Please tell me if I need to re-arrange the pagraphs below!
The question is: How to Carry Soft Drinks a 16-Mins walk home after a bus ride?
My day-program might be in person next month (March). Because I will be going in the morning to the day-program once a week (Mondays) before getting the bus home I will get food from mostly fast-food resturant nearby (BK, Tim Hortons’ McDonald’s, Five Guys)
Because of what I been doing since October 2020 going to get food once a month from resturants nearby (McDonald’s Harvey’s, Wendy’s and Tim Hortons) which is only a 10min walk from my house- I know how heavy the soft drinks (translation: Soda/Pop/Cola) and Coffee are on my arms.
When I normally in the past have gotten a bus home I normally get off at the main libarary for my town and its about 16min walk home in good weather. The others stops are also about the same distant from the bus stop to the house
So the question is any sugestions on how I can carry a soft drink home for at least a 16min walk home?
My Mom’s suggestion is that I take one of my “waterbottles” (empty Gateroade bottles) and pour the soft drink into that. But I’m not sure if its legal or I might get into trouble for trying to do that.
Well at McDonald’s in most of the ones I been to if you’re ordering inside which I would be-Soda fountain drinks are “Self -served” That the employee gives you a soda fountain cup and you go and put a drink in it (Ice Tea, Cola, Sprite). Then you put a lid on it. They sometimes give you a straw in the bag as well-not that I use the straws anyway. I’m trying not to rely on them too much these days.
If I’m getting something like a McFlurry as well as a soft drink and my main meal they might give me a “Drink tray” But still even with only one drink (and no McFlurry) its can still be kind of Heavy to just walk 10mins home with the item.
I have two paths to get home-one is get off at the library go past my church, past our former postal worker’s house, go past an amteaur theatre which used to be a courthouse, go to some apartments which used to be soilders’ barracks in the 1800s and early turn down that street go through the park-cross at a traffic Light, and then cross 2 more streets with stop signs.
The other way is to go past the church past, the postal worker’s house turn down the street go across the end street go through the grocery store plaza and cross at the traffic light there and then cross 1 more street turn up first street past (former elementary Classmate’s house) cross that street cross a couple more streets until I get to (home street).
The only other way is to go through 2 traffic lights-but after the 2nd is mostly the same as the rest of the 2nd one above.
I usually do drive-thru, so I completely forgot about the self-serve pop. Yeah, in that situation you would want to be more careful about using your own container to get a drink.
I agree that a drink tray is not helpful for you. Beyond that, I’m stumped.
If it was just me, I think I would try asking the cashier “Is it okay if I put my drink in this water bottle?” But they may have a policy against that due to theft issues. Also, I completely understand that just asking the question may be hard for you to do.
Or you could just do it, without asking, and if a staff member gives you trouble, show them the receipt with your drink on it. They might still be suspicious, though.
I see collapsible silicone funnels near the checkout at my local Canadian Tire all the time. I would recommend using a water bottle that’s shorter and has a wider mouth than the Gatorade bottle, just for extra safety (preventing spills).
I know its not any of an employee’s (or resturant’s) business to know but maybe I should explain “I have to take a bus back to my town and then have to walk a ways home so is it okay if I put soda fountain drink into my water bottle instead one of your cups?”
Thing is I have trouble trying to drink out of bottles which don’t have basically a nipple (the kind of lid I pefer on the Gateraode bottles like the in the picture in the OP). I can barely manage drinking out of a “normal” bottle but its diffcult for me.
I have limited fine motor skill so I’m just worried about me trying to fumble with a funnel and spillling my drink from trying to get it from the “Soda fountain” cup to the Water Bottle. I have tried occasionally to put milk into my choclate sryup bottle when it’s low and at least one time I made a complete mess of it (but granted it was my first and only time doing it)
Bottle or can drink has a different ‘taste" then Soda fountain drink- like in a way bottled/can soft drinks are "blander’ in a sense then the sweet, sticky flavour of a soda fountain drink
a) In the other town there’s not really a lot of options nearby the fast food resturants where I could buy a bottle drink- there’s a supermarket next door to the apartments but its expensive I know this from both being with Dad in there and then being there to buy lunch ingridents for the program. There’s two gas stations basically across from each other but I never been in the convience stores that come with the gas stations so I don’t know what they have inside. *
b) Well I’m thinking of it buying a combo is cheaper somewhat then buying just Fries+Main course.
*Related to convience stores I also don’t want to be tempted by anything else that might be in the conveince stores when I will be buying a meal at the resturant. And I know i have a habit of being tempted a bit too much that I impluse buy if I go to the grocery store on my own. Its how I ended up with a Queso jar in the first place!
@LeadingZero there’s one possible way- and that is taking the East-bound bus to infront of a arcade building which you can buy coffee and food in and taking the South-bound bus closer to home. But I would have to figure out where the 2 bus stops are the one to get on the bus and where to get off because I wouldn’t want to be taken accidently to the Train station. I also would have to figure out how often the Southbound bus comes.
