Lane Queen #2 - August 10, 2019
Last week in my Sunshine story I described myself as Lane Queen. Or rather the “slowing down and tying up of lanes queen.” Here is Part Two. If ever you want to do an anti-McDonalds campaign, don’t hire PETA – I seem to be able to do this sort of thing for free! 😊
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Case #2 – McDonalds
You may be wondering why Laur and I – being vegans – would go to a McDonalds. Well, it’s because we had two of our five grands with us for lunch. When I suggested heading out for fast food for them, Grumpa Laur said, “Why can’t we just feed them something from here!?” I responded, “And what exactly would we serve them?” To which Laur responded, “Right…”
We only had Manny and Viv with us – their brother was at the doctor’s and that’s why we were going to have them over for lunch. I told their mom, Tammy, to call us when she was done at the doctor’s and we’d bring them home. Laur pulled into the McD’s and looked at the length of the line up at the drive thru and said, “Are you SURE you don’t want to just go into the store?” And then he thought what that would mean. Granny Janny chatting with the server, forgetting what the order was, and him keeping two hungry and tired kids entertained. They’d been at GoodLife childminding all morning.
Our cell phone rang. Ought not to be a problem but it was in the back of the van - buried in my purse. Laur said, “It can wait until we get home!” I said, “What if it’s Tammy saying she’s home? It doesn’t make sense to bring the kids to our house and then bring them back to Tammy’s.” (They live near the McD’s.) Yes, we were in a drive thru and yes I got out of the car and other cars pulled up behind us while I was struggling to open the hatch door. Oh, it was locked! I banged on the window and Laur – not opening his window – yelled, “What?!” over the noise of the motor, the air conditioning, and the kids. I yelled back, “It’s locked!” We were now holding up the line by two spaces. I popped open the hatch, I grabbed my purse, and slammed the hatch shut with my right arm, and jumped in. Given that the cars behind us were about to be lining up on Welland Avenue – a busy street – Laur raced forward a half-second before I pulled my door shut. Why my right fractured shoulder isn’t healing, I have no idea!
Sure enough, it was Tammy who called. I called her back. The two us of love to yack and we were at the order box by the time I asked her, “Would Nate like a Happy Meal?” She said he’d love one and had to ask him what he wanted. Thankfully I’d had the good sense to get the orders from Manny and Vivie already. Laur doesn’t even try to place the order – it’s too confusing. He just sits there looking like he’s having dental surgery without freezing while I yell through the opened window.
Jan – I’m ordering three Happy Meals. The first one is a hamburger and root beer. But I want a “rounded egg” on it.
Box – What?! Never heard of that before…
Jan – Apparently it’s something you can do. You just add a fried egg to the burger.
Box – Ok then. (Adds an extra $1.99 to the total. Laur gives the box the “fish-eye.”)
Jan – The second is chicken nuggets and a root beer.
Box – OK.
Jan – Tammy, what is it Nate wants?
Box – I’m sorry I didn’t get that.
Jan – Sorry, I’m on the phone. … OK! … A cheeseburger and a root beer!
Box – Anything else?
Jan – No that’s it. Thank you! (The fries are standard order – at least for now.)
Box – That will be $____. Please drive up.
By now there was a fair bit of space between us and the place where you pay up. Said I to Laur, who was grinding his teeth by now, “It goes pretty fast after this.”
We got to the window where you pay and the gal who was the voice behind the box said, “That’s genius. Asking for an egg on a burger. I normally go to Montana’s to get that. Now I’ll get that here.” Laur paid while muttering under his breath, which was loud enough for the car behind us to hear, “$____ for that!? I don’t remember it costing that much when our kids were little!” Or course he didn’t. We never went to McD’s. I always just packed us peanut butter sandwiches!
We drove up to the pick-up window. Very quickly, almost all of our order was ready and the server passed it to us. He said, “We’re just waiting on the ‘round egg.’” The smell of the food was unbelievably good and Manny and Vivie were so hungry – to say nothing of Laur and me.
We waited and waited and waited… We watched all the orders pile up waiting to be served to the pile up of cars lined up behind us. We would loved to have just pulled into a spot and waited there – but that wasn’t an option offered. And I wasn’t about to ask. Hubs had had enough confusion for one day.
Finally! A huge brown bag was handed to us. Content? A huge (recyclable) package containing one wee egg. Gah! Got to Tammy’s, and Manny opened up his burger. There was already an egg on it. He now had two eggs for his hamburger. Said I to my Scots hubs, “Look at it this way. We got a deal – two eggs for the price of one!”
