24 Hour Breakfast

Back about some 20 years ago, there was a movie starring Michael Douglas called Falling Down. Douglas plays, if I recall correctly, an engineer who is having a really bad day. Indignities befall him one after another. This guy is a seething cauldron of rage barely contained inside a human suit. But he holds it together...barely...taking all the shit that modern society throws at us everyday and we're supposed to take it.

Until...

Douglas's character goes into an ersatz McDonald's for breakfast. He dutifully takes his place in line which slowly moves until he makes it to the counter to finally order his breakfast.

The guy at the counter informs our put upon shlub that it's 10:31 and they stop serving breakfast at 10:30. 

Our hero informs the guy in the paper hat that it was well before 10:30 when he got in line. Besides its not like all the breakfast food just magically vanishes at 10:30 AM. There's still sausage biscuits and hash browns and what all still back there. He can see them! 

But the response remains the same: Sorry, sir, we stop serving breakfast at 10:30 AM.

Where upon Michael Douglas's character goes bat shit crazy. 

And who could blame him, right? 

The thing about McDonald's actually not serving  breakfast after 10:30 has been, for me, a good thing. If I really want an Egg McMuffin, then I better drag my lazy out of bed before the Egg McMuffins vanish back into the mysterious magical realm from which they come. On the other hand, if it's after 10:30 AM and I still want an Egg McMuffin, I really need to examine my life choices. 

The thing is, the 10:30 AM cut off for breakfast at McDonald's helps curb our worst impulses of laziness and gluttony. 

But not for much longer. 

McDonald's is looking at rolling out 24 hour breakfast. 

Lately, McDonald's has not been doing too good, what with declining sales and the bad rep for contributing to the delinquency of America's waistlines. I have to admit that I eat at McDonald's mostly because I've had this conversation either with myself or my family. 

• I'm hungry. What do you want to eat?
• I don't know and I don't care. 
• McDonald's it is. 

Seriously, McDonald's slogan could be, "When you don't give a f**k, come to McDonald's!" My daughter and I refer to the various menu items as McMatter. I would not be surprised that the Chicken McNugget, the Filet-O-Fish and the Quarter Pounder with Cheese all come from the same vat of McDonald's super secret McMatter. 

McDonald's, America's dining choice of last resort. 

But while America can't quite get itself motivated enough to partake in the Big Mac or the McChicken sandwich, we still seem to like McDonald's well enough for breakfast. I've gone whole weeks without eating anything from the Golden Arches for dinner or lunch but rarely a weekend goes by that the El family doesn't venture forth at least once from the Fortress of Ineptitude for a McBreakfast. And I know other individuals and families who pretty much follow the same pattern. 

So who can blame McDonald's if their data actually supports that breakfast is still a great seller and look to expand that. Wow! Breakfast 24 hours a day! 

Except...

As I noted earlier, there is a certain sense of urgency and even, if you will, something special about getting McDonald's breakfast before 10:30 AM. I don't think the appeal of McDonald's breakfast menu is going to extend beyond breakfast, at least not in the way it is now. 

Consider this: it's Saturday morning. I really need to get up and do things, get stuff done. Well, I better get moving if I want a McDonald's breakfast! They stop serving at....

Oh, they never stop? OK then, I roll over and go back to sleep. 

There's already too much unhealthiness about myself attributable to McDonald's and their fellow fast food purveyors. Expanding breakfast to 24 hours takes away one of my few remaining motivators to get out of bed. 

And I'm so glad my suffering amuses you. 

Dave-El  

Doing Time At McDonald's

Way back in the day when I was a much younger Dave-El, I did my time working for McDonald’s. 

 

It was admittedly not a long time.  I worked about 2 weeks. 

 

A presumed gig working at a local radio station did not pan out while I was on break from college one summer. 

 

I had to find something somewhere to earn some pocket money before the fall semester and that quest led me to a McDonald’s.  

 

It wasn’t near my home, almost an hour’s drive. 

 

Really? I couldn’t find a McDonald’s closer than that?

 

It’s been more than a few years and my memory’s a little fuzzy on the details.  

 

It was hard, hot, sweaty work but I might’ve endured it longer than I did except for that stupidly long commute.

 

Current Democratic candidate for President Kamala Harris did her own time working at McDonald’s while she was in college.

