Sunday

Happy Birthday to 2! She is Daughter of the Day! (That little wisp of hair in the wind just adds to the character of the picture!)

Bright and sunny here, but not all that warm. And I think that they have wind in the afternoon's forecast. That may relegate me to the bike path after the battle I had with the wind in the country on yesterday's ride.

I see where Robert Mondavi passed away last week. His obituary notices have credited him as a key architect in the development of the Napa Valley wine industry. I was never a big fan of his wines, but since my interest in wine has evolved mostly in the last 10 years, my likes and dislikes as it might relate to his products isn't all that relevant. I did associate his wines with altar wine for most of my first 50 years.

It is interesting from a historical perspective to look at a person, or a small group of people, and realize that he, she, or they, was/were Ground Zero in a phenomenon that registers on a society's equivalent of the Richter Scale. The phenomenon doesn't need to be socially responsible, just measurable. I'd say that today's California wine industry qualifies.

Bill Gates and Steven Jobs will obviously be remembered as having been in the leading edge of computing systems. Will we have Al Gore to thank for the Internet? How 'bout the guy who came up with Legos? The receipe for Coca Cola? $3 coffee?

I joke a little about the variance in staff performance that is often evident at this SB's. I don't think that they truly have an A-Team. As a general rule, the Sunday AM crew struggles when the drive-through gets backed-up and the inside line is steady. I'm not sure what the average tenure is for a barista, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was something less than a year. Few of the employees see this as a long-term deal, and many are either students or otherwise displaced from their primary career. The job is not stress-free, and the pay isn't that great. Working for the general public can't be fun. But the customers keep coming back.

Here's my list of worst jobs that I can think of, not necessarily in order of disgust:

1. Rush-hour toll booth collector on C-town expressways.
2. Animal shelter cage cleaner.
3. McDonald's fries cooker. (Does a person actually "cook" fries?)
4. Circus parade "sweeper".
5. H&R Blocker tax preparer at a Walmart walk-in desk.
6. Airport departure terminal "No-Parking-Zone" enforcer.
7. Holiday Inn Night Desk Manager most Friday or Saturday nights.
8. High School Assistant Principal for Discipline.
9. Highway repair sign holder for "go" and "stop" when it's one lane only.
10. Road kill retriever.

Ok. Hope everyone has a great day. BBQ with 2 later.

BCOT