Drive Thru

I've been thinking about this long and hard for about a month. Since we saw Jennifer's family in the States, in fact. And I want more things to be drive thru. The current trend around here is to limit them, and Toronto is trying to scale back on drive thrus in general. I know it is an environmental hazard and all of that jazz, but...I don't care!

Now, let's be clear here, I do care about the environment. We recycle. We compost. We go out of our way to properly dispose of batteries and paint and that good stuff. Did you know there is a special bin for cosmetics in our dump? It goes with hazardous material like lightbulbs and paint. Kind of makes you go "hmmmm?" doesn't it. We turn off lights, limit water usage. I could go on and on.

But I still want more drive thrus. In our area you can get drive thru food (usually crap, fast food) and drive thru banking. I was amazed and tickled to find that in New York state they also have drive thru pharmacy. Dude! Do you know how much easier it would be for me to get prescriptions refilled and pick them up if I didn't have to unbuckle my two kids and trot them through the store? So I have been thinking of other possibilities and would like to consider the following:

• Dry cleaning: we don't do that much dry cleaning, admittedly, but I would do more if I could just drop it through a little window and get a number.
  
• Basic groceries: I'm only thinking things like bread, milk, and eggs here. Maybe a bit of juice. I'd even be willing to go through the drive thru bank machine and give you cash for this.
• Extended pharmacy stuff: how many times have you realized you are out of baby advil and have about 10 minutes before the next thing you have to do? I'd love to be able to drive thru and get baby advil or cough syrup without trekking the kiddos into the store. And I am cool with a limit of a couple of items. Say 3 items per trip. So it is a quick thing.
  
• All renewal services: come on, you're the DMV, for crying out loud, and you can't get a drive thru service. Seriously.
  
• The post office: this seems like another no brainer to me, and frankly, if I had to pick just one thing to have a drive thru for other than what we have, it would be the post office. Nothing annoys me more than having to get the kids out, put the little guy in a stroller or shopping cart, then go and stand in line. Again, I am very happy to have this be for simple items. You need to get something packaged up, weighed and measured, or sent via courier, I say you should stand in line. But for those of us who are either mailing regular mail or who are picking up a parcel, just let us have a drive thru.

And think about the brilliant exchange that this is: although it will damage the environment marginally more for us to have all these extra drive thrus, you will save us all from having to hear the babies crying and toddlers and school kids whining about waiting in line for some boring task that needs doing. My kids have a 2 stop limit most days, so anything after that and the other people in the store or line are in for a treat. That alone is reason for more drive thrus.