 

And current Republican candidate for President Donald Trump refuses to believe Harris ever worked at McDonald’s. 

 

But now he has worked at McDonald’s.  

Kind of. 

Sort of. 

Not really.

 

OK, sparky, here’s the deal.

 

A McDonald’s in Pennsylvania shut down for the day. 

 

Trump supporters were brought in to play the part of customers going through the drive through.

 

There was a rehearsal for those supporters going through the drive through before Li’l Donnie showed up.

 

Then Donald Trump shows up in his usual suit and tie.  He says he wants to work the “fry counter”.  

 

He puts some fries in the fryer, he boxes up some fries and then distributes food to the “customers”.  

 

This takes about fifteen minutes.  

 

Donald brags that he worked at McDonald’s 15 minutes longer than Kamala ever did.  

 

As a person who worked in a  McDonald’s 2 weeks (less 15 minutes) more than you, I’m not sure I would call what you did as work, Donnie.

 

• Try working that damn French Fry deep fryer for longer stretches of time.   
• During a lunch rush. 
• With a bunch of customers who have not been pre-vetted wanting different things.  

I'm not sure what the McDonald's photo op was supposed to do.  It doesn't prove that Kamala Harris did NOT work at McDonald's.  

I suppose it bolsters Li'l Donnie's appeal to the little people he is supposed to be the champion of.

Except when someone asked if he supported increasing the minimum wage, he did what he does with all questions relating to policy that might actually help people: he didn't answer it. 

I mean, he said stuff that had nothing to do with wages, minimum or otherwise.  

Standard operating procedure when it comes to Donald Trump.

Wearing a McDonald's apron for 15 minutes changes nothing.  

The Great McDonald's Smoothie Misadventure (& My New Addiction)

McDonald's hasn't been feeling the love lately, have they? They continue to face declining sales in an environment where other fast food venues held steady or increased their number of customers. A lot of this owes to the perception that McDonald's is what you eat when you really don't give a f**k about what you eat. It's there if you need it. But you try not to need it. 

When I go to McDonald's, I feel like an alcoholic lacking funds for actual booze so I'm forced to buy an off-brand bottle of Dollar General wine that may have once been in the vicinity of a grape. I realize I've lost what's left of my dignity and what little is left of my will to live but until I do keel over and die, I got to eat something.  

To be fair, there are things at McDonald's that I actually like to get there. Most locations, for example, do a great job with the iced tea, some of which still only charge a buck for a 20 gallon Styrofoam cup of that precious chilled, sweetened 
caffeinated beverage! For me, it's liquid crack. Sometimes I could care less what McMatter sandwich I order...burgerish, chicken-like or nearly fish, it doesn't matter... Only as long as I can get my desperate hands around that precious sweet iced tea. 

And yes, it must be sweetened. On occasion I will take a sip of my much desired nectar of the gods only to find it is devoid of the sweetness of whatever carcinogenic pseudo sugar additive that usually goes in tea. I've never understood the concept of unsweetened iced tea. Yeah, you can add your own sweetener except any true iced tea aficionado will tell you that its near impossible to obtain the perfect balance of tea and sugar. Sugar must be boiled in with the tea to evenly disperse the sweetening through out the life giving liquid.  

Am I making too much of this? No! No, I am not. 

Once in a while, I will reluctantly forego my beloved tea in favor of another beverage that I also enjoy from McDonald's, a mango pineapple smoothie. Like most things made by McDonald's, better smoothies can be found elsewhere. But the ones from McDonald's are not that bad, especially for the money. And especially on a really hot day, there's nothing like the nice cool tangy refreshing mix of mango and pineapple sliding down your throat, bringing blessed coolness on a hot summer day.  

Really, I think I'm laying all this on a bit thick. Sorry. I'll try to be a bit more restrained in my verbosity.  

Last week, however, a visit to a local McDonald's drive through produced a most disappointing result when I purchased mango pineapple smoothies for myself and my daughter Miranda. When we were handed our drinks, both of us noticed that they did not look mango pineapple smoothies. They did not in fact look like smoothies. Instead they were these odd, pale, lumpy looking cups of pale white sludge with flecks of something yellow in them. 

"What's up with the smoothies?" I asked.


The woman employee replied, "Oh, they're just putting extra yogurt in the smoothies now."  


That did not sound right but sometimes companies in America do seem to follow the adage, "If it ain't broke, break it!" 

