Drive-thru follies

Image via WikipediaWe pulled into Tim Horton's this morning, the same as we do every morning, to get our coffees before I drop my wife off at work.

This particular Timmy's is a small one, with two drive-thrus (driver and passenger sides) and no seating inside the building. There is, however, a counter to place and receive your order.

We always use the passenger side drive-thru. I place the order, pull up to the window, and my wife pays and gets our coffee. That is how a passenger side drive-thru is supposed to work.

This morning, like many other mornings, some nimrod drivers alone in their vehicle used the passenger side drive-thru and held everyone up with their stupidity.

Now, if you can pull up real close to the window and reach across with your payment and get your order without the Timmy's employee having to lean out the window, it's not that big of a deal.

What drives me crazy is the two examples we saw this morning.

1. Moron pulls up to the window, stopping 2 feet short, and leaving 2 feet distance betweeen his car and the window. He then GETS OUT of his car and walks up to the window to complete the transaction. My wife summed it up perfectly. If you're going to get out of your car anyway, park it in a spot and walk inside to get your damn order.
2. This guy was immediately after moron #1. He pulled up beside the window, but left at least 2 feet between his car and the window. He then reached over the passenger seat, and out the passenger window to pay the girl. She practically had to hang out the window to reach for his payment and to hand him the tray of two coffees.
   

Why is Tim Horton's condoning this practice by serving these people? I'm sure there used to be a sign that said they wouldn't serve people at the drive-thru window if they weren't in a car. I'll have to look for it again, because if they'd enforce that, it would take care of morons like #1. As for #2, they need a new sign that says:

** ONLY VEHICLES WITH AN OCCUPIED PASSENGER SEAT WILL BE SERVED AT THIS DRIVE-THRU **

It's not perfect, but it's better than nothing.

Sometimes there's an old lady who walks her dog to this Tim Hortons, and instead of tying her dog outside and walking inside, she walks up to the drive-thru window and places her order there, which usually involves butting in line.

PCmover download link -- found it!

I finally found the download link for PCmover. Their site is so slow that the main page never finished loading. Try here for the download.

Free software = good. Making it difficult to find = bad

Laplink is giving away its PCmover software for free today only. If you can make it to their site (which is painfully slow) and find where to download it for free, that is.

PCmover is the only migration utility that moves programs, files, and settings from your old PC to your new PC. Simply install PCmover on both your old and new computers and go! PCmover will determine which programs, files, and settings need to be moved, and when the transfer is complete, your new computer will have the personality and functionality of your old PC plus all of its own pre-installed software. Works with almost any Windows operating system, from Windows 95 to Vista.

You can read all about it here.

Vent Cleaning

As a side note to our vent squirrel adventure, I must say that our bathroom vent looks amazingly clean now, assuming that the critter didn't take a crap in the vent. I think everyone should run a squirrel down their vent to clean it out. Try and find a fat one.

Vent Critter - The Final Chapter

Image via WikipediaMy wife woke me up early this morning to tell me that she didn't hear anything all night, and didn't hear anything come from the bathroom this morning.

I went downstairs to listen at the bathroom door.

Our visitor was rummaging around in the bathroom. I could hear him.. or her. It sounded like it was on the counter.

We set up our plywood barricade, left the front door open, and I carefully opened the bathroom door and waited. We opened it more. And waited. We opened it all the way. And waited. I turned on the bathroom light. More waiting.

More noise. A plastic wrap rustling sound. Flipping magazine pages sound. We thought that perhaps it got into the cupboard underneath the sink. Reading magazines? Although we had it blocked off with a case of coke, there was still a space between the doors and the cabinet where it could have squeezed in.

I stepped over our barricade and carefully pulled the case of coke away from the cupboard door. Back over the barricade and used a grabber thing to reach in and open one of the doors.

No squirrel. More sound. I tried for a few minutes to open the other door but it was stuck.

All of a sudden, it scurried out from the corner on the right. It must have been sitting in the corner the whole time, watching me move the case of coke.

It ran behind the toilet.

We waited, yet again.

Enough. Sandra handed me a long strip of wood and I poked behind the toilet to spook it out. Nothing.

After few more minutes of waiting, he or she came out from behind the garbage can, out into the open.

It was a red squirrel. I forgot they had grey bellies. Cute little thing.

