Dave's Thoughts of the Day: July 27th

One of my buddies told me the Pretzel Bacon Cheeseburger was back at Wendy's.  Do the dance!  I went over to the drive thru one night and saw the sign for it there.  Then the guy asked "would you like to try the Pretzel Bun Cheeseburger?"

If that was a pitch, I'm sold!  We don't need negotiations. 

That pretzel bacon cheeseburger is pretty good.   We mentioned a while back how Wendy's doesn't use foil wrappers, and what that means is that the burger is pretty cold by the time you eat it.   There's not much you can do, but it does make me wonder: why is this never a problem for In-N-Out burgers?  You get an In-N-Out burger, and the paper wrapper doesn't even cover the whole burger.  Yet, when you take it home, it's still pretty hot.  Riddle me that Wendy's!  Do you guys just cook your burgers on the top of a refrigerator or something?   How do the burgers get so cold all the time?  The Wrapper must have been the liason to heat retention back in the day.  Now it has been phased out, so Wendy's needs to get with the program and cook their stuff so it's hotter.

There's a side of me that believes Wendy's reduced the heat of their burgers on purpose so the lettuce and tomatoes don't get soggy.   Conspicuous.   We'll leave that debate here for the moment.

I was at my parents house again last weekend, and I went to bed.  I thought of a guy I used to know in high school.  We lost touch after graduation.   He wasn't well liked by most people, but when I met him, in a computer/networking class, we got along somehow.  We had similar taste in music, and both of us happened to like 70's and 80's rock n' roll.  So it was.

I thought of him because I was listening to Oingo Boingo's "Boingo Alive" album and some of the tracks on there are live covers from their "unofficial" album "So-Lo."  Unofficial because the Boingo were trying to get out of their existing record contract and sign with MCA records at the time. THis was exactly 30 years ago now.   The workaround is that front-man Danny Elfman decided he'd do a "solo album."   BUT, the album was solo in name only... all the other members of Oingo Boingo played on the LP with him.  In you just listened to it it would sound just like the other Boingo records.

Anyway, way back in 1999, my friend introduced me to this disc and told me how it wasn't a real solo album and how all the other band members were on it, etc.  That was a vivid memory.  The friend also was a huge USC football fan, and this was in a time when SC was awful... remember Paul Hackett?  One of the worst coaches ever and I was like "man these guys really suck!"  But he convinced me to be an SC fan rather than UCLA... there was a cachet to the program, a history and tradition, and so I decided to watch some games.  It became fun!   With each passing year they got a little better, and then this joker named Pete Carroll from the Patriots got them to a bowl game.  Man, I thought I had it so good then!  I think everyone knows the rest of *that* story.

My friend back in high school.. dude was huge... he would dominate any room he walked into.  He had other friends, some misfits of school (not like the deliquent type, more like the dorky kind).  People said he was argumentative, strong willed, and in some moments obnoxious.  Yet, somehow, we had a common ground for a couple years.  Most of the time we got along great!  So -- today here on the blog, I salute him. 

While I was in bed last night, I also thought about writing my old friend a letter.  I want to thank him for introducing me to Trojans football and some of the music I enjoy.  Things like that.  Then, I thought of re-conciling with other friends who I had a falling out with.  Long story... but I always felt like they patronized me.  All through high school I was just the "other guy."  It felt that way to me.   More than that, I think the attitude they had wasn't my cup of tea.   I eventually grew apart from them and moved on.  Even so I thought about at least saying hi.  We're all in our 30's now, things change and I'm sure I am no different.  Why not?  Many of my friends are now married and some have children.

I look at that and wonder if maybe I'm the one that needs to grow up.  I think so.

THEN while in bed I thought about my friends from college.  I thought, "why don't I go to the 10 year reunion?"   I'll see if I recognize anyone there.  Maybe I won't recognize very many folks, or PERHAPS I will run into a lot of people from my past that I had let drift into recesses of my memory.  I think it may happen, fellas.  The 10 year college reunion.  We'll see if I find anyone I remember... maybe they'll remember me too.

I also thought... if I DO this, I want to get the phone number of every person who recognizes me, or me them.   Maybe we can just exchange texts from time to time.

Anyway, that was the story this weekend.  I enjoyed my parents' company.  Earlier that day I was at an auto museum with my mother, sisters, and grandparents.   Especially in the case of grandparents, that particular weekend I was happy to see them.  You don't know what you got 'til it's gone.   I'm very thankful.

Many of the readers come here looking for jokes, but I hope to get those going again in the next entry.  Take care for now!