Monday through Thursday I do a round trip from Durham to Greensboro as I attempt to carry a full load of classes at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. So far (at about halfway for this semester) my four classes are going well. Monday to Thursday I'm on the highway around two full hours give or take. I see some strange things.
Today I saw a Hummer, strange all on its own, but this one was a company vehicle for a company which was touting something called "4-D" imaging for sonograms or whatever those wierd in-the-womb pictures are called. So this Hummer has, across its wide rear, the name of the company flanked by two mirror image "4-D" scrunched-up in-the-womb baby faces, each at least two feet tall and appropriately wide, which were an unnatural amber-gold computer screen color. The face was repeated on the side I passed, but just one image there.
Then I saw a gas tanker for the Sheetz gas station. Sheetz is a newcomer to the milieu of oversized trucker-oriented, car friendly, restaurant bedecked, megaliths which cozy up to the shores of I-40/I-85 between Durham and Greensboro. Sheetz is new to me and I have yet to get fuel there. I stopped once but they weren't open yet, it turned out all the cars at the pumps belonged to people who were learning how to work at Sheetz. For a place that wasn't open they seemed to have an awful lot of people working there. Training is a big job, and just from what I saw on that drive through and from what I can intuit from there billboards, Sheetz is quite an operation.
I have heard rumours that one of there selling points is more, maybe better, food with the option of ordering it via your gas pump. I guess it was just a matter of time before someone put together the fast-food drive-through sqawk-box and your smart, helpful, friendly 21st c. gas-pump. With the gas truck Sheetz again caught my eye with their bold red color scheme, but I realized that they had done something I hadn't seen before. They had turned their gas tanker truck into a billboard for their luscious food-oriented gas-station-convenience store. Something about seeing food so brightly and boldly represented on the side of a tank full of gas was unsettling to me.
Maybe Sheetz will eventually patent a gas-pump which will include a hose we can stick down our throats and for three bucks get super-food-slush pumped down our gullet while we feed the needs of our autos. Hey, as long as I can use my card at the pump and avoid all human interaction, I'm all over it. Sanitation would be an interesting issue but just think of the millions to be made off whatever disposable plastic solution is come up with.
In other notes: Dr. Marc Bregman, my professor in the class devoted to the story of Abraham and his offering of his son to God, whom I like very much as a professor and who seems to be a generally likeable and good person, had worn the same shirt, or set of identical shirts, to every class up until last week. The class meets once a week, Tuesday nights. So for 5 or 6 Tuesdays in a row Dr. Bregman sported the same shirt, or indentical shirts. I like the thought of such wardrobe discipline and organization. I've heard stories of eccentrics who wear the same outfit daily in order to save time, etc. But I've never managed anything near such a state of discipline or organization.
The shirt Dr. Bregman wore wasn't one I would chooose to wear for six Tuesdays running, but it suited him, and regardless our differences in taste, I respect his consistency. However, last week, he wore a different shirt. And this week he wore the same different shirt, or one identical to it. Maybe he is on a six week rotation. How many shirts would he need to cover such a rotation? My girlfriend thinks I have too many shirts. But I'm not sure she would be down with the daily shirt plan on a six week rotation. Maybe some day, when I'm older and wiser, I'll enjoy the wardrobe discipline and simplicity of such men as Dr. Bregman. I could do a lot worse, I reckon. Stay posted for updates of the Dr. Bregman Shirt Watch here at The Feltonian Institute of random observations and rambling cogitations.
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3 comments:
I had a professor who wore the same shirt (or the same type and color of shirt) to class every day, 2-3 times a week, for maybe two months. I think it was a short-sleeved blue oxford. Then, one day -- I think it was some sort of parents-visiting-college day -- he wore a white oxford. Maybe even long-sleeved. I think he wore different shoes too. We were all floored. Obviously not much learning took place that day. ;)
I stopped at the Sheetz off I-85 near Mebane for the first time about 6 weeks ago. Made a good rendezvous point: hard to miss. Damn, that was about the most extensive place I've ever been to for gas. Inexpensive gas, too. I passed on the food; I'd like to hear from someone who's actually eaten there. They have electronic menus inside too, so you can punch your order in without talking to an order-taker.
Rebekah loves Sheetz. In fact, she actively endorses Sheetz food.
Wow -- that's wild. I would have bet that it sucked. Well, I guess I'll have to get me some Sheetz food the next time I'm up that way.
You know, what they could add would be roller-skaters delivering the food to the pumps when you order it from there. Now that would be cool. :)
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