Please Note: My personal journal is now fully independent of my main personal Web site, but I am still working on some things such as my new page designs and many improvements to PageDrive, my software that runs my journal site. If you encounter any technical problems, please either just try again a while later or let me know.
Going out for breakfast usually seems like a good idea. In practice, unfortunately, I usually end up with low-quality, overly fatty, overly sweet food and terrible service. Sometimes, though, I am lucky enough to end up with decent- or even good-quality food and service that is at least good enough to sit me at a clean table and keep my beverage full. I was not that lucky today, but not for lack of forethought.
This morning, I rose rather early after waking even earlier (I lay in bed for quite a while hoping to fall back asleep, but I never did). Soon after I was up I wanted some biscuits and gravy, so I headed over to the Country Inn Cafe, where I expected to find decent food, decent service, and even a decent cup of coffee. What I found, however, was a restaurant that was still closed after 6:00am—its lights still off and no sign of life within.
I should have just turned around and went back home for cold cereal, but the idea of a warm breakfast still appealed even if it was not the breakfast I originally had in mind, so I drove back out of the parking lot in front of Country Inn Cafe, past the McDonald's across the street, and toward the nearest non-fast-food restaurant I knew to be open at that hour: Denny's.
I should know better than to ever go to Denny's, of course, since no length of time seems sufficient for them to improve the quality of their food or the quality of their service, but hunger and the knowledge that people and places can change sometimes overpower my memories of previous visits. That Denny's food and service both seem consistently mediocre or worse is a lesson that I relearn from time to time; perhaps this time the lesson will stick and I will require no further remedial meals.
I wonder if I will ever have what is probably the best reason to stay home for breakfast—a loving wife with whom to enjoy a leisurely morning at home, sipping beverages and talking about our plans for the day, our dreams from the night before, and whatever else is in our minds to share. Preparing meals usually seems more satisfying and worthwhile when there is someone with whom to share them.
