Weekend

Here's a couple of smart mouths that share the gene pool with me.



We went down to DISCOVERY DAYS at Aquia Landing over the weekend, and caught the festival. There were some reenactors there from the Revolutionary era, the Civil War, Slavery, American Indians, and Colonial times. I think I spied some renaissance Faire people there doing the Elizabethan thing (I also recognized Niccola Whimsey from the great old days of the Maryland Faire). There were some great acts on stage, particularly the juggler Paul Hadfield, who had five balls in the air at one point (that's juggling balls!). Most impressive was the replica of the GODSPEED, which sailed up the river to take part in the festivities. The Godspeed (the original) had charted these waters under the helm of Captain John Smith (of Pocahontas fame) a few hundred years back, so the connection was obvious. That's the Godspeed in the background in the photo above.

(At this stage in the narrative, I have to take a second to explain the existence of Doctor Glaubner. GLAUBNER is the term I use to explain anything I don't immediately have the answer to and still wish to sound like I do. "Doctor Glaubner" being the fictional person I created who came up with the idea, or opinion, or explanation that I'm putting forward at that moment; e.g., "You can't hear the train coming because of the GLAUBNER EFFECT", etc. Glaubner is one of my trademarks, you might say.)

Anyhow, back to the smart mouths. If you live south of the Mason Dixon, you've seen these ads where McDonald's is pimping SWEET TEA, right? Basically 99 cents for a big cup of iced tea? Marketing genius. Any restraunteur will tell you that ice tea is a restraunt's biggest money maker, profit wise-- it's just flavored water at the end of the day.

So we bought a few of these 99 cent cups on the journey down there and discovered two things: A) it comes in a fairly sturdy Keep-Cold cup; and B) Refills are right out there in the lobby, usually, and nobody will stop you from walking in to get more. HUH! Says cheapskate Dad. File that one for later.

So on the way home from Discovery Days... We're hot and tired and a bit thirsty. I pull out the two giant keep-cold cups and stop at the first McDonalds I see. I dispatch my eldest in to refill our 99 cent iced teas. This was one of the few restraunts where they kept the refills behind the counter. Anne walks up and asks for a refill, and got one of those snippy types that has to control everything..

"Did you buy that here??"

Anne has to think fast.

"Uh, ma'am? My dad is out in the car.. he has Glaubner's Syndrome and if doesn't get rehydrated it could get very ugly!"

"Oh, really? Well, no problem then, honey. Here you go!" (filling up cups in point blimfark)

Little moments like these makes me realize that I'm doing an okay job as a dad.

Postscript for cheap moralizers: McDonalds has at least a REGIONAL policy of allowing customers to refill their soft drinks, INCLUDING TEA, as much as they like. I know it's so much fun to shake our nasty little heads and interpet this as stealing, but it ain't so.