Come on baby, drive my car....

I'll bet that you don't know what this car is. One thing I can say is that you couldn't pay me to drive one.  With that being said, my latest drive home from RQS's place took over twice as long as it should have taken, and some of that was caused by me refusing to listen to routing instructions from my phone's GPS app.  At least, we were able to see "The Automat" this weekend, as we didn't need a car to get into NYC.

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Yesterday, I drove to RQS's place to visit with her and to see "The Automat" at the Film Forum.  She offered me the choice of watching this film or The Godfather in a 4k restoration.  Given that I can watch the latter on either of 2 days this coming week, it made more sense to see the documentary while it's in the theater.

One of the things about watching documentaries is that one has to have a moderate interest in the subject for it to hold your attention.  Given that the last Automat closed roughly 60 years ago, it's amazing that this restaurant chain still tugs at the hearts of many New Yorkers and Philadelphians.  Yet, it does, and it's a concept that should have been able to survive had the chain had good management in turbulent times.

I won't go into my analysis of the chain's demise.  However, I could have done some historical work for a thesis to be presented at a business school.  Let's say that I could see several easy to fix reasons for the corporation's demise, and wish that someone in power had explored them before shutting down the chain.

We didn't go to The Automat.

 

Years ago, when I used to work in the NYC suburbs, I wanted to go to the last Automat to eat.  Sadly, by the time I had the time to do so, the last Automat had closed down.  Today, RQS and I were supposed to go into NYC and see "The Automat", a documentary about the Horn & Hardart Automat restaurants that used to dot New York City and Philadelphia. Unfortunately, the cold and raw weather, we ended up going to a local restaurant for dinner.  (We'll try to see this movie next weekend.)

RQS is warming up to the idea of having a bi-gendered boyfriend.  But then, she is also a person who could not find a traditional place in life, and has had to find her own non-traditional path.  Although I will not go into any details, RQS went to a good school and couldn't be part of any of the usual social groups because of her unique situation. Like me, she was a square peg that couldn't fit into a round hole.  Luckily this gave her time to study and figure out what she wanted to do with her life.  And from what I can tell, she was likely good at what she did during her career.  Yet, in the end, Covid brought an end to it.

Being with RQS is easy at this stage of getting to know each other.  I've already told her about my falling-outs with both XGFJ and FCP, and she hasn't yet run away.  Maybe, just maybe, I may have found a keeper....