Love the Krystal

I found myself in Atlanta this week on a fairly unexpected business trip. Many people would take a business trip as an excuse to grab expensive food. Not me ... or at least not this trip.

I arrived just before midnight on Wednesday night. Got my car. Got the GPS going. Used the iPhone and looked up a Krystal on the way to the hotel. So many Krystals on the interstate are 24 hours that I didn't even ponder this one being closed. But ... yes ... it was. CURSES! Foiled again.

The next day after my business meeting was over you know what I did. Into the GPS I go. So what if it was only 3pm, I had skipped lunch for this!

15 minutes later I'm blissfully "snacking" away on 2 cheese Krystals (no pickles), a Krystal Chik, and (just to REALLY over do it) 2 Double Krystals with cheese (I swear I only ordered 1 ... the woman taking the order "just knew").

Sidebar: I miss the South :( I know alot of people who haven't lived there don't "get" the area ... but you can actually leave a drive-through with a smile just because the person taking your order had a good attitude and sense of humor plus a big smile. You just don't get that other places. I have plenty of -pleasant- experiences with service everywhere, but only in the south is my spirit raised by the attitude most people have.

Heck ... tell me the last time THIS happened to you. I was staring at the traffic on Peachtree and cringing. It was backed up a mile ahead and half a mile behind. So what did I do? I started sorting my bag of amazing little cheeseburgers. I wasn't even looking at the road. Some stranger saw me waiting there, stopped their car (blocking traffic behind them so that I could get out) and waited for me to look up (which was a good 20 seconds, a lifetime in the traffic pattern) so that I could get out. Here in Colorado you might get that if you eyeball all the people in traffic but if you take more than 3 seconds to start moving then you lose your chance. And most other places? You're just gonna be waiting until a traffic light shows you mercy.

Anyway, back to the food! Krystals are one of those foods best enjoyed in 1 manners:

1. While driving
2. While drunk

Needless to say the 2 SHOULD be mutually exclusive. Since I hadn't had a drink in a couple of weeks I did the only thing left: I ate on the road. Where was I going? Nowhere. I had hours to get to to the airport (there is irony in that fact ... since this WAS Atlanta traffic). I didn't even turn on the GPS. I just started munching away and enjoying the traffic. Oh yes, this was like a little homecoming. Too bad I didn't have enough time to digest the meal before getting to the airport later that night (sadly for the person next to me during the 3 hour flight, too, but luckily she was a sleeper).

NOTE TO KRYSTAL MANAGEMENT: PUT A KRYSTAL IN THE ATLANTA AIRPORT PLEASE! I've had fresh Krispy Kreme in the airport in Sydney, Australia ... surely I should be able to get Krystals in the Atlanta airport!

It is funny, since when I first moved to Alabama in 1991 I wouldn't THINK of eating at Krystal. I spent 4 years deftly avoiding Krystal even when when it was so late at night that there were only 2 options (needless to say I ate a lot of Taco Bell in those days). Then ... one day ... I caved. My life was never the same since.

Yes, I know just how low the quality of the meat is. In fact I know first-hand since one time in 2003 my (now ex) wife went to Tennessee to visit her parents and I convinced her to stop at a Krystal and buy a full, uncooked, 20-burger pack of meat and buns and keep it in an iced cooler all the way home. I'm not kidding, that 20-pack of patties had enough fat that, when rendered, filled almost 2 mason jars. I was tempted to make tallow candles but decided people would be a bit too disgusted by the candles smelling like onions and hamburger.

I can't explain it. All I know is this: I'm probably better off with no Krystal available to me (I'd have to drive 600 miles ... and I have been known to go an hour out of my way on roadtrips to get some). But I'm not happier because of it :)

Why I watch even fewer commercials

Ok this is just a little rant posting, nothing serious.

I've been a DVR user for 7 or 8 years now. TiVo for a long time, DirecTV HD DVR for a year now. In that time I pretty much only watched 10% or so of the commercials. Yes, I admit it, I'm one of those people that broadcast TV hates.

Recently I moved my office (I work from home) to my living room. That lets me heat less of my house in the winter and only have 1 room with "loud things" (obviously I'm a bachelor at the moment). As such I have a tendency to leave the news or something similar on in the background throughout the day. Meaning I consume many many more commercials even if I don't actively watch them.

Which leads me to my rant. Why do only SOME commercials seem to be encoding audio in stereo-only? Since I'm using a Dolby PL2 capable receiver (which would convert stereo to a 5 channel output, meaning most sound goes through the center speaker) it is obvious that this is very purposefully done since if it was a "normal" stereo encoding it would go through my center.

This is flat annoying. Stereo sound on these commercials is also significantly louder. And in my case the right stereo speaker is directly over my head. I can bypass it by -forcing- a 5 channel output, but that means the receiver isn't being allowed to adapt to the sound in the best way.

Anyway, I can only assume that they are doing this on purpose as an attention grabber. Especially since they jack the volume up so high as well on these.

The net result?

When these blaster commercials come on I tend to completely turn the system off for an hour or two so I can keep focusing on what I'm doing. Probably better for me anyway.

But surely this isn't what is intended?