TRX
October 1st, 2014

Restaurants that don't have salt.

I realize most people now consider sodium chloride to be on a par with radioactive waste, but I want freakin' SALT on my food. Most places around here just have a pepper shaker and an empty spot in the little holder where the salt shaker would go. So I have to flag a server, explain to them I want salt - you know, the white powder that's not cocaine or heroin? - for my food. Eventually they'll come back with two or three of those little packets which hold about two grains of salt. I have to send them back to scrounge up another dozen or so, then go through the tedious hassle of opening them all and shaking the half-pinch of salt out onto my food.

Further, restaurants that give you one towel-sized cloth napkin, which you can't actually use because your utensils are rolled up in it. So you either have to put all of them on your plate or put them on the bare table, which someone wiped with a nasty rag before you sat down. I'm not one of those germ- phones like some people I've met - people that will hover near a door, waiting to tailgate someone in, because they're afraid to touch the knob "because germs," but I've watched them with that wipe rag, and I know where it has been...

I'm perfectly happy with paper napkins, thank you. And if your restaurant is so upscale that you must use cloth, I want TWO of them, one to put stuff on, the other for wiping with if necessary.

Originally Posted by muckaleewarrior
I'm tired of watching nasty people walk out the bathroom without washing their hands after taking a pee or sometimes even a crap!

So to encourage them, use the sinks with the spring-loaded handles where you can have either cold OR lukewarm water on one hand at a time. Then use those captive-roll cloth towels, and leave them in there so long they're too nasty to touch. Alternatively, put in one of those blow dryers that is loud enough to cause hearing damage, and only blows cold air to "save energy."

Originally Posted by manolito
Ask any janitor what he thinks of the urinal that is 13 inches off the floor and used by 6' men

I've worked in older buildings that had the old Eljer or American Standard urinals, probably five feet tall, with the bottoms recessed into the floor. New buildings all seem to have those tiny pots screwed to the wall at two convenient heights - "child" and "eight foot giant".

Originally Posted by Jeanlouise
Computer charting is NOT efficient in a medical setting.

My Dad had a stroke a couple of years ago and I spent a lot of time with him at the hospital. Every employee - even the janitorial staff - had an IV stand with a laptop bolted to it, with little swipe wands to scan patient bracelets. Every single action, from entering to leaving the room, had to be swiped into the computer before they'd even look at a patient.

The off-site doctor we visited for follow-up care was, theoretically, an MD... but he only glanced at Dad once when he walked in, and spent the rest of the time reading questions off his laptop and pecking the anwers in with two fingers. Dad's occaisonal question seemed to bother the doctor, probably because there was no place on the screen for it...

I have a real doctor, not a "Primary Care Physician." But he's over 70 now, and I expect he's going to retire at any time. In my area, doctors are almost all either employees of some clinic corporation or hospital affiliate; the few independents who actually practice medicine, as opposed to sending you out to the next person in the referral-go-round, are all my doctor's age, and most of them haven't accepted any new patients in a long time.

Doctoring, as a profession, is down there with knapping flint or spinning yarn by hand; a few hobbyists keep the trade alive. Doctors are now "Primary Care Physicians" and specialists, and GPs are almost extinct.

If I have an ear infection, I want a doctor who will prescribe an appropriate antibiotic, not some bozo who will simply refer me to an ear-nose-throat specialist 30 miles away a week from now. By then I'll be over it without a prescription, and without the extra fees.

TRX

March 30, 2014

Thread: what hacks me off...

...is when I spend a decent amount of time writing a comment to a blog or other page, and when I click "send" it pops up a window telling me to log in via Facebook. Which means the jerkwad that wrote the page wasted my time. At the very least, *some* indication that they'd just send my comment to the bit bucket would have been nice...

The first time it happened was annoying, but I've been seeing it more often. It'd probably part of some standard template the web-bozos are using.