The Plus Side of Life

We had Hurricane and Tornado spend the night and the better part of today with us due to the Easter holiday. The schools and government workers have Monday off and people working in the private sector need to work. This creates a logistical problem for parents because the best laid plans they made to look after the kids have gone awry. I don’t blame Jesus; He was a pawn in this whole Easter weekend too. I suppose I could blame the Romans, but there is no point in messing with the Italians. Long story short, grandma and Poppa had babysitting duty.

Whenever Hurricane and Tornado sleep over it is organized chaos. Okay, it is more chaos than organized but so far there have been no broken bones and I suspect that the emotional scars will heal with time. Probably…

 

We decided that lunch would be better served at McDonalds today, so we spent an hour or so getting the boys to put on their clothes. There was a naked pause in between pj’s and jeans, but we eventually made it out of the house and into the car.

McDonalds is one of those places that can change the colour, the tile, the tables and the number of billions served on the sign, but the minute I walk in I am transported back forty years. We ordered a couple of Happy Meals, a Big Mac meal and a Double Cheeseburger Meal, walking away with some change back from $30. Not much change, but change. I think I can remember a burger would cost 19¢, but it might have been 29¢. I know that I would be well fed for under a buck and with two bucks I could feed a date. Well, I could if I had ever been able to get a date. Come to think of it, it might be that taking them to McDonalds is the reason I spent so much time by myself.

 

The food isn’t any better now than it was forty years ago and I seriously doubt that people are earning salaries that have kept up to burger inflation. I am sure someone has crunched the numbers, but I just don’t care enough to research it tonight. Those little guys have tuckered me right out. We didn’t go for the food anyways; we went for the indoor playground. There was wet snow falling and an outdoor playground was out of the question.

 

The boys ate most of the Happy Meal, got a toy from some current animated movie that they know and waited impatiently while Louise and I finished our meals. Then we all went to the play area where Louise and I sat and tried to recharge while the boys burnt off excess kidenergy. I think we were there for close to an hour and a half. We were in no rush to get home and as long as Hurricane and Tornado found the playground entertaining I was good to stay there. They had fun, we relaxed and Mr. McDonald made a few bucks. Everyone came out on the plus side of life today.

 

When we got back home we put on a TMNT movie and let them watch while scarfing down popcorn and iced tea. Yeah, I know, they just had lunch, but popcorn goes with movies like peanut butter goes with jam. Their mom eventually came and collected them and if she is lucky they will go to bed early and sleep late.

If there is a God in heaven…