What did we have for lunch? What else? Peanut butter sandwiches, of course!
*****
Case #2 – McDonalds
You may be wondering why Laur and I – being vegans – would go to a McDonalds. Well, it’s because we had two of our five grands with us for lunch. When I suggested heading out for fast food for them, Grumpa Laur said, “Why can’t we just feed them something from here!?” I responded, “And what exactly would we serve them?” To which Laur responded, “Right…”
We only had Manny and Viv with us – their brother was at the doctor’s and that’s why we were going to have them over for lunch. I told their mom, Tammy, to call us when she was done at the doctor’s and we’d bring them home. Laur pulled into the McD’s and looked at the length of the line up at the drive thru and said, “Are you SURE you don’t want to just go into the store?” And then he thought what that would mean. Granny Janny chatting with the server, forgetting what the order was, and him keeping two hungry and tired kids entertained. They’d been at GoodLife childminding all morning.
Our cell phone rang. Ought not to be a problem but it was in the back of the van - buried in my purse. Laur said, “It can wait until we get home!” I said, “What if it’s Tammy saying she’s home? It doesn’t make sense to bring the kids to our house and then bring them back to Tammy’s.” (They live near the McD’s.) Yes, we were in a drive thru and yes I got out of the car and other cars pulled up behind us while I was struggling to open the hatch door. Oh, it was locked! I banged on the window and Laur – not opening his window – yelled, “What?!” over the noise of the motor, the air conditioning, and the kids. I yelled back, “It’s locked!” We were now holding up the line by two spaces. I popped open the hatch, I grabbed my purse, and slammed the hatch shut with my right arm, and jumped in. Given that the cars behind us were about to be lining up on Welland Avenue – a busy street – Laur raced forward a half-second before I pulled my door shut. Why my right fractured shoulder isn’t healing, I have no idea!
Sure enough, it was Tammy who called. I called her back. The two us of love to yack and we were at the order box by the time I asked her, “Would Nate like a Happy Meal?” She said he’d love one and had to ask him what he wanted. Thankfully I’d had the good sense to get the orders from Manny and Vivie already. Laur doesn’t even try to place the order – it’s too confusing. He just sits there looking like he’s having dental surgery without freezing while I yell through the opened window.
Jan – I’m ordering three Happy Meals. The first one is a hamburger and root beer. But I want a “rounded egg” on it.
Box – What?! Never heard of that before…
Jan – Apparently it’s something you can do. You just add a fried egg to the burger.
Box – Ok then. (Adds an extra $1.99 to the total. Laur gives the box the “fish-eye.”)
Jan – The second is chicken nuggets and a root beer.
Box – OK.
Jan – Tammy, what is it Nate wants?
Box – I’m sorry I didn’t get that.
Jan – Sorry, I’m on the phone. … OK! … A cheeseburger and a root beer!
Box – Anything else?
Jan – No that’s it. Thank you! (The fries are standard order – at least for now.)
Box – That will be $____. Please drive up.
By now there was a fair bit of space between us and the place where you pay up. Said I to Laur, who was grinding his teeth by now, “It goes pretty fast after this.”
We got to the window where you pay and the gal who was the voice behind the box said, “That’s genius. Asking for an egg on a burger. I normally go to Montana’s to get that. Now I’ll get that here.” Laur paid while muttering under his breath, which was loud enough for the car behind us to hear, “$____ for that!? I don’t remember it costing that much when our kids were little!” Or course he didn’t. We never went to McD’s. I always just packed us peanut butter sandwiches!
We drove up to the pick-up window. Very quickly, almost all of our order was ready and the server passed it to us. He said, “We’re just waiting on the ‘round egg.’” The smell of the food was unbelievably good and Manny and Vivie were so hungry – to say nothing of Laur and me.
We waited and waited and waited… We watched all the orders pile up waiting to be served to the pile up of cars lined up behind us. We would loved to have just pulled into a spot and waited there – but that wasn’t an option offered. And I wasn’t about to ask. Hubs had had enough confusion for one day.
Finally! A huge brown bag was handed to us. Content? A huge (recyclable) package containing one wee egg. Gah! Got to Tammy’s, and Manny opened up his burger. There was already an egg on it. He now had two eggs for his hamburger. Said I to my Scots hubs, “Look at it this way. We got a deal – two eggs for the price of one!”
What did we have for lunch? What else? Peanut butter sandwiches, of course!