What some people consider dive bars I consider the best. A bar is a bar, a place to waste your time and money, whether it's a biker bar or one with brass rails, mirrors, expensive woodwork, and high dollar fare. A good ole bar burger can't be beat. Lou & Joes is an old roadside tavern that used to be pretty rough. Some still think it is while the more wise know it is the best place to eat in Mt. Airy, actually just outside of there. They have a dining room separate from the bar, as most places do. We used to have those places all around the outskirts of town, but only Lou & Joe's now. Neighboring small towns all have their own. Never had pizza at any of them.
I get pizza when I want something cheap and ready to eat. I'm fine with Domino's, Pizza Hut (we just lost ours), Papa John's, or local yocal. Our Pizza Hut had the central fire pit. I took the kids there many times. The oldest hole in the wall place, Cozy Corner, just went out. They had great subs and pizza. Yuppies want something different and "old" is a bad word for them. They are so stuck on "moving forward" it makes them blind to all the good that surrounds them. I don't think Cozy Corner had an 'app'. I'm going to vomit now, please excuse
. We have a regional chain in town, Vocelli's, and their pizza is really good. Only them and Domino's deliver out here. Vocelli's is cool because they will deliver to where the next one north (10 miles) overlaps. They don't leave a "no delivery" dead zone. Online Dominos thinks I am out of their delivery area. I'm a call it in guy anyway. I only go online to look at the menu
And I remember Shakey's from high school. We didn't have one nearby. We would all load up and travel to the nearest, probably only, one in the next county. They had a Gay '90s atmosphere, if I remember correctly. Maybe even an automated piano. Reminded my of the western saloon atmosphere, without the smoky corner poker game and ol' stink eye looking over my girlfriend. More eastern with the handlebar mustache/straw hat vibe. My aunt and uncle in Baltimore both sang in barber shop quartets. My aunt was in the Sweet Adelines, sang baritone. Aunt Doris smoked and drank whiskey. You know that voice. Uncle Ted sang tenor.
What I did yesterday is similar to what Paul did. Lost my job 1/21 and still trying to sign up for unemployment. I made the mistake of answering 'yes' to receiving benefits in the past. That was the only time I ever collected and it was in 1982. I was just being honest, should have answered 'no'. The system wouldn't allow me to register an account, kept asking me to log-in with username and password. They didn't have computers in '82!
I tried the live chat, automated was a joke. Live was hard to get through. 1st thing was press 1 for English. I'd push it and it would say "Press 3 to return to the menu", then ask to press 1 again, and again, and again! I pushed 1 rapidly several times as I yelled "I AM PUSHING 1 NOW!!! That got me over to automated chat
. That was no help. Try again, same thing, this time pushing 1 several times and yelling got me live chat. No help, just came up with I had to call and speak with an agent.
So it has been all this time trying off and on to get through. Got through last Friday and came up with I need to treat it as fraud to go back to that first question. I had to take pictures of both sides of driver lic, ss card, and birth cert to e-mail in. Did that Sunday. Been trying all week, off and on, to get a call through. Finally get someone on Thursday, told her I had sent that e-mail, and she asked me for all my info. Turns out I had an account registered 5/21 already using all my info but from a different e-mail. I had my identity stolen! It actually is a fraud case.
Next I had to call the fraud hotline. Dial, send, phone indicates calling a long time, then call ended w/o a ring. Ok, this is going to be fun. I decided to take a ride out to an antique mall so I could spend the day looking at cool stuff while repeatedly dialing. My house has a poor signal that sticks me in a chair by the window. I have three choices, actually. That's why I took the drive, where I knew a good signal would be maintained.
With phone on the seat, I'd tap the fraud hotline number, send, then speaker. Wait till call ended, do it again. After 23 attempts someone picked up, so I pulled over to complete the call. They are now in the process of clearing this up so I can finally register an account. They can't say how long this will take, not expecting quick results. I'm waiting till next week to try.