As we drove away, Miranda took a sip of hers and said, "Well, it's not the most terrible thing in the world." I took a sip of mine and respectfully disagreed with her: this was THE most terrible thing in the world. And I'm talking about a world that has Donald Trump and the Islamic State in it so...yeah, pretty damn bad. 

So I drove us back to the McDonald's and I went inside. My daughter followed along to see what would happen. I imagine she thought I might go bug nuts and the police would have to be called and I would be arrested and she would have a really cool story to tell when school starts back up in a couple of months. 

But I don't roll like that. I made my case to the McDonald's employee in a nice, polite and easy going manner that these mango pineapple smoothies were simply...well, just awful. I mean, really bad. 

To her credit, the nice lady proceeded to mix up a new mango pineapple smoothie which Miranda and I sampled and we both agreed we did not think it was possible but this smoothie was worse than the other two. So the McDonald's employee offered to provide us with a comparable drink of another type. I suggested a simple chocolate milkshake which she agreed would be an effective substitute if the milkshake machine was running which it was not. So, no.  

Among the alternatives she gave us was something that got Miranda's attention, an Oreo cookie frappe. Now I'm not a big coffee drinker; no, let me rephrase that: I hate coffee. Whenever I've drank coffee, it feels like a muskrat has died in my mouth. But this comedy of errors had gone on too long as it was and Miranda was certainly a fan of this particular iced coffee drink. 

I'm not sure when or how my daughter became a coffee drinker which makes me wonder what else I don't know about her. For example, that closed, locked door in our house with the "Keep Out Or Die" sign where strange lights coming through the cracks around the door and blood curdling screams can be heard. You know, little stuff like that. I really should check into what's going on there.  

I'm sorry, what was I talking about? Oh yeah. Frappes.  

So on a dare (and after suffering through sips of the curdled sludge that had been passed off as a mango pineapple smoothie, I was feeling a bit daring), I too ordered an Oreo cookie frappe.  

My first sip, I wasn't too impressed. OK, it's not the worst thing in the world but I can really taste the coffee. Still, I'm not going back and try something else now. 

The 2nd sip was better received than the first. Yeah, I'm tasting coffee but the Oreo chocolate is really giving the coffee a good fight. And it's wonderfully chilly! It felt real good going down. 

From the 3rd sip onward, I could care less this was a coffee drink. I was really liking this beverage. I was feeling....I don't know, it was almost better than the rush I get my usual liquid crack, sweetened iced tea. I was feeling good!

Real good! 

I spent most of the rest of the afternoon weirding out my daughter. I was hyper, I laughed at everything. I guess for her it was like seeing me drunk. Well, I felt drunk! Oh Oreo cookie frappe, where have you been all my life? With your frosty goodness, I...

I could've danced all night,

I could've danced all night

And still had asked for more!

I could've spread my wings

And done a thousand things

That I've never done before! 

I wanted another one! But there was a small problem. As a father, I have to be...oh, what's the phrase? Oh yeah, "responsible". Being "responsible" sucks. But I needed to set an example to my daughter and not give in to this sweet, chilled, chocolatey delight that ....oooooooh!

NO! No more! 

The next morning, I had to take Miranda to her orthodontist appointment. She hates going to the orthodontist and this appointment was particularly trying as they tightened up her braces real good. Eventually she will succumb to the torture and tell us what we want to know about the Allies' secret plans. Or something.  

Anyway, afterwards, she thought she deserved some kind of rewards, maybe an Oreo cookie frappe. No, I said, we cannot get in the habit of drinking these all the time.("Dammit! I really want one", I'm thinking to myself.)  

Eventually, I "relented" because the visit had been particularly painful and you know, since we're at McDonald's, maybe I'll have another one myself. I mean, the first one was....okay. ("Oh boy! Oh boy! I'm going to get an Oreo cookie frappe! AGAIN! Yay! I could've danced all night, I could've danced all night and still had asked for more!")  

So McDonald's, maybe no one wants to eat whatever food like substance you provide but I do hope you manage to make it and keep going because I really need my sweetened iced tea and my Oreo cookie frappes! Don't make me go into McRehab. 

And I'm so glad my suffering amuses you. 

Someone Stole My McDonald's

Sunday was the first pool day of the summer for the Dave-El family.

