I meant to post this months ago when I finally accepted I couldn’t be part of normal society without getting vaccinated. I gave up, lined up, and got it done.
I’m now waiting the two weeks it takes after the second shot to be considered “vaccinated”. But it’s starting to look like we’ll be getting booster shots for the rest of our lives, like getting a regular oil change. Covid rules and regulations seem to be made up as we go along, so we’ll see.
There used to be a great donut shop, Hoffman’s, on a side street near the railroad station here . They made long, solid custard-filled donuts they called Hindenburgs, or maybe Heidelbergs or Hindemiths, something like that, even longer than the “Long John” model pictured below. Sadly, Hoffman’s closed years ago due to a family squabble.
Once I can go out into the world again, I’m looking forward to walking into the surviving local bakery and getting a dozen donuts (not Dunkin’, although Dunkin’ is okay in a pinch).
I’m also looking forward to seeing the nice lady who works the counter there. I like how quietly appreciative she is when someone leaves a tip that’s more than just the few coins they get back in their change. Some people don’t leave anything. I’m looking forward to leaving her a generous tip as much as I am to getting some donuts. After all, we’ve been separated for almost two years.
I don’t understand why some people think it’s okay to leave a cheap tip, or no tip at all. They’ve probably never worked a service job. I have a low opinion of cheap tippers like our Canadian neighbor in Florida. He was a CPA and owned his own accounting practice, so why so cheap? What does it take to leave a little extra?
Maybe it’s a cultural thing. Here at the Jersey shore, we get a lot of Canadian tourists, and the locals have always considered the Quebec license-plate slogan “Je me souviens” to translate as “We don’t tip”.
In general I don’t like cheapskates, but I allow some leeway for girls. Girls don’t seem to consider what it’s like to work a crappy job like waiting tables or being a counterperson. Once I had lunch with two girls from work and we split the tab three ways. When we were leaving, I saw they had left lousy tips and I suggested they put more money down because we might want to go back there some day.
Mimi and I and some other couples from Insco went to a restaurant called “What’s Your Beef?”, where butchers help you pick out your own cut of meat from an old-fashioned butcher case. We agreed ahead of time we would split the tab. The bill was fairly stiff and I guess this one couple was economizing, because the husband (not the one that worked with us, the wife did) didn’t want to leave a tip. There wasn’t anything wrong with the service, it was fine, he just didn’t want to. We basically bullied/shamed him into leaving 15% on his share but he wasn’t happy about it. He said “let her dive for it” and dropped his tip into a half-full glass of water.
Well, I started out talking about donuts but ended up talking about tipping, sorry. Actually, I started out talking about the pandemic, but that was mostly a way to lead into talking about donuts and giving people decent tips for decent service.
Oh, one more thing. Our government, that’s always giving money away to people we don’t know in other countries, says we should limit our mailman’s holiday tip to $25. Say what?! This is a guy who brings us our mail faithfully, never missing, six days a week, rain or shine, Try and keep me from giving him a decent tip. Merry Christmas, Henry!