You Did What?

Another Monday is here.....you know what that means. Tomorrow is Tuesday, or as I like to call it, Take Out The Trash Bins Day.


For something more official, tomorrow is Drive-Thru Day.


For one day, Drive-Thru Day encourages you to live on the wild side. Forget about buying locally sourced produce, organic vegetables, and getting your five a day; sometimes you don’t have the time or energy to cook good, nutritious food from scratch, and on Drive-Thru Day you can take a short-cut without feeling guilty!

On the subject of Drive-Thru's:

Friday Wanda and I met Older Daughter Jennifer for lunch. I had my first and probably my last 5-Guy hamburger. I prefer In & Out. We don't eat out often as we both think cooking and eating at home is better and certainly less expensive. As for the fast food giant duo, the last time I ate at one of those was probably when Younger Daughter Rebecca was a kid. I used to join the "Sad Dads" club after the Sunday movie. 

I recently noticed this.

Pay attention to the blatant product placements the next time you watch television. We discovered the TV show "Bones" last month. Netflix has over a hundred episodes so we started streaming at the beginning of the series. One of the sponsors is Toyota. Most everyone on the show drives a Toyota and they don't skimp on camera shots of the logo.

"American Pickers," is a reality show. While the guys were driving they began talking about living a more healthy lifestyle. They decided to start eating better when on the road. No more heavy fat laden lunch for them. They stopped at a Subway (on camera) ordered, ate, then talked about how much better they felt. One of the sponsors of the show is, Subway.

Or on "The Closer" sponsored by Hershey's candy one of the actors needed an energy jolt so he unwrapped and ate a Payday candy bar. You guessed it, made by Hershey.

Then it hit me, DVR's and On Demand, Tivo and Netflix. Many of the various ways we now watch our favorite programs have something in common, the way we don't watch commercials. Sure some of the networks have disabled fast forward but only a few. It didn't take them long to find a way around the clicker. 

I can deal with food and cars. When they start with underwear and toilet paper, I'll stop watching television.

On the subject of commercials:

Four guys in a pick up truck driving to remote locations. Each time they stop one guy holds his cell phone out of the window, looks at it, and says, "No, nope, or not yet" Obviously, they are trying to find a signal for the phone. Eventually they drive to an area about as barren as the dark side of the moon, man has never set foot here. The guy looks at his phone and says, "Finally."

The thing is, they weren't trying to get a signal, they were trying to get away from them. They wanted to have a week end away from everything. 

Hey, geniuses...just turn the damn things off. It's not a difficult concept.

Did you know that some Kia car seats are made from soy products? Stranded and no cell phone signal? You won't have to resort to cannibalism.

Anyone remember the Stolpa's? It turned out OK for the young husband, wife, and baby who were stranded in northern Nevada. Snowbound was the name of a made for TV movie about their ordeal. Ninety minutes of watching them flap their arms against their sides and say, "It's cold, I'm hungry, and Can You hear me now?"

This, is sad. I had to check on an e mail I received from Comcast. The contact phone number was 1-800-Comcast. So, I grabbed our cordless phone and pushed 1-8-0-0-2-2-2(c)-6-6-6(o)-6(m)-2-2-2(c). When all the beeping and numbers appearing on the screen suddenly hit me, I was trying to text on the home phone. I don't have a smart phone and after this I'm not sure I deserve one.

How about the good old fashioned way of communicating called talking.

Are we talking about time or economics?

She said, "It's four twenty."

He heard, It's a poor country.

Are we talking about the grocery store or me?

She said, "I'll look at the weekly ads."

He heard, I'll look at the lazy ass.

Just what are we talking about now?

She said,"Are you doing the step thing?".....(must be step aerobics)

He heard, Are you doing something disgusting?

Wanda, she knows me so well.

I have an early morning doctors appointment tomorrow. Just in case the gastroenterologist didn't charge enough for my colon pictures I have a follow up with him. And then, I get to resume the on-going WHAT NOW with my insurance company. I'll try to keep you posted if the information isn't too disgusting.