what they could do to their car.

"They're nasty and vicious little beasts," I was like.

Return of the flirtatious undergrad.

The other week I was working a dinner shift at the (Thai) restaurant where I now work, and it was getting toward late evening, and a group of like four (white) undergrad guys comes in, including the one flirtatious (biracial white and South Asian) undergrad with a surprisingly deep voice who's been in a couple of times before.

"Is that a new sign?", one of his friends was like, pointing to the neon sign in the window as I met them at the host stand.

"No," I was like, "It's always been there, but maybe you just never noticed before."

"Maybe," the guy was like.

"Or maybe you're all on drugs tonight," I was like.

"Could be," his one friend was like, with this big devilish grin.

"Yeah," I was like, "It's probably the CBD talking."

"More like something that starts with a T," that one same friend was like, still holding that same big devilish grin, like his mouth had gotten set in it but he had forgotten that it was still there on his face for everyone to see, and so never changed it.

And, I showed them all to their seats.

Anyhow, that one undergrad didn't flirt that night, like the third time that I've seen him around, but maybe it's because him and his big group of friends were all stoned off of their ass.

The Lives of Others: Back-of-the-House Staff.

So, at the (Thai) restaurant where I work now, there's a couple new people in the kitchen, including this (slim) (very young) (Guatemalan) guy who is on the quiet side.

The other week he came into work, too, and his left eye was all f*cked up, with bruising around it and stuff, where it was half-closed and he looked all wonky.

I didn't get a chance to ask him about it that first day, but I did the next day, and he said something in Spanish like "I go," and then started making boxing motions.

"Como Muhammad Ali?", I was like ('Like Muhammad Ali?').

And, he was like, "Que?" ('What?')

And, I repeated, and he still didn't know what I was talking about, so I was like, "Como Rocky?" ('Like Rocky?'), and he was like, "Si" ('Yes').

Later that same shift, he was back in the kitchen with all the other help, and it was quiet, and the one (Pentecostal) (soccer-playing) (Guatemalan) guy was giving him tips on how to best fold crab rangoons - -he was gently touching the wonton just at the base of each fold, to push it a bit into the cream cheese mixture so it sticks there and it all holds together -- and so since it was quiet and I talk too much, I pointed to his eye and was like, "Su mujer es peligrosa" ('His woman is dangerous') and was like, "Pshoo," and mimicked someone punching him in the eye.

"Peligrosa," I was like ('Dangerous').

Summer reading.

So, after spending all last summer on a close reading of an infamous heretical text, my one (Mormon) colleague and I have decided on one of our big reading projects for this coming summer:

Petronius's Satyricon.

. . .

I love how he's this (Mormon) family guy, but reads just the weirdest shit in his time off... We had discussed reading another Latin text, maybe Lucretius's De Rerum Natura, but there wasn't a good reading aide edition, so we ended up with the Petronius. LOL.

Addendum: On Covid rhythms.

I think we're settling into a rhythm where Covid spikes a bit after Thanksgiving and really after Christmas and New Year's, and then again after spring break, when college kids bring stuff back from jetting off in every direction to who knows where and then going and coming and bringing it back.

My hunch is that that will be the case and a concern for at least the next year and maybe beyond, so I'll have to be super cautious around then, like not doing any indoor maskless dining or drinking as I sometimes do when it's cold out and places are super dead and I go there at dead times of day.

I mean, people I know around my age have gotten "Covid toes" (poor circulation in the extremities) and short term memory loss, so is a lunch out really worth it?

Especially since so much of what I want to do with my life takes mental energy and a lot of working hours. I mean, chronic fatigue and mental issues would really take a toll on that, in addition to general quality of life stuff.

I'm hoping that after multiple vaccines and booster shots, risks of freaky adverse outcomes from a Covid infection will drop to super low levels, and at that point I'll be more comfortable resuming a more normal life that looks more like the one that I used to live.

Restaurant surprise the other day:

I'd been hearing of a lot of Covid cases recently -- one local resident on social media, one person who had ordered take-out from the Thai restaurant where I now work mentioning having it over the phone, one table talking about a coworker getting it when I went up to them to go and refill their water -- so, I've been making sure to have a fresh KN95 mask every long busy dinner shift that I work (since they're good for like 10-12 hours, I usually keep them to reuse them a 2nd time after a shift; waste not want not, though also don't overuse them, has been my motto).

The other day, though, I unwrap my fresh KN95 mask outside the restaurant door and go to put it on, and it was very squishy around the nose.

There was a factory defect, and they had forgotten to put in that metal band that you adjust to get a tight fit around the nose!

I wasn't sure what to do at first after I clocked in, but after a few minutes I thought that it was ridiculous, and I live so close, so I clocked out again and ran back home again to get a fresh mask.

Thankfully that day I started at 4pm and not 5pm, so it was well before the dinner rush started and I wasn't hurting anyone at all by being gone for like fifteen minutes, to run home and back.