Wednesday, January 23, 2008

A couple of questions

I'm labelling this post as a "vent", but it's more my sarcastic view of the world today.

What is the purpose of the fixed door on a sliding glass door? If you want a huge window, why not just have a huge window there, why a door? I guess I can see that having a door that slides side to side instead of opening on hinges is useful--it would open even if there is 3-feet of snow pressed up against it from the outside. I just have never figured out why that second pane of glass is there, and doesn't slide or do anything except attract fingerprints and waste heating/cooling energy.

Why haven't any automakers marketed a hybrid mini-van yet? There are hybrid SUV's for goodness sake. I really don't care for a SUV, and although some people seem to think SUV's are more of a status symbol, I just dont' get it. I guess I haven't checked, but maybe the makers of the hybrid SUV's don't have a minivan that's worth buying, so they're hoping to grab a little of their marketshare? I don't know.

Why is it that when I go to Walgreens to have a prescription filled, it takes them 30-45 minutes to slap a sticker on a bottle and ring me up? 5, maybe 10 I could understand to provide time to verify inventory, check info on the computer, etc. But when there are like 2 non-employees in the entire store, and at least 3 people working in the pharmacy, whose prescriptions are they so busy with?

2 comments:

Lance said...

The lack of a hybrid minivan bugs me, too. Annoyingly, Toyota already has a production hybrid miniva, the Estima. Unfortunately, they sell it only in Japan. From what I've heard, the reason we don't get it is that Toyota is already selling as many Siennas as it can make, and those are made in America.

I don't buy it.

I talked to a friend in management at GM about the issue, and he said the biggest reason they don't do it is that it takes really large battery packs to get a hybrid to work, and that would take away the under-floor storage that American minivan buyers require.

I don't buy this one, either.

Brian said...

The fixed part of the door is just there to fill up the rest of the hole.

If you want to install a 2' wide sliding door, you need a hole in the wall at least 4' wide, to make room for the sliding. Making the fixed part opaque and insulated is certainly possible, just not fashionable. (Also, the manufacturer already has to be set up to work with big glass panes, so they might as well keep things simple and use glass for both halves.)

I always thought French doors made a little more sense, but that's just me.