Yeah, I think you’re right —using a funnel works better at home, where there are fewer people to bump into you, plus you can do the whole thing in the kitchen sink just in case you do spill a bit (or a lot).
If you are comfortable asking the cashier if you can put your drink in the bottle, that is probably the best thing to try. Be prepared to show them the bottle you want to use, so they don’t think you plan to fill a bottle twice the size of the drink you paid for. At worst, they will say “no”.
(I have struggled with social anxiety, so in the past asking such a question would have been impossible for me.)
I think I mentioned on other threads I have austim so if its unfamiliar place It might be diffcult for me to speak up or something espcially when I’m also am hard of hearing.
But I have broken out of this shell a couple of times since 2011 even if I was at home for all but one of those stories.
I was going to ask another question but I figured it out. 1 Soda fountain cup (20 ounces) equals 591.47 ml . And that’s about just 118 less then my bottle holds (710ML)
I guess I can just take 2 buses home and walk from the 2nd bus stop to home since unlike what it says on the map I don’t think its a 15min walk from the traffic light to the house. (its like 5mins)
Beside depending on where I’m getting the food from I might have to walk at least 18mins to the resturant! (McDonald’s, Five Guys) and with the former I either have to back track to a Bulk Barn near the resturant or go up towards (on the other side) of a Canadian tire/Walmart/Cinplex to get a bus home. But at least Tim Hortons’, Burger King and McDonalds are on the “right” side of the street for me to get home. Five Guys and Jolibees (and the food truck) aren’t!
But at least in both locations I have easy way to get across the street (traffic lights) even if I might have to be carefull if I’m crossing (main road to highway despite the traffic lights).
I hope it wouldn’t be illegal to put a drink in your own cup; that should be allowed to reduce waste. Then if it’s not a cup but bottle, what’s the difference? I guess a restaurant could ban it, but (I live in europe) corporations are trying to reduce waste, and for them to forbid you not to use a single-use cup sounds unlikely these days.
I would suggest getting a bicycle bidon/water bottle. Got the nipple lid, and a nice, wide opening. You can find them everywhere, at every price point.
More concerning, is your plan to eat fast food every day, 5 days a week? That seems like a plan for obesity. Couldn’t you prepare some tasty food and keep it in the fridge, and microwave it when you got home? It would be cheaper and better for you. Fast food is fine as a treat, and when there is no better alternative, but every day? No, don’t do that.
But here in North America they (employees) have to give out Soda fountain cups if we order a meal for inventory reasons (or so I have read in comments on the main site) even if I’m going to be tossing them in a neary garbage can or leaving it next to the Soda fountain for someone else to use if I’m going to put my drink in a bottle
It’s not going to be every day due for one thing its only open four out of the five weekdays and I would only be getting fast food on the Mondays. I have other commitments on Wednesday (Work) and Thursday (shopping with Dad if its good). The morning program would end at 11:30am - I would have to walk a bit to cross the street and then walk a bit to get to the bus stop. I then have a 22 min ride to my own town, and then I have 16min walk home. If I’m lucky I might be getting home at 12:30pm if not later and when I’m normally start making my lunch at 11:45pm.
Espcially when the only thing I would have probably eatten would be some bread with cheese, or a muffin Mom had made and cheese and that would have been about 8am since I have to be out the door at 9:15am to walk to the bus stop to the program. if I have to wait for a bus… I might as well get order and get some food while I wait. I don’t ever make food before hand for lunch unless its leftover that is.
Coffee and Hot choclate will be another matter entirely since you can’t really pour those into a water bottle. I could I could buy for a Tim Hortons coffee/hot choclate one of their Travel Mugs?
Its too bad I will only be able to get food from (main Road 1) because on another main road there is 2.5 (maybe 3.5) delcious resturants I would love to order from but its already is a mess me trying to get home from Main Road 1 without adding in other complications trying to come home from the other street
anyone know how to use a vending machine? I never used one… And that is a possbility if I knew where to find vending machines- I know there’s one in the Lobby of Costo in Ajax. But I can’t remember if it has any pop because I can never slow down enough to see what’s in there.
You will need to have enough Canadian coins (US won’t work) or a bank card to pay. Vending machines can be quite expensive, so bring looneys, tooneys, and quarters.
Check that the coin slot is clear; there is a scam where people insert a folded slip of paper into a coin slot to make it jam when you put in a coin. After you leave, they use tweezers to remove the paper and get your coin for themselves.
Sometimes the machine will randomly reject a coin, and it will come out the coin return slot. You can try that coin again, but sometimes it just rejects it again. So it’s good to have extra coins just in case.
Also, some machines don’t accept tooneys at all. Some machines will not accept a tooney or looney if the coin can’t make change. For example, if you buy something for $1.25 with 2 looneys or 1 tooney, the machine will need to have three quarters in order to give you change. If it doesn’t have three quarters to give out, it may refuse to make the sale, or warn you that you will not get any change as it has no change to give.
