7-11 times 3

Early Sunday, I was heading out to help a friend move into her new house. I wanted to stop by 7-11 to get a fountain soda (some people wake up with liquid tar, i.e. coffee…I choose liquid corrosive). I walked into my convenient, open 24 hours a day 7-11 and discovered the Diet Pepsi fountain (my drink of choice) was busted. It’s been busted for better than a month now. This perturbed me a bit, as I was really looking forward to fountain soda. So I decided to go to my other convenient, open 24 hours a day 7-11 which was just about 3 minutes away.

When I walked in there, I was pleased to see no “Out of Order” sign, so I filled up my 32oz. cup with ice, and popped it under the dispenser. Only to discover that the machine had no CO.

Mmm…. yummy, liquid un-diluted corrosive!

Ok, maybe not. So, disgruntled, I grabbed a bottle of Diet Pepsi from the cooler, and hopped on the road for the 40-minute trip to my friends.

I got there about 15 minutes before nine, and still wanting that fountain drink, I scoped out the nearest 7-11 (It’s not hard, there’s on every 2 1/2 blocks it seems). I found one, and walked in to check out the situation.

First check: No “Out of Order” sign. This is good, but as I’ve been burned by this before, I approach the machine with caution.
Second check: I hit the dispenser with my finger, prior to committing myself to filling a cup with ice to make sure there’s CO. Success! The mixture looks great!

Pleased, I grab my cup (32oz. of course), fill it with some ice, then to the brim with Diet Pepsi. Put a lid on, pop a straw in, and head to the register to pay. Out the door, sit in the car and take my first glorious sip of my fountain soda.

*GACK* :: SPEEEW ::

Naturally, the mixture is ALL wrong and I got a nice mouthful of about 98% CO and 2% syrup. Apparently just enough to give it some color.

That’s it. I give up on fountain sodas.