Home
Pitchfork
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Restaurants & Cafes
- Hits: 1076
Now, freshly back and laundered from a few days up in high places and time for a civilized dinner before I'm off to the Balfour Work Camp.
Pitchfork, a charming little "fine dining" place in Nelson. I sit at the bar (no reservation), have a steak, blue rare.
Service, fine, steak, fine, not exceptional.
But I'm presented with the debit machine and looking at the tipping options I just about flip my lid. This is what's killing tipping culture:
"Tip Assist". First - the "Lowest Option" - default 18% - which is in reality 20%, because you're tipping on taxes as well.
Now, in my world, 20% is a great tip. Everything done well, exceptional service, etc, etc.
Here, it's the worst tip. After that you can tip 20% all the way up to 30% - and the machine makes you feel as if an 18% (really 20%) tip is "not enough" or "Cheap".
This is what's killing the the restaurant industry. Tipping, in itself a controversial subject, is made worse by owners expecting people to treat their waiters like their doctor or dentist - I mean, really, if you can't make a living wage on 15%-20% tips then you're in the wrong industry.
There are a whole host of other issues - housing/rent to be paid, etc, etc - but those are problems everyone faces and are systemic to the economy at the moment, and are not the problem of customers. As food prices and costs rise, so do a servers tips, and so - this is comparatively a well indexed or hedged against inflation profession.
Anyways, every time I see a machine that goes above 20% I'm calling bullshit. It's the basest form of gouging and begging and does the entire industry a great disservice.
Oh - and even though where I work the highest option is 20% a good many customers tip higher. That's nice, but it's not the expectation. This is getting fucking ridiculous.
Jeep Yoga
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Blog
- Hits: 944
So, breaking myself into the new jeep. It runs, well, with a few quirks. The Passenger door doesn't open. Sorry Hitchhikers. And the door behind drivers doesn't open. And don't dare try and lock the drivers door or you'll spend hours crunching yourself in other doors and crawling over rubbish to get in. Which I have done and learned the hard way, this jeep, just keep it messy enough no one wants to break in.
It came with a single key. And I would jostle it and think to myself "I should get another one cut" - but - I've never lost a vehicle key in my life.
Until Monday, when I did, and had to pay the dealers to cut me another, $80.00 worth of "Ouch" in a hard lesson learned.
It overheats going up logging roads - just like every other one I've owned. Top up the rad fluid. Same problem. Clutch Fan need replacing? Maybe, but, god-damned - every time, every single one, wtf is up? I'll investigate a few other things first. There's no way - unless I find a solution - that this is getting to the top of Crystal Mountain, and - well, it's time. Overdue. There's a big dig gonna happen and great things will be found...
So, expeditions, twice to Revelstoke, Nakusp, the Valley, other areas, a few new roads, no great discoveries on the old ones; one new area I found of promise seems to hold great potential for giant quartz crystal clusters. None found, as of yet, but - well, the ground is good - and looks right, big area to be covered, merely need to do some poking with a shovel and pick and see what I can unearth. Sometimes great things are hidden in plain sight.
And so far that's it. Great swarms of mosquitos are everywhere, in town even, and worse upon the mountains, I've bought some "Off" but will definitely need some mosquito netting - there's just too many, this year they're insane. And hopefully it reduces the deer-fly and midge bites as well. Then there's the heat, 34 degrees the other day, sweating buckets, drenched, too fucking hot. These are the terms...
Now, tomorrow back to work, 30 hours in hell to buy myself a few days in the high-swamps of BC...
NYC - PSA re: Nuclear War
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: WTF
- Hits: 955
And, having watched New York's PSA re: Nuclear War, I'm a little bit like "WTF?"
I'm getting the feeling we're all being groomed to accept this as inevitable...
Around Trout Lake
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Images
- Hits: 1002
Racing to catch the sunset, unfortunately ended up on the east end of the lake, the scenery - trees blazing in the dying light - was from the west.
Ungodly mosquitos this year, the lake looked as if it were pouring....
Page 275 of 1096