Despite my fervent hopes for a thunderstorm or that the "heat dome" settling over the United States would make things TOO hot!

I don't like going to the pool. 

There's too much work to get ready to go to the pool and too many risks once we get there.

• Will there be somewhere to park?
• Will there be a line?
• How long will it take to get through the line?  
• Will I apply insufficient sun screen and get roasted like a rotissierie chicken?
• Will there be too many frickin' kids? 

And so on and so on and...

Yeah, I'm grumpy. It's part of my character.

No, being grumpy IS my character.  

Wife Andrea, son Dean and friend Jan were happy to be there.'

I... tolerated the existence of the pool.  

My mood for going to the pool was not helped by the events before we left the Fortress of Ineptitude.

Where someone stole my McDonald's order.

So here's how that went down.

I put in an order for the 4 of us through the McDonald's app.  

I completed the order and got a confirmation code: AJ74.

I left to pick up the order with Dean and Jan as my wingmennuts. I drove up and a worker asked me if I was using the McDonald's app today and said yes and gave my code, AJ74.

McD worker: "What?" 

Me: "The code is AJ74." 

McD worker: "Are you sure it's for this location?"

Checked my app.

Me: "Yes, it is." 

McD worker: "What name is the order under?"

Me: "David." 

McD worker: "..."

2nd McD worker: "Could you drive around to the first window please?"

So this guy (a manager person I presume) explains that someone named David had claimed my order 2 minutes prior.  

Now I get that there are millions of people in this world named "David" but how did he get my food without my AJ74 code.  

Manager guy said they acted like they didn't know it.  

No, I don't get that either.

Look, there are other ways to confirm an order through the app if someone "acts like they don't know it". Like confirming "What did you order?" 

There are holes in this plot.

Anyway, the manager took down the order again, on paper since he couldn't put it in the system without charging us again. And he told us to pull up to the 2nd window.

One of the 4 orders was for 10 piece chicken nuggets.

At the 2nd window, a worker hands us a single bag of 10 piece chicken McNuggets:  "Here's your order." 

I noted my order was more food than that.  

This was greeted by this guy and everyone else with multiple utterance of "What?" 

We were instructed to move up to the one of the waiting spaces where we... waited for our order to be completed. 

Which included another order of 10 piece child McNuggets. 

McDonald's was having an existential crisis.  

Later we finally made it to the pool and my nose got sunburned.

And I'm so glad my suffering amuses you.   

Life In the Fast Food Lane: The Horror Returns

Back in January 2014, I posted a couple of things here and here on the woes of fast food drive through. This past weekend I had a couple of encounters that I just felt compelled to share. 

Friday I had a request from the family to go by a certain fast food chain whose name rhymes with "Dick Guh May".* 

*And if you've figured out that crafty code and you're gay, lesbian, transgender or differently gendered in some other way, I do most sincerely apologize but their dicken sandwiches are SO good! I am so weak, I can't help myself! I'm sorry! 

Now there are places I go where I wish I could just tell them, "I'd like to order the Long family special" because I get the same damn thing every time (with the occasional variation 'cause I'm a rebel like that.) In the case of "Dick Guh May", my standard order goes like this: 

"I'd like to get two #1 combos with no pickles on the sandwich, fruit cups instead of fries for the side and and to drink, two small chocolate** shakes with no toppings. I also would like to get a large order of waffle fries and another small chocolate*** shake with no toppings."  

**When they have 'em, I get the peach shakes. Oh so good!
***Will always be chocolate. Always! 

The combos are for my wife and I while the fries and the 3rd shake are for my daughter. My daughter loves "Dick Guh May"...except for the dicken. (Go figure!)   

So Friday night evening I set forth from the Fortress of Ineptitude (bedazzling with a freshly mowed lawn, thank you very much!) to bring back sustenance for my family. I get to "Dick Guh May" and see that, yeah, peach shakes are back. Awesome! 

So I get to the speaker and a very pleasant voice, sounds like a young man, asks for my order. So I begin my practiced spiel. 

"I'd like to get two #1 combos with no pickles on the sandwich, fruit cups instead of fries for the side and to drink, two small peach shakes with no toppings. I also would like to get a large order of waffle fries and another small chocolate shake with no toppings."   

"Could you repeat that?" asked the still pleasant but now more confused voice. 

