Vexing Waxhaw question: Where's my left turning light?

I've always considered this a vexing Waxhaw question if there ever was one, but can anyone explain why there's no left turning light to turn onto Broome Street from 75?

Is there some valid reason for there not to be one? Is it better for cars to take the back routes on Broad, Church & Caldwell Streets to get around the backups here?

Beer is pouring into Waxhaw

And I doubt, like fictional Laramie cigarettes of Simpsons fame, the drivers have been ordered to ignore all stop signs & crosswalks.

I found out today compliments of an email from Mark that beer has been getting served at Southsiders since last Tuesday. And of course, I was there a week before that.

No taps as of yet, but they're on their way. I may have to stop in over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Any other local restaurants serving beer or mixed drinks yet? I always figured Southsiders would be first.

Grab a beer & celebrate that Waxhaw is still in one piece as far as I can tell.

Ronald McDonald doesn't push in his chair

I 'd heard the new McDonald's near Lowe's had opened. Correction, my boys had heard the new McDonald's had opened so we visited for lunch on Saturday.

As I'm sure you're aware even if you glanced driving by, there's no playground. That was a big downer for my boys, but obviously not enough to get them to change their mind about lunch there.

The inside was a little too modern for its own good in my opinion; the pastel yellow chairs have a large hole in the back essentially ruling out using the space between your back & chairback as a storage space for, say, little coats or a purse. And the chairs are rather wide and smooth, making it difficult to hang little jackets (or a purse) over without them falling to the floor.

But bear in mind, I have no history in critiquing decor so take it for what it's worth. But I much prefer the close-to-garish yellow overhangs on the outside to the look inside. I prefer utilitarian to showy, especially since we're not exactly talking fine dining here. Of course, this won't stop us from visiting McDonald's when we want to.

On the upside, Ronald McDonald happened to be visiting. Despite my kids turning shy every time he got near, they enjoyed his presence. Ronald himself sat down with us and talked with them a little before moving onto other tables & other kids. As we were leaving, I mentioned how cool it was that Ronald McDonald happened to be there & my oldest proceeded to tell me that "Ronald McDonald doesn't push in his chair." And anyone since who has heard about their encounter with Ronald McDonald hears this little tidbit as well.

So besides Ronald McDonald's poor manners (corporate bigwigs at McDonald's, I hope you're listening), it was a successful visit as far as the kids were concerned.

And for fast food gourmands, the new McDonald's should be a welcome addition to Waxhaw. I've been very displeased with service at Burger Kings' & Bojangles' drive-through. Too often the food was cold, missing or just unpleasant (and I mean unpleasant by fast food standards) when I got home. The Wendy's in Lancaster County was a nice addition but a tad far if not stopping by the way home. But now with a McDonald's nearby, maybe that will light a fire in its competitors for better service.

Last week

Not a whole lot going on here besides trying to keep up with the falling leaves. But that may be evident from the lack of posts.

I had off Veteran's Day, so I planned to take my oldest to the the veterans ceremony at noon, but it was canceled due to the rain. Supposedly rescheduled for Friday at noon, which is unfortunate as less kids could attend. Of course, I originally saw it was postponed via a Town of Waxhaw Facebook update that appears to no longer exist at this point. If a Facebook update announcing the postponement & rescheduling of a ceremony no longer exists, does the ceremony really occur? Sorry to get all philosophical on you.

Anyone in the vicinity of Southsiders last Friday at noon to confirm whether it did?

In lieu of the cancellation, we walked around town in a light mist & got hot dogs at Southsiders before heading home to play some marbles.

New Waxhaw Gazette

One more post before I join the rest of the family & hit the hay...

A new Waxhaw Gazette has been published by John Tiley. I hadn't followed the Historic Ventures development particularly closely, but I had thought it was a somewhat reasonable plan. However, John wrote the following:

And what is this about a 60 room hotel? I find that idea so implausible that I can’t really believe there is a hotelier behind it, after all any hotel that we would actually want here in Waxhaw has to be able to maintain a 60% occupancy to remain in business. That means 36 rooms have to be occupied, every night, seven days a week, all year long… here in Waxhaw? I am sorry, but, even in our wildest dreams; there isn’t a hope of generating that many “room nights” in our little town.

While I wasn't all that upset about the apartment complex (although I thought it'd be difficult to fill a 94-unit "sczillion"-unit apartment complex so far from Charlotte), I had somehow missed that they planned to include a hotel.

As John plainly writes, there is no way a hotel of that size could survive in Waxhaw, so it's inclusion in any redevelopment plan should essentially make that plan DOA as it'd be doomed for failure. It's mere inclusion in a plan should make residents wonder how well thought out the rest of the plan is, unless of course there's some ulterior motive that explains inclusion. Of course, there's this: one should never never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by incompetence.

Where were you during the servolution?

I was heading through town today on my way to a baseball game and I saw a bunch of volunteer's cleaning up around downtown Waxhaw with "Servolution" shirts on, at least that's what my squinting eyes were able to pick out.

Based on this town document (scroll down), this appears to have been organized by the Five Stones Church, whose may be better known to local children as the church who supplies the free bounce slide at the festivals. Utilizing more of my advanced detective skills, I stumbled across what can for all intents & purposes be considered a full confession.

Not only did the town of Waxhaw benefit, but so did the Main Street Grill. Both times I drove by, volunteers had their patio nearly filled to capacity. How about less eating & more working, guys?

Just kidding, of course. Looks nice.

Speaking of Facebook...

I see Brett Diller still hasn't updated his campaign's Facebook page after his recent election as town commissioner. Nor his campaign's official website for that matter. No money left in the campaign coffers for that?

Not a big deal, but strange that it hasn't happened yet. If your tech-savvy enough to have a campaign page on Facebook, you'd think you'd be savvy enough to have a little shout-out to your supporters. Just sayin'.

Addendum: I should note that Erin Kirkpatrick isn't any better. Her campaign website hasn't been updated either. And her campaign's Facebook page looks like some sort of Facebook ghost town.

Joyce Blythe doesn't have a campaign website or Facebook page as far as I can tell. Now that's an old-school politician.