McDonalds - home of the desperate for internet

Thursday 19 March 2015

Cloudy at first with sunny spells later 17 degrees

Technology is a wonderful thing when it works.  The main computer has gotten itself into a real mess and is operating at teenager with chores speed.  On looking at programmed tasks, I discover that the weekly defragmentation is set for 1 am rather than 1 pm and consequently it hasn't been defragged in about six years.  Oops.  On setting it to analyse, it takes about an hour to do 10% so OH goes down to the rental units and I try and load some new properties.  My laptop is also very slow and a speed test shows we are down to .4 of a giga.  Ring up the provider and wail.  She says she will do a manipulation and the speed goes up to 1.4 for about 20 minutes.

OH comes come for lunch and I wail at him and he says go to McDonald's, home of the desperate for Internet.  Bugger, that means getting changed and dragging a comb through my hair.  My face is still very swollen.  The dentist's assistant has rung me twice to ask if I am alright and not in pain.  You wouldn't get that on the National Health.  The stitches are in silken thread, rather than the cat gut to which I am violently reactive, and being sewn up made me laugh.  My reaction certainly surprised my charming dentist.  I bet the number of people who spontaneously exhibit mirth whilst in his surgery, can fit on the head of one of his drills.  Closer inspection reveals that a tiny flake of ceramic has detached itself from the face of the new tooth.  Will have to ring up tomorrow and tell them.  The new tooth is very firmly affixed with glue and laser.  Really don't want them to heave it out but don't want a tooth which is going to disintegrate.

Ring up central admin and tell them about the accepted offer and get the reaction of joy that I had hoped to receive from the vendors.  They log offer for me and I get a number of texts saying well done and a call from the business manager who was really supportive with a nightmare case from last year.   Take dog for quick walk.   Someone has drawn what looks like a star burst in yellow spray next to the telephone pole which carries our Internet.  If they come along with diggers, I may have to chain myself to the pole until they promise to restore Internet within the day.   Last year, I lost Internet for a whole month.  I work from home so I spent a heck of a lot of time in McDonald's or parked outside the Tourist Office.  The staff know I live here so won't let me come in and use the desk space because I am not a tourist. The desks are free for about 98% of the time and it wouldn't kill them to let me use them but they are jobsworth bastards and I hate them intensely.  I deliberately park where they can see me, just outside the window, and get out the laptop in as much of an ostentatious manner as is possible in the driving seat of a hybrid.  When they go home for lunch or at night time, they turn the wifi off.  I did complain to the Mayor's Office and pointed out that my taxes were paying for those people.  Unfortunately, my taxes seem to pay for people in public service whose primary aim is not to serve the public but to obfuscate and preserve their own little domains.

Working at McDo's must be like real estate - either you are overrun with clients or you are mopping the floors and trying to look busy.  There was just one table full of teenagers, eating one bag of chips between them and drinking a selection of soft drinks.  McDo's has recently been updated and redecorated.  Interestingly, the renovation included taking out two of the three ladies cubicles so now there is only one wc for a restaurant which must serve hundreds of people a day.  I got a cappuccino and circled the restaurant, looking for somewhere to plug in the laptop.  The only plug was next to the table of teenagers.  I set up on a nearby table and found that the Internet kept on going off.  I gazed intently at the teenagers who kept ringing people up, putting them on broadcast, and telling the callee they were at McDonald's.  Much shrieking and laughing.  They left just as my laptop was about to crash.

People started coming in again about 5.30 and by the time I left at towards 7, there were quite a number of clients.  I never realised people eat their evening meal here - families were arranged around the long banks of tables and quite a few parents were drinking beer.

I managed to get the rest of the properties loaded, ring and make some appointments and send many emails.  Back home and wrangle the bins down to the corner of the road (150 metres) and find OH has made the fire,fed the dog and washed up.  Tittivate some pizzas with some tomatoes soaked in garlic and olive oil which I find in a bottle in the fridge.  Surprisingly, the main PC has finished defragging and is working at a speed something approaching normal.