You may think that maybe since I know this bit so well, I might say it a bit fast. Actually I'm cognizant of that risk so I make every effort to speak deliberately and at a modest pace. I even pause a bit between the combos and my daughter's fries and shake. Still, maybe it was a bit much to process at one time, so I go again, a bit slower this time. 

"I'd like to get two #1 combos with no pickles on the sandwich, fruit cups instead of fries for the side and to drink, two small peach shakes with no toppings. I also would like to get a large order of waffle fries and another small chocolate shake with no toppings."  

Pause. 

"Uh, OK. Is that all?"

I have a bad feeling about this but when I confirm that yes, that will be all, he repeats the order correctly. Then he says, "Your total is $24. Please drive around. It has been my pleasure to serve you." 

Besides the impossibly good dicken sandwiches, "Dick Guh May" has the most polite people, always saying, "It's been my pleasure to serve you."

But as I drove around, I began to ponder the amount I was given. "Dick Guh May" is not a cheap place to eat but the Long family special is usually closer to $20, not $24. What gives? Have prices gone up again? 

As I drive up to the window, they have my beverages ready for me: 3 small shakes and 2 Cokes. 

2 Cokes? 

I take this up with the very patient lady at the window who says the order shows I asked for Cokes and sure enough its on the paper she shows me. Now at the risk of annoying you, gentle reader (I know, too late) but let me present ONE MORE TIME my order for the evening. 

"I'd like to get two #1 combos with no pickles on the sandwich, fruit cups instead of fries for the side and to drink, two small peach shakes with no toppings. I also would like to get a large order of waffle fries and another small chocolate shake with no toppings."  

At no point does the word "Coke" ever appear. At all! 

So here's what I'm guessing: the guy taking the order didn't grasp that I was ordering the shakes as my beverages with the combos. But since I never said what he was expecting as a beverage, he defaulted to Coke. Well, the lady at the window and her manager did grasp what I wanted and very graciously changed the order and reduced the tab by $4.00. (Damn, that's a lot for two Cokes!) 

When I got back to the Fortress of Ineptitude, there were pickles on the sandwiches. Yeah, you can peel 'em off but there's still that taint of pickle juice. Why, oh why does there have to be a pickle?

But "Dick Guh May" makes a damn fine dicken sandwich.****

****Again, gay people, I am so sorry! I do support marriage equality, does that help? 
_________________________________
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My second tale of fast food drive thru takes place at, let's say McDonald's.  Because this happened at McDonald's. 

As you know, the Golden Arches have not been faring well of late as people are going to other places with actual food substances in their food instead of simulated food-like stuff that I call "McMatter". (For a previous posts on McDonald's, click here and here.) One really good innovation was the concept of having options for what you wanted with your McMeal. Instead of fries, you could substitute, among other things, a side salad. McDonald's salads aren't that great but they're not that bad and every little bit helps when one decides to indulge in a Quarter Pounder with Cheese.*****

*****Hold the pickle, natch! 

So here we go on a recent Saturday at the McDonald's drive thru. (Oh and let me say I am so glad they have the screen where you can see your order. That really comes in handy.) 

Woman's voice: Welcome to McDonald's. May I take your order.

Me: Yes, I would like to get a Quarter Pounder with Cheese and a Mickey D's Sweet Tea******, 3 piece Chicken Selects  with a small mango pineapple smoothie, 10 piece chicken McNuggets and another small mango pineapple smoothie.

******Mickey D's Sweet Tea = liquid crack  

Woman's voice: Would you like to make any of those a meal?

Me: Sure, let's do that for the burger and the selects but I want to get side salads instead of fries. 

Woman's voice: OK

So I watch the screen and I notice that the meals still reference fries and not side salads. 

Woman's voice: Does your order appear correct?

Me: Well, I said I wanted to get side salads instead of fries.

Woman's voice: Sorry about that. Hold on please. 

Then two salads appear on the order increasing the price as I noticed the fries are still listed as part of the meal deals.

Me: Uh, it still says fries under the burger and the chicken.

Woman's voice: Yes sir. You said you wanted to make those value meals. 

Me: Yeah but I don't want fries. 

Woman's voice: So you don't want these as value meals? 

Me: Yes I do but I want side salads INSTEAD of fries!

Woman's voice: Oh.

<Pause>

Woman's voice: We don't do that anymore. 

Me: What? 

