Old Fashioned - or just different?

The other day on my way to work - I stopped (ok - didn't stop - did Drive Thru) to get Breakfast on my way to work.

"Hello - my name is Robert and I have a Chick-Fil-a addiction. I can't drive past one without ordering something. For breakfast - it is the Chicken Egg and Cheese Bagel, and for lunch/dinner - the caesar salad wrap. When one opened near my office in Chantilly I was there every morning - and the staff began to expect me to come by. One of the girls actually asked my name - so not only did I know them - but they knew me. That was a mistake. My wife was shocked to learn that the staff knew my name - she knew that I would learn their names - since it was on their shirts - but how did they learn mine?"

But I digress.

The one thing that I have noticed when I first came to Arizona almost two years ago - is that just about every place takes Debit/Credit cards - even drive thru fast food. Now I don't get that - if the purchase is under $10 - I prefer to pay cash. Mainly because -I don't like having to pay fees for the use of my own money - so using the Debit card is not that convenient. Sort of the same thing about using the credit card - I don't feel the need to finance my fast food meal.

(I have been poor between jobs - and it wasn't fun)

I carry cash - usually enough to get me through a couple of days - after the learning the lesson the hard way a couple of times while travelling. First it was getting held up due to weather on a flight home - and having to stay at a budget hotel away from everything incl ATM's, restaurants, etc. The second was forgetting to get cash before heading out on a business trip (Sky Harbor - doesn't have any ATM's out on the concourses past security - they are all before security).

So I take Friday's attitude towards cash

== DETOUR ==

Friday? Who is Friday? Friday is a courier in a Sci-Fi novel by the same name - Friday, by Robert Heinlein

It is one of my favorities - something I can get lost in and forget about my day.

She is a courier who specializes in getting info from anywhere to anywhere. So she knows how to use cash to grease the skids of a bureaucracy to get where she is going without leaving a trail.

Well - she goes on vacation - and forgets her own rule - and finds that a power struggle has left her without any $$$ (credit isn't just denied - the cards are zapped)!

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OK - so you know now I like to carry cash - and something about my morning drive-thru stop that started this rant.... but I think I have taken enough of your time today.

Stay tuned.