Free Breakfast

This week has been marked by my spouse being under the weather with the crud. My daughter is starting to show signs of illness as well. In a too little too late effort, my daughter and I are sleeping in the guest bedroom to avoid catching said crud or at least allowing my wife to rest.

I will have to concede that at nearly 2 years of age, she should be sleeping in her own room. However, given that she sleeps with us, we have learned to adjust. Unfortunately she is a squirmer. Since she has a penchant for my wife, I am usually spared her nuzzling and keep sleep pretty well on my half of the king sized bed. In the guest bedroom, I had no such luck and about every 1-2 hours, I had to push her over to her side of the bed.

The last of these episodes was 5:30 AM, at which point I decided to try a morning swim workout. This went pretty well. My pool was pretty full and I ended up sharing a lane. I did get a nice 1200 yard swim in and was showered up by 6:30 AM. This brings me to free breakfast.

I decided on swimming instead of getting a free Grand Slam breakfast at Denny’s with the logic being that if I were willing to get up an hour early for $6 worth of food, I should be willing to get more value from my annual swim pass. I could not help swinging by the local Denny’s after my workout, hoping to score pancakes, eggs, sausage links and bacon strips. I could resist getting out of the car and waiting in the line that was outside the door at 6:30 AM for said pancakes, eggs, sausage links and bacon strips.

I heard on the radio that the offer was dine in only and my day would have been pretty disrupted in order to sit down by myself and scarf down a relatively heavy breakfast. Usually I have a bagel and/or pastry with a cup of tea. Instead, I was home by 6:40 AM, got dressed for work, made lunch and actually had time to cook eggs and fabricate a breakfast burrito with leftover sausage and some salsa. I don’t recall having breakfast at home on a workday ever. I am sure it has happened, but the window is at least 2+ years ago.

At any rate, I did not get a free Denny’s Grand Slam. I do think it is a telling economic indicator that either people really need to score as much free food as possible or maybe more people are out of work and don’t have an opportunity cost associated with waiting in line.