Woman's voice: Yeah, the choice of side items for value meals, they stopped doing that. 

To be honest, I hadn't really paid attention to the menu board but damn, the option to select sides for the value meals was indeed gone. 

But I'm still not happy. How many times had I said I wanted side salads INSTEAD of fries? Yet she was trying to ring me up for fries AND salads! 

If I hadn't been in a hurry (which is the only reason I was at McDonald's in the first place), I would've drove off in a huff just to make a point. But I say, "Just drop the fries and the salads."

Woman's voice: You don't want these as meals? 

Me: (Sigh!) No, not as meals. 

So I drive around and I pay, then I drive up to get my order. I get the two smoothies, my iced tea (my precious!), the burger, the McChicken Selects and the McNuggets. And also two orders of fries. I double checked the receipts and no, I did not get charged for them. But nonetheless, I had fries I didn't want. 

Yes, I ate the damn fries! 

And I'm so glad my suffering amuses you. 

Throwback Thursday: The Free McDonald's Mystery Pie

OK, I'm tired, frazzled and unable to string....

...words....

....together.  

Re-run time! Let's go back to a classic post from 

Saturday, January 24, 2015 called...

The Free McDonald's Mystery Pie

On Monday, January 19th, my daughter and I made a quick run to McDonald's to get some lunch. There was a sign on the drive thru menu that said "Free Holiday Pie with each order of a McCafe drink." I was getting my wife a McSmoothie (made with McPineapple and McMango) so what the hell, we got a free pie. 

But what KIND of pie was it? 

Well, that was kind of a mystery. Or a McMystery, if you will. 

David: Look what we got at McDonald's!
Andrea: What is it? 
Randie: It's a free pie!
Andrea: What kind of pie is it?
Randie: It's a baked pie! 
Andrea: I mean, what type of pie?
David: It's a baked pie. It's right there on the box!
Andrea: I mean, what's IN the pie?
Randie: Er, flavor?
Andrea: What kind of flavor?
David: Flavor...flavored?
Randie: Whatever it is, it's bursting with it.
David: Also baked with love. 
Andrea: But what KIND of pie is it?
Randie and David: BAKED PIE!
Andrea (sigh): I just wanted to know what's in the pie!
Randie: Flavor and love, Mom. 
Andrea: I give up.

In case you're wondering what was really inside the pie, it was custard. 

What kind of custard? 

Er, custard flavored custard? 

You all be good to one another. And may your days be filled with flavor and baked with love.

Dave-El

I'm So Glad My Suffering Amuses You

We're back ALL NEW tomorrow with Your Friday Video Link!  

Our World Series Champion Washington Nationals & Some Other Random Stuff

So how about the Washington Nationals, huh? Congratulations to the new World Series champions! 

Kind of  weird World Series with no team winning at home. The Nats aced the Astros in Houston for the first two games.

Then Houston put the kibosh on the Nats for three more games in a row when the series moved to Washington, going from 2 games down to one game up. It looked like the Astros had found their groove. 

But back in Houston, the Nationals forces a game 7 then took that too!

So the Washington Nationals win the World Series for the first time in ever.

Good news! You’re the champions of major league baseball.

Bad news! You’re going to White House.

Donald Trump’s already putting in his order with McDonald’s. 

I brought home lunch from McDonald’s yesterday. Andrea’s sick so I nipped out to pick up her prescriptions from the drugstore which is right next to a McDonald’s.

"McDonald's! Because We're Here and What the Hell?"  

Andrea loves their buttermilk crispy chicken tenders. They are quite tasty.

I got a Quarter Pounder with cheese. No pickle. Because pickles are evil.

I imagine the champion Washington Nationals will have to pick the pickles off of their burgers. 

I just realized something. Donald Trump doesn’t like vegetables. What if he also doesn’t like pickles on his burgers?

Oh my God! What if I have something in common with Donald Trump?!?

Oh please God, if you do exist (and with Trump in the White House, I do have my doubts), please let there be pickles on Donald Trump’s hamburgers.  

Speaking of Li'l Donnie, the son of a bitch got booed at a World Series game for a second time. No, his fat ass was not personally at the game but during the 7th game, a Donald Trump campaign ad played on the jumbotron and damned, if the crowd didn't let loose a loud chorus of boos.

OK, game 5, a bunch of Washington liberal Democrats were packing the stands, right? I just know Donald or one of his minions used that logic to dismiss the booing on Sunday night. 

