This too is Yonkers
by Eric Schoen
Well friends, I learned a very important lesson last week. You may remember that I was due to have right knee replacement surgery, the first step in my journey to good health. Well, it didn’t happen. Part of it was miscommunication, the other part is medicine!
I had some dental work which I didn’t realize through miscommunication had not been completed. I called my orthopedic surgeon to ask whether I should complete the work prior to surgery, and he said STOP! No knee surgery until the dental work was complete. And so, the knee surgery scheduled to take place last Wednesday didn’t happen.
No knee surgery because of dental issues? What prey tell does one have to do with the other?Science was never my strength from kindergarten through the receipt of my MBA in Financial Administration. I had a quick but critical science lesson from my doctor last week.
With incomplete dental work if by chance I got an infection in my mouth the infection could travel through my body right to my knee. If the new knee got infected they might have to replace the new knee. If the infection in the new knee got so bad and infected the leg, it might have to be amputated. Amputated? OY!
My doctor, a noted surgeon invited me to come to his office for a day and watch how many people didn’t tell him or other orthopedic surgeons of possible issues related to their bodies that affected their new knees or other surgeries they do that he had to correct.
Like any normal human being with his bags packed for a hospital stay and ready to go onto rehabilitation I was devastated. When I calmed down and talked to friends and relatives in the medical profession, I started to realize that my doctors decision was the right one.
One friend even told me that they stopped his surgery because he had a very bad cold and the doctor didn’t want to risk infection! My medical friends said, ‘Eric, you should be thankful you have a good Orthopedic Surgeon who made the right call before you got into a lot of trouble.’
So my journey to good health has been interrupted. I hope ‘Journess Interruptus’ are the right words. The morale of the story is before you have any surgery make sure you tell the doctor everything going on with your body. The things you might consider little or unrelated might mean a lot. A lesson I learned and want to share with you.
My dental work is complete and my surgery will be rescheduled. What is meant to be is meant to be. Got me to think that my parents must be watching over me from heaven. I am slowly getting over the devastation and look forward to successful knee replacement surgery infection free in the very near future! Now on to some other important issues of the day!
STARBUCKS NEEDS CUSTOMER TRAINING
Last week, Starbucks stores throughout the country closed their doors early to provide racial bias training for employees. This, after an episode in Philadelphia where customers waiting for a business associate were arrested by the police for sitting in one of their stores without ordering something to eat or drink.
Bad call by the Starbucks partner to call the police. Bad call by the police to remove the customers from the store and bring them to the station house. Did this one isolated episode mean that thousands of partners or Baristas as they are called across these United States needed racial bias training? I think of the nice barista Liz at the store on Bronx River Road in Yonkers. Liz is the sweetest, kindest person in the world who does her job really well. She doesn’t need, nor do most of the baristas I interact with racial bias training.
I have been a Starbucks fan since One of the first stores in Westchester opened in Bronxville. 20 Years ago. As someone who does a lot of his writing and gets inspiration for his writing in Starbucks, the training that is most needed is customer training. Training on how to be a human being when ordering a beverage and adding cream and sugar at the condiment bar.
How many times have I seen customers adding cream and sugar to their coffees and leaving the condiment bar a mess? Customers placing their orders and being rude to the barista taking their orders. Customers ordering the wrong drink or forgetting to tell the barista to add something they wanted to their no foam, skim, decaf, upside down latte.
I kind of thought most Americans had visited a Starbucks store during their lifetime. Maybe I am wrong. I have witnessed people come into Starbucks and their reaction is like they are visiting another planet. Hey, it’s just coffee!
Parents coming in with their kids, the kids running around in an environment where people are walking around handling hot coffee. One time I saw a grandparent with his grandchild at Starbucks. After fixing his coffee he didn’t put the cover on correctly and it came off, hot coffee pouring onto the 3 or 4 year old. It was last summer. Thank god the kid had long sleeve pants and a long sleeve summer shirt on otherwise the kid was going to suffer serious burns!
Parents sitting down with their kids, consuming Starbucks and non-Starbucks food and leaving the mess for someone else to clean up. The worst thing is when someone orders the delicious crumb coffee cake. That makes a mess beyond belief that customers leave and don’t clean up after themselves.
Customers ordering in an obnoxious way to the barista. One man came in and said he wanted his drink ‘quick’. Mobile ordering where customers grab a drink and start drinking it not realizing it was not theirs forcing the barista to remake the drink. Baristas burning themselves in the scalding water environment they work in when customers are beyond rude.
People not knowing how to order Even a basic cup of coffee. Folks not having enough money for their drinks as they prepare to take the Metro North train to their $200,000 a year job expecting to ‘pay next time.’ Customers drinking half their drink and then complaining it’s not right requiring the barista to prepare a new drink. Kids seeing or hearing of a new Starbucks colorful drink, ordering it, not liking it and asking for their money back.
I could go on and on. Now that baristas are trained how to deal with racial bias, customer behavioral training is needed. Training how to act like a human being. Bottom line, customers need to be trained how to act Like grownups when ordering a cup of coffee.
TALL TRUCKS PASSING UNDER LOW BRIDGES
County Executive George Latimer is not the first elected official to tackle the tall trucks passing under low bridges and getting stuck situation that plaques Westchester. George, good luck. My solution. Stop the dam trucks from getting on the parkway in the first place. Put up a device similar in shape to a a street light. If the truck hits the top of the post, the part from which the light would protrude that truck ‘ain’t getting on that road.’
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM or download the SIMPLE RADIO app for free from the APP STORE
