Place: Souper Salad
Lunch: Buffet (salad, soