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Winter Mazes | Parking Chair, Snow Shoveling, & Groundhog Day – Plus a bonus Valentine’s Day Maze!

Posted on by Standard Reply

I feel like it’s been a while since I posted a maze. Here’s 3, with black and white and color options for each. I have posted them on social media, but they’ll probably be slightly better quality here. Who hasn’t felt this winter to their core? Snow removal struggles and anger at poor Punxsutawney Phil have been all over social media.

I post this as I contemplate selling mazes on Etsy. Think there’s a market? I see other artists selling small *.pdf packs of printable mazes, coloring pages, or other hand-drawn puzzles or activity pages. A lot of the stuff you can find free online via Pinterest, or places like here on my blog or r/mazes. Are there people looking for paid downloads? They would of course probably be exclusive or only elsewhere available in my books. It’s certainly way more about art & expression than money, but it is cool to see my mazes on stuff, even if I’m my own biggest customer.

Oh, can’t forget a small bonus maze first since it’s Valentine’s Day!

A heart shape filled with a complex maze pattern, outlined in black.
A heart-shaped maze design in vibrant red against a gradient purple background.

❤️🥰💖💗💓💘💝

The Pittsburgh Parking Chair Maze.

You have to respect the chair. You can get an official one, or up your game and put out a walker, a table or even a statue of Jesus. Don’t park there if you didn’t shovel! Luckily now we don’t have to worry as much about it, but we lived in Dormont for years where no one really owned the spot in front of their place. The anger is real when someone ganks your spot after you labored for sometimes hours to clear it.

A complex hand-drawn black and white maze illustration with a Pittsburgh parking chair at the bottom and some Yinzer instructions.
A mostly black and white illustrated maze with winding paths, featuring a speech bubble with Yinzer-speak urging urgency and a cartoonish depiction of a chair at the bottom and bits of color.

🌨️🪑🌨️🚗🌨️

The Snow-Shoveling Maze.

A lot of people are over it. We got hot with an amount of snow in our area what we haven’t seen since 2010, and it stayed cold for quite some time. Removal was difficult unless you kept up with it through the storm… and even then some folks had their sidewalks piled upon by the snow-plow trucks. Here you can do some scrawling instead of shoveling. This might work as a coloring page too? You can work back from the dead ends and the solution will be left.

A complex black & white hand-drawn maze illustration with a snow shovel near the top and a door at the bottom corner. The text in the maze asks, "Can you shovel through the snow to get to the front door?"
A hand-drawn & computer colorized maze illustration showing a green snow-shovel and a red front door, accompanied by the text, "Can you shovel through the snow to get to the front door?"

❄️🪏❄️🚪❄️

The Groundhog Day Maze.

Who doesn’t love Punxsutawney Phil? I guess a lot of people when he predicts 6 more weeks of winter. We can’t balk at tradition now, can we? If you get stuck in this maze, you might feel like Bill Murray in Groundhog Day.

There once was a groundhog from Punxy.
Instead of consorting with skunks, he
Sat with turkeys to gobble
On that famous knob hill
While all the bystanders got drunk, see?

❄️🌸🪻⛄

So there you have a winter maze drop. As always, if you take the time to complete one, please share it & tag me on social media. If you dig these free mazes, I have lots more. I urge you to also maybe buy a book or a T-shirt or hoodie. Also, let me know what you think about selling *.pdf downloads on Etsy. Is it worth it?

Chick-fil-A’s response: “It’s not you, it’s me.”

Posted on by Standard 1

Chick-fil-A wrote back to me, and sadly I predicted that they’d give me the “no unsolicited ideas” speech which is equivalent to the “it’s not you, it’s me” speech.  Shenanigans, I tell you.

From: Chick-fil-A CARES <chickfilacares@na.ko.com>
Date: Wed, Dec 26, 2012 at 8:09 PM
Subject: Chick-fil-A Response
To: <me@my.email.address>

Dear Valued Customer:

Thank you for taking the time to contact Chick-fil-A.  You are very important to us, and we appreciate your suggestion regarding the cup holders.  We hope the following information will be helpful.

Chick-fil-A is fortunate to have many loyal customers. Many of these fans take the time and effort to inquire about sharing their own ideas about ways they wish to see us improve – whether it is adding a specific new product, service or feature. We are grateful for our customers’ intent, and this motivates us to work even harder to keep improving.

Unfortunately, it is our corporate policy not to accept or consider any unsolicited creative ideas. This is a difficult decision because we realize that by following this policy, Chick-fil-A may miss out on some great ideas from our customers. We would rather miss out on some of these ideas than to risk any potential future misunderstanding should Chick-fil-A develop or already have developed a product, service, or feature that may seem similar to a customer’s idea.

We hope you will understand the reasons for our policy. You can view our Unsolicited Ideas Policy at www.chick-fil-a.com/Legal (under Submissions) for more information on this issue. Beyond this policy, we gladly welcome customers’ feedback about their restaurant experiences.

We appreciate your family’s loyalty, and we look forward to serving you all at Chick-fil-A for many years to come.  Again, thank you for your time and interest in Chick-fil-A.

Sincerely,

Cheala
Chick-fil-A CARES
Chick-fil-A…We Didn’t Invent The Chicken,
Just The Chicken Sandwich.
On the Web at www.chick-fil-a.com

P.S.  Please retain your ticket number.  This will help us locate your information should you need us again.

{ticketno:[8002084683]}

So, of course I wrote back…

From: <me@my.email.address>
Date: Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: Chick-fil-A Response
To: Chick-fil-A CARES <chickfilacares@na.ko.com>

Hello Cheala,

Any idea how I can get my idea solicited?  I’m honestly not interested in monetary compensation, I just don’t want to spill my drinks.  Has anyone run this by Mr. Cathy?  He’s responded to my emails before, and I understand that he’s a shrewd business man as well as a great family man.  I’m sure he wouldn’t want drinks spilling on anyone… and that he’d like to pick up a free idea.

Thanks once again for your time & help!

My pleasure,

-Eric

Wonder if I’ll get a reply?  I just want a good cup holder.

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Dear Chick-fil-A, I have an idea for you…

Posted on by Standard 3

I plan to send this to Chick-fil-A, and we’ll see where it goes.  I just realized, I’ve written about Chick-fil-A several times here before.

Dear Chick-fil-A,

I have an idea for you.  I realize that as a giant corporation you probably don’t accept unsolicited ideas, but please don’t let that stop you from considering this idea.  I don’t expect monetary payment, maybe just free Chick-fil-A for life?  (Maybe a limit to once a week?)  Well, I guess I should present my idea before we start talking payment or barter.

This past Saturday I went to the Chick-fil-A in South Hills to grab some of those ridiculously delicious Chick-n-Minis™ for breakfast.  I went into the store to order take-out so I could grab some mayo packets, ketchup, straws, & napkins at the little condiment station.  I got two drinks because I was taking breakfast home to share with the wife.  I opted for your highly addictive sweet tea, and the wife had a Hi-C Fruit Punch.  The always courteous employees offered me a drink carrier, and I accepted.  I thought it would make life easier on the ride home.  I saw wrong.

I set the drink carrier on the floor of the passenger’s side of my truck.  As I backed out of the space, it fell over on to the long side.  Your drink lids are thankfully quite tight, but sadly not entirely waterproof.  I leaned over and placed the carrier & drinks upright again, this time turning the drink holder 90 degrees the other way thinking I had outsmarted the laws of physics and that it would stay put.  I could not have been more mistaken.  As I turned up a hill to go out the back of the parking lot, it fell again.  I believe I uttered something using vocabulary that you may not approve.  At the stop sign, I had to pick up the cups and give up by putting them in the truck’s drink holders.

As I drove home trying not to think about the drops of Hi-C & iced tea soaking into my floor mats, I wondered if there was a better way.  I certainly like your drink carriers much better than the egg-crate 4 space things that just let cups lean over all willy-nilly.  I came to think that your drink carriers just need feet.  I thought the feet may take some extra cardboard, and wondered i something could be done with the existing design.

At home, my thoughts were fueled by poultry protein.  I pulled out my pocket knife and started cutting as my wife looked at me like I was a crazy person (as she does quite often).  I explained what I was doing and why and she actually also thought it was a good idea.

You already have some nice sturdy cardboard.  Two well-placed quarter-circle cuts & maybe even a fold mark in the middle of the carrier would create some nice sturdy feet or “wings” or your drink carrier box without the need for a complete redesign or any additional material.  I tested it by trying to rock the mostly empty drinks back & forth on the kitchen table.  We had no spills.  I am willing to try some field tests if you’d like to move forward with this idea.  My truck’s floor mats can handle it.  Perhaps I can even use water instead of red & brown sugary liquids.

I’m sure we could talk to your box people & find out if this is doable for a reasonable price.  I think it will be as important & innovative as the new Heinz® Dip & Squeeze® packets!  I have some photos attached that I’m sure you will agree are quite illustrative of my design ideas.  Sadly, my pocket knife is a cheap dull one, so the cut looks more like a rip.  I believe you’ll see my intent though.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts, and am excited at the opportunity that lays before us.  It would be my pleasure to help make this dream a reality!

Eat Mor Chikin!
-Eric

And the attached photos:

Chick-fil-A – Modified Drink Holder (3)
Chick-fil-A – Modified Drink Holder (2)
Chick-fil-A – Modified Drink Holder (1)

So, there we have it.  I mean, most of my letters are plain goofy, and this has a goofy tone, but really… don’t you think this would work? Now, we wait for a response.

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