“And then, as if written by the hand of a bad novelist,
an incredible thing happened.”
~
That 70's Show
Dine & Dash
Disclosure... This is a long winded post.
SCORE!
Or perhaps...
Death By Good Luck!
Or maybe...
This year's, September 21st, The First Day Of Autumn. was happy, and weird! It was also a day of incredible luck. Umm, I am no "dine-and-dasher" but sometimes life puts stuff in your Micky D bag, and you have nothing to do with it. It just does. Is that a bad thing? Well, in this case it might be bad for your cholesterol levels, but is luck... luck? Or is it something else? Like is it stealing when stuff you don't order ends up in your bag? All I know is that this autumn has been putting free food in my Micky D bag, Starbucks's cups and Firehouse subs cartons. Shrug. It all started on that first glorious day of autumn, with a morning trip to McDonald's.
Hubby and I were on our way to Ione, to leaf peep, but we were getting out of the house a lot later than we had planned, so we decided to stop and grab some fast food, and eat on the way! Two things I usually frown on. High sodium contents and I are not friends, now that I am the oldest woman alive, and even if I could eat it without my feet bloating to the size of cannon balls, eating while driving is never a good idea, at any age, so two the two evils were working against the whole plan from the start. Not to mention, fast food prices have increased since the beginning of the Covid pandemic. But McDonald's does have a rewards program, and we earn points from time to time. There is Free French Fries Friday, and sue me, I am a sucker for a Big Mac from time to time. Ugh. Cannon balls.
So, we ran out the door, and used our points. It was 10:15 am, and we had to get there by 10:30. I put the order in, and we drove 8 minutes to the restaurant, and parked in space #4. After a long wait, maybe 10 minutes a very pleasant young man named Jim, came out to the waiting cars... 4 of them... and handed the bags of death to each driver of the cars. When he arrived at our car, he smiled politely, said my name, and handed us our bag. Hubby checked the ticket, it seemed to be right and then it was my turn to hold the bag, which I promptly put at my feet. Our order had been...
2 Sausage McMuffin with Egg
1 Egg McMuffin
1 Apple pie
What we recieved was...
6 Sausage McMuffin with Egg
1 Egg McMuffin
1 Hashbrown
And I swear, I didn't notice how heavy the bag was! We drove to one of our favorite parks, opened the bag for the first time, and inside was a huge feast! And enough sodium and cholesterol to, well, you know! Let's just say, my doctor, and my stylish slouchy Autumn/Winter boots would frown on what was in the bag! So much sodium, so much cholesterol, so many calories. Here is the nutrition break down...
Sausage McMuffin with Egg $4.39
Egg McMuffin $4.14
Apple Pie $2.29
As you can see, it's very naughty to partake, but sometimes, mmmmmmmmm. It's a love hate thing at this point. Anyway in all ways, this is what was in the bag.When we got to the park, I turned to Hubby and said, SCORE! He looked in his bag and rolled his eyes. Hubby is a very moral guy. He has a love/hate relationship with the "score" in general. I, however, see it differently. I mean, isn't it the restaurant's ultimate responsibility to check to see the order is correct? I have driven off many times with my order incomplete. But I suppose, really, there is a shared responsibility involved. I hand money to these restaurants. I should check to be sure it's correct, if I value my money. One gets ripped off a lot more than one scores.
So, it was now 10:45 am, well past the Breakfast time, had we taken the ill gotten gain back to McDonald's, they wouldn't have served it to anyone else, because no one would be ordering it. They don't allow breakfast orders after that time, so the food would have probably been tossed or given to us anyway. I think at least the food was eaten eventually kept it from being wasted. While we do eat an McDonald breakfast from time to time, neither of us eats more than one sandwich or burger at a time. And they haven't had good Hash Browns since the mid 1980's. Blech. But we put it in our ice chest, and refrigerated immediately when we got home. The next morning we put them in the toasted oven, with some homemade rosemary breakfast potatoes!
But the Autumn theme of something for nothing didn't stop there. Later in the day, on the first day of Autumn we stopped at Starbucks for a quick drink. We placed our order, and when we got to the window we were gifted a Venti Black Iced Tea. But this time we were asked if we wanted it by the Brista, so it definitely isn't a dine and dash situation, but it does count as an absolute score! It was a fun start of Autumn to be sure, and a weird one too, but we went on our way that day and smiled about that being yet another fun day we spent together. And on one of our favorite days of the year, the first day of Autumn.
But just yesterday, it happened yet again.
I got a coupon for a free medium, Hook and Ladder, from Firehouse Subs. A $13.00 value. Again, I place my order through the app, and picked up my order, again without checking the bag until I got home. When I opened the bag there it was! The bag didn't feel particularly heavy when it was handed to me, but none the less, we had, apparently, scored. One sandwich for Hubby, one sandwich for me, and one sandwich for my moral pull. Sigh. The sandwich shop was in another city, miles away. Can they sell the sandwich after it's been in my possession for over 20 minutes? We are still living in the age of Covid-19, despite what some think. I don;t know it would be legal before Covid to resell food. The extra sandwich was indeed a medium Hook and Ladder, but was made with lettuce and tomatoes, both of which I can't stand on hamburgers or sandwiches, so it may have belonged to the car behind me. Sigh.
WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?!
AND THANK YOU?!
Two things are clear. Autumn is weird this year! And the questions remains. When is a SCORE a score? When is a DINE AND DASH a dine and dash? And when do you just relax and thank luck for nodding your way?
If you care to, leave me your thoughts.