But game 7 was in frickin' Texas. Trump getting booed in Texas? Man, there may be hope for the world yet.  

On to another topic.....

Halloween did not happen here at the Fortress of Ineptitude on Thursday. A big honking row of thunderstorms tore through our neck of the woods right when kids would’ve been out trick or treating.   

I’ve got a big bowl of Snickers. What, oh pray tell what, is a boy to do?

Today is the last day of Daylight Savings Time. The clocks jump back an hour tonight and we’re on standard time.

The thing is standard time is NOT standard. Over the course of a year in the United States, we spend more time on Daylight Savings Time than we do on the so called Standard Time which makes the alleged Standard the exception, not the standard.

Everyone gripes about time changes. There’s no good reason for it and really, it should just stop.

But most gripes about time change are a bit muted in the fall because we get that glorious wonderful extra hour of sleep.

Unless you’re working the late shift.  Way back in the day when I worked the overnight shift in radio, the time change in the fall meant I had to stay awake one extra hour. 

These days, I can’t imagine staying up all night on purpose.

I mean, in my later aging years, I can and have stayed up all night but not on purpose. Usually some combination of restlessness, anxiety or depression will occasion keep me away from slumber in the middle of the night. Now let me near a bed at 2 or 3 in the afternoon and I will sleep like a rock.

Anyway, congratulation to our World Series champion Washington Nationals!

Until next time, remember to be good to one another. 

The McDonalds Maladjustment

While my wife Andrea was at work on Monday, I had the day off to spend with my daughter Randie to get things done such as finish wrapping Andrea's Christmas presents.  

Andrea's presents to the two of us vastly outnumbered the presents under the tree for her. We could not let her win Christmas! 

But before we could get to the wrapping, we had errands to run. A trip to the post office, an errand at the bank and then one more shopping excursion for "stocking stuffers". 

Of all the things I have to endure at Christmas getting 

"stocking stuffers" is my least favorite thing to do. This is just not something wired into my holiday DNA. When I was a kid, we didn't do "stocking stuffers". What we got was under the tree and we were lucky there was a tree. 

It was awkward as hell for my first Christmas morning with Andrea when she mentioned that it was now time to exchange the gifts in our stockings. 

Our what in our what now? Look all I care about stockings being stuffed with are women's legs. 

Because nothing beats a great pair of Leggs! 

(This blog post is sponsored by the 1970s.) 

With Randie long grown out of the "we have to act like Santa is real" thing, she is a valuable assistant in figuring out what makes for good "stocking stuffers". 

Before we got to our errands, we needed breakfast so we stopped at McDonald's. 

In my defense for what is about to happen, Randie is, much like her a father, a creature of habit. She usually gets 1 of two things at McDonald's, either a sausage biscuit or an order of hotcakes. Which ever one she gets, she always gets an order of hash browns and a chocolate milk. 

Randie may be legally an adult but she likes chocolate milk. Don't judge her. 

Well, this time she opted for the sausage biscuit but instead of the hash browns, she decided to get an apple pie. 

Since we were eating in at the McDonald's, I opted for the breakfast platter which comes with a serving of eggs, a sausage patty, a biscuit and hash browns. I also got a large iced tea.

I am NOT addicted to iced tea! I can quit anytime I want! Don't judge me!!! 

Anyway...

A very kind young lady places the tray with our order on the counter and I think something looks askew. 

A-HA! A hash brown is missing! 

I see the hash brown that I ordered with the sausage biscuit but not the one that comes with my platter. The young lady without hesitation places a second hash brown on the tray. 

Yeah, I know, I did NOT order a hash brown with the sausage biscuit, I ordered an apple pie with Randie's biscuit which is on the tray.

I immediately go back to apologize and return with the hash brown. The worker is very nice about it and says I can keep the hash brown. But I was wrong and I don't deserve the extra hash brown. 

Then I pulled out a dollar bill to pay for the extra hash brown but the worker wouldn't take it. 

Later, as we left, I put the dollar in one of the collection boxes for the Ronald McDonald House.  

I still feel bad about it. 

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Coming up later today, COMIC BOOKS! 

It's a post on Doomsday Clock#12.

And tomorrow, Superman#18.  

Until next time, remember to be good to one another. 

Especially those nice folks at McDonald's.