San Diego: Hamburgers, Gentlemen Clubs, and ‘In ‘n Outs’

The Now    

A sign in a diner on the way to San Diego.... Made me wonder what sweeter meant????
A sign in a diner on the way to San Diego…. Made me wonder what sweeter meant????

 

It was very special riding my bicycle up the driveway into my Sister’s home. And this on 4th of July. It had been a long hot day, and being excluded from the highway arteries I ended up doing quite a few more miles than the ‘lucky’ motorist with GPS navigation would have done. I only got ‘lost’ once, and so there we go the NZ to San Diego leg of Trumped by Nature done as sustainably as I knew how….!

Wild San Diego
Wild San Diego

Many have a sense that I’d have been immersed in gridlock traffic most of the way, but I have to say, the roads were very bicycle friendly mostly with generous bicycle lanes, and the last 10km had a great dirt track that I had all to myself. My sister lives about 25 miles NE of downtown, and pretty nice natural area.

Hamburger time!
Hamburger time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early the day before my sister had asked me if I ate hamburgers, I know trying to find out how serious I was with my commitment to ‘No Meat for One Point Zero’?  I had decided to give One Point Zero a rest day, go with the flow and just embrace the warmth and 4th of July hospitality of being with my sister and her family.

True to the 4th July spirit it was full on gourmet BBQ’d hamburgers, and catching up on life in San Diego and in all its stories. It suddenly dawned on me how the Whole American culture is threatened at a very simple level with One Point Zero:  Hamburgers, man?  Wow, why had that taken me so long to realise that even the smallish step of stopping meat consumption would have a huge impact on America’s fast food business, but even more importantly challenge a key element of American culture.

Well as I am rapidly finding out this US Machine has no intention of changing, and McDonalds don’t seem to feel that a One Point Zero scenario is a threat!

This is what I got from the internet re rankings of vegetarian fast food offering, and how McDonalds stacks up:

McDonald’s doesn’t have much for vegetarians. Their fries are not vegetarian, they don’t have veggie burgers—it’s not even slim pickings, it’s no pickings. They do mention on their website that items can be ordered without meat, so at least there’s that.  (This article was from September 2015, maybe since then the company’s Strategy Department have changed things to accommodate a ‘One Point Zero’ business case scenario!

Read more at  here

‘In n Out’, and Round about!

The subjects around the BBQ moved around from the ‘old peoples’ reminiscing to our attempts to find connections beyond the niceties to the passions and interests of the younger generation of Jen and Jason. I was fascinated at what got engagement and what didn’t, and as the subject moved to beef, burgers, and zero point one, I decided to enjoy my rest day’ forgo the One Point Zero stuff, and explore the fun side. Never having had kids, but having been in many parent- young adult social situations, it often hits me how the pace of change in society is creating this huge interest disconnect between generations. All you parents out there will know this much better than me, and I sense many of you have your effective strategies to engage.

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Sensing the burger story having run its course, and the disinterest gap growing I decided to throw caution to the wind and explore a bridging interest:  I asked if anyone knew about ‘In n’ Out’ and showed them the photo below, and said that the night before I’d stayed in an area of Oceanside that must have been seedy, because right next to my motel was ‘Main Attraction’ Gentlemen’s club, and next to it ‘In ‘n Out’.  I told them I’d been and decided to explore, and the logo for In ‘n Out’ was so much more clear in explaining its offering! I saw Jen and Jason, looking at me as though I’m crazy, and Ros and Bob looking at me with “Surely Howard doesn’t go to those places’ look, and then Ros moving as the ‘protective parent wondering “Hey I wonder where this going? I said and when I walked in I saw this sign and then new I was in the best place of the two….:

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A burger joint!

Oh well, everybody laughed and all for different reasons, and that was so wonderful to experience. Exploring further Jen and Jason told me that contrary to me thinking it was a one off / small burger chain it was huge, growing and maybe even the coolest of the plethora of burger franchises.  Well as an old school simpleton, I suggested that was because of the provocative name and suitably matched logo…  The ‘young adults’ were in not quite aligned on that, and in their debate they did confirm that many do see the ‘clever’ conations of the name and Logo and it is discussed by their crowd!!  Being a real fan of ‘In n Out’, Jason asked me if I’d ordered their ‘Double-double’ burger? I now know its their special of the specials, and said “Yes, I did too, Jason and it was amazing!” One of the older adults was shaking their head, and “surely you didn’t Howard, I thought you were off beef, because of One Point Zero?” I said to her: Don’t worry sister of course I wandered next door and tried out the ‘competitors ‘In ’n Out’ offering at the Gentleman’s Club!  Well that certainly had us all bonded as a family in some bizarre common interest way!

So there you go I did have a full day off……!

Yesterday was back full on living the life and dealing with the challenge of even thinking about being a One Point Zero-er in a society that is so slick and organised that one is so easily swept up in its ‘Two-Point-Zero’ plus momentum…..

I knew ‘Trumped by Nature’ would hit its next challenge in dealing with how my ‘struggle’ for a One-Point-Zero life will conflict with my sister’s and her family life, and we discussed this up front and are ready for open discussion and debate.  This is all part of trying to live within society but also aligned with my soul, but then adding the additional family challenge, as my sister is my sister and not just society….!  Not that there are huge issues, but where there are way of life conflicts I’m being forced to bring them up and have us talk about them. This has all been very valuable, and we all have learnt a lot and are growing in the process. I’ll share more as appropriate, because managing relationships as one moves to a “Without Nature, we are Nothing” way of life, I have found I hit some fundamental conflicts with Western norms, and this is when the going can get quite painful.

AAAh, life on the Cap Capricorn was so simple hey!

Next blog will be in 3 or so days….