Get Out & Go Inside!!!

I have a suggestion that I believe has the potential to make a huge difference in the air quality in Bakersfield. I think they should make it illegal for more than two people per car to order food in the drive through. If you’re planning on ordering enough for an army and you KNOW it’s going to take a while for your order to be filled, park your car, get your lazy ass inside and place your order at the counter.

I can not tell you how many times I have pulled up to a drive through, placed my order for one bean burrito, taken my place behind a car and proceeded to sit there idling for the next twenty minutes. By the time the workers inside have shoveled over the multiple bags of food, and gallons of jumbo-sized sodas, there are a dozen cars in line behind me. If it’s legal to do that, then it should also be legal for me to get out of my car and beat the crap out of the offender. Fair’s fair.

Here’s a great example. Just a couple of weeks ago was heading out of town to attend the Blogher conference and I needed to run a few quick errands first. After leaving the car wash I was driving past Sonic and decided a cherry-limeade sounded good, so I pulled into the drive through. Keep in mind Sonic has those little stalls you can pull your car into to order and turn the car off. So in my mind, the only people using the drive through would be people with quick, simple orders like mine. One medium cherry-limeade. That’s it.

I pull up to the window and find a beat down VW Jetta in front of me. Inside were two white trash men, missing teeth, oily hair, wife beaters, and all. As the girl working inside poked her head out to collect their cash, the men appeared to be smitten and began to chat with her. I decided this was a great opportunity for me to practice acceptance and used the time to tidy up the inside of my car.

After about five minutes I looked up and saw the girl passing a large bag to the men. “Okay,” I thought, “now they’ll go.” Nope. The car continued to sit there. By this time another car had pulled up behind me. For next five minutes I watched the men talking away in the car. Finally the girl passed them a couple of large sodas and again I thought, “Okay, NOW they’ll go.” Nope.

By this time I was mad. I glared at the window looking to make eye contact with the girl and resisting the urge to honk my horn. Another five minutes passed. The girl appeared again, this time with an ice cream dessert of some sort. At last she looked at me. Not with an apologetic look but more with a look of wondering how pissed off I was. She quickly returned inside. The men in the car continued to sit there. One of them began to eat. I could not imagine what else they had coming, but after sitting there for almost 20 minutes I wasn’t going to sit around and find out. I backed up, managed to get out from between the two cars, and peeled out, hanging a big, fat bird out the window.

Not only would limiting the amount people can order in a drive through be good for the environment, it would also do wonders for my blood pressure.