street side service and tipping

I've heard of street vendors selling pretzels (St. Louis Gus' Pretzels). I've heard of street vendors taking donations. I've heard of car-side to go where they bring your food out to your car. I've heard of things like that. But this...it's just weird. There are vending machines on the sidewalks in our town. Is that weird or is it just me? It just struck me as weird when I was driving home from work today. I got stopped by my second train in one day and then when I finally made it across the tracks and oh so close to home I looked to my right and there was a boy on a bike buying a soda. It just seemed weird. I've often times seen the Pepsi truck on a different corner filling that machine as well...it just seems odd...out of place. Please tell me if this is odd or if I'm just odd! Wait, don't tell me, cuz I know what you'll say.

On a different note. I wanted to talk a little bit about courtesy to waitresses. It is the waitresses job to get you your food and drink. If this is done in a timely manner and the waitress is not bothering you every other second then you should reflect what kind of a job was done in their tip. Let's say that you start with 20% and if your waitress did everything she was required to do without any big blunders then you give her the whole 20% and maybe even more if she was really good. If she messes up, forgets to get you things, ignores you constantly then you can start to decrease the amount of percentage of the tip. I just don't know if people out there know how to tip waitresses properly. I go through my days at work sometimes without ever getting a 20% tip. I think the average...or starting percentage is about 15%. Today I was blown away by a 4% tip. The bill was $51 and they gave me $2. Ugh! My first thoughts were, what did I do wrong. Maybe I wasn't fast enough or nice enough. It just kills me to get such a lousy tip. I don't want you to be uneducated. Even if your waitress doesn't do so good, you can at least try to give around 10%. If they totally sucked then yes, you should make it a little less. But really, have some common sense about tipping and as I always do, err on the side of too much.

One more thing, go fill your gas tank...rumors are that it could reach $4 or $5 if and when Rita hits Texas. Pray also that God would stop the storm in its tracks. God bless and know that you are loved!