Sometime Tuesday or Wednesday I got the sore throat symptoms of a cold. Thursday came and Jim’s Grandma arrived in town. We went to dinner at Don Pedro’s Mexican. Friday morning I ran out of cold medicine and decided to stop at Rite Aid to replenish my supply. The cashier greeted me, I replied or rather tried to reply. Words barely came out. I lost my voice. Since I work on the phones, this isn’t a very good situation. I didn’t want to call out sick since I’m trying to conserve my days off for when my mom comes to visit. I practiced my phone greeting in the car “Thank you for calling Big Ass Bank, this is Garret, how can I help you today?” Most of the words were inaudible or screechy. I arrived to work and explained the situation to a supervisor. Do I have to go home? If so, I understand. After all, fair is fair. I’m there to make them money so why pay me for something I’m supposed to do but can’t? Luckily, the powers that be said I could stay and go help out in one of the training classes.
I talked a lot in that class. It was enough that they could understand me but definitely not professional enough for a sales atmosphere. As the day went on, my voice improved so I did eventually go back on the phones for a couple of hours. I love the break off the phones and I love to teach, I was grateful for the “pardon” but I wasn’t going to abuse it. Maybe I abused my voice by talking so much in there?
Friday night we went to Red Robin. It took excessively long for a server to come to the table so I asked the hostess to move us to a completely different section. Things were good. We think the bartender was maybe our server and he was tied up making shakes and crap. I’m not a big fan of sharing my service with a bartender or a server who’s been assigned outdoor tables and indoor tables. Those typically seem to have the worst service… in my opinion.
On Saturday, my voice was probably at its worst. Perhaps I did abuse it at work? Jim and Grandma insisted I go to the doctor. I insisted otherwise.
We took a trip to Chimney Rock Park. Jim and I still have our annual passes. On the way, Jim showed us what he spotted the other day on alternate route to work. This house is from a nearby neighborhood:
The Christmas tree didn’t seem to have very many ornaments. Maybe the owners/renter left it in the house? In one of the other windows I could see a chandelier for a dining room and it appeared to have no furniture but deeper into the house I think there was a couch. Maybe it’s abandoned? Maybe not? Are they really late in taking down their tree or just a tad early in putting it up? We didn’t get out of the car to inspect so these are observations made from afar.
Continuing on with our trip… First we stopped for lunch at La Strada’s at Lake Lure. What a great view we get from the outdoor tables and the food is good too.
And a few photos from inside Chimney Rock park:
Hell yeah, we took the elevator. On this visit we skipped the falls.
On our way back home we stopped for gas.
Above: Where do I swipe my credit card?
Sunday we went on a ♫ 3 hour tour, a 3 hour tour ♪. Yes, a yacht boat tour using a Living Social.
Originally we were all to meet at Hickory Tavern, a local restaurant. The meet up place was changed a few days before to the Lucky Dog Bark and Brew which is a bar featuring an indoor dog park of sorts. It’s a cool place for well behaved dogs. There were no patrons there since we arrived at 11:30. Alcohol can’t be served until 12:00 on a Sunday. Excitedly, I ordered a Bloody Mary at noon! Yum. Maybe that will help my throat?
The registration period was 11:30 – 12:30. At 12:30 they loaded us onto a “party bus” by Ragin’ Uptown which I guess is the bus rental company. Yes, that’s what it said on the outside. Their website has a photo section that only has 2 photos and doesn’t properly illustrate the crappy bus we were on. We were packed on like sardines. We sat there, and sat there, awaiting people who were late. Why were they so late? They never got the email about the changed restaurant. They crammed more and more on eventually with people standing. The seat bottom was so deep, it was impossible to sit completely against the seat back. Who designed this? My tailbone was probably 9-12” away from touching the seat back. This was so uncomfortable to me.
We got to the marina, piled off and loaded onto the bus. Oh, not before some douche crew person gets on the bus and announces some simple rules, rudely and then admits that he’s very hung over. Really. So we board the boat… a two story 90 foot yacht. Pretty cool. I didn’t take photos of the boat itself but you can see them here at Luxury Yacht Charters website. It had been raining earlier in the day so all the seats were wet. The bar had no napkins (we assume because they could blow into the water?) so I went up to the crew members and recommended that they wipe down all the seats so we, the guests, could sit down. I don’t know if they ever did, I didn’t watch. The music started up, the bar was open and it got loud. We moved downstairs to a very empty little area. The day was cloudy and very cool to almost chilly.
Above: Jim had to get a rag and wipe off some seats.
Above: A small house on the lake.
Above: I posted this photo on Facebook and it was pointed out that the people behind us posed too.
Above: Who needs a boat when you have a helicopter?
Above: Another modest little home.
After the boat ride and “party bus” ride, we went to Mac’s Speed Shop for a late lunch. It’s a biker bar that serves BBQ food. It’s also a local chain that has about 6 or so locations. They had Deviled Eggs on the appetizer list. You never see that! We ordered them. The eggs were excessively firm. The BBQ we all had was good. Jim grabbed a bottle of BBQ sauce (there were 4 flavors) and read the “here’s the story” label on it and found a spelling error. Can you find it?
I posted it on Facebook which sparked a big conversation. I wanted to know if “must sought after” was correct. Perhaps it’s one of those phrases that people constantly say wrong? It seemed unanimous that it was indeed incorrect.
Unrelated but humorous to me was this old cigarette machine. I didn’t think they did these anymore:
Above: $7 a pack in case you were wondering.
Sunday night my voice began to degrade once again. Looks like Monday I’ll need to see a doctor. SIGH.
Earlier in the week, Mom and Aunt Donna spotted a billboard advertising an 