It stood there wondering what to do. We stood watching it, wondering what to do. We called our son over to come see it. After a few "awwwwwws", it stood on its hind legs looking up at the counter.

Could it contemplating a return to its ceiling vent hideaway?

It jumped up onto the counter and again looked up at the ceiling, where the open vent was.

Hell no... you little bastard, it's time to go!

I still had the grabber in my hand. I stuck it in the bathroom door and whacked it (the grabber, not the squirrel) on the door frame a few times to scare it off the counter.

It scurried around on the counter for a brief moment trying to get a grip and fell off onto the floor. After a brief pause, it ran out into the hall in front of us... paused... then scooted out the door.

It barely made it out before Sandra slammed the door on its furry little ass.

Mission accomplished.

I would have had pictures, but getting the squirrel out was a priority, so taking photos was the last thing on my mind.

Sandra still wants the exterminator to come and screen off the access on the roof. I suggested calling the management office to let them know the squirrel was gone, to give them the option of doing it themselves.

Regardless, something has to be done today so we don't end up with a repeat of our adventure.

Vent Critter - Part III

My family and I were sitting in the living room watching TV early this evening. Our little visitor decided to start making some noise in the vent. Quite a bit of noise, actually.

I went to check on it. I opened the bathroom door and looked up at the vent. There he/she was. Sitting on the ceiling vent cover -- still in the ceiling -- looking down at me.

It's a small grey squirrel. Judging by its size, I'd say it's a young one.

I moved closer to get a better look and it moved back up into the vent pipe.

Now I figured we had a bigger problem. Seeing as how it can get past the fan, there's no way the exterminator will be able to haul it up the pipe and out through the roof where it got in. It now has a place to take cover.

I decided that now would be a good time to try and get it out.

My brother inlaw, Serge, came over and I explained my plan. Block off access to the rest of the house, open the front door, remove the vent cover and leave the bathroom door open.

Sandra didn't like that idea and went over to her sister's place.

We went back to Serge's house to borrow some plywood to block off access to the kitchen and the living room.

Then we played the waiting game. And waited. And waited. Once in a while we checked the vent and could see the squirrel peeking out from the vent pipe.

More waiting.

Serge suggested we bait it with peanut butter on a cracker, left on top of the cabinet beneath the vent. We did that.

More waiting.

Serge went home.

And more waiting.

Not a peep from the squirrel.

I guess it was just too tired and decided that sleep might be the best idea.

Sandra came home and we tried to figure out what to do. Do we put the vent cover back on or leave it off and close the bathroom door, with the hope that it'll come down? Or seal it up there again and be back at square one in the morning?

We chose option #1. There's nowhere for it to go once it comes down.

I closed the door and we blocked off the bottom with some plywood, and leaned a flat of water and coke cans against it.

With a little luck, the squirrel will remain quiet during the night. Regardless, I'm sure Sandra won't have a very good night's sleep. It'll no doubt be up early to continue its adventures. Hopefully it'll come down. If we can hear it moving around the floor in the bathroom, we'll block off access to the kitchen and living room again, open the front door and then open the bathroom door... and hope that it can see the way to freedom and take advantage of it.

God help us if it decides to hop over the plywood barriers. ;)

Sandra said if we can't get it out in the morning, she may stay home for when the exterminator arrives.

Vent Critter - Part II

We came home from work, hoping that our little vent visitor had managed to leave. Unfortunately, it's still there.

I opened the bathroom door to find at least twice the amount of vent dust sitting on the toilet seat.

As I stood staring up at the vent, I heard some movement. Not as much as this morning, but it's definitely still in the vent. I figure there's a bend in the vent pipe that runs horizontal to the corner of the wall and then goes straight up inside the wall to the roof. It's probably sitting in the horizontal section wondering "WTF?"

The exterminator comes tomorrow. Apparently, he doesn't need access to the inside of the house. He said to turn on the vent fan before we leave, and he's going to get at it from the vent exit on the roof. That's a long way up. Or down, depending on your point of view. How the hell is he going to get whatever it is out? Some kind of long grabber thingy?

I hope our little visitor stays quiet tonight. Sandra isn't happy at all, and I'm sure she's not going to sleep very well, even if it does remain quiet. Our cat, Sam, is going to go berzerk if she hears anything at night. She already walks around the house at night meowing at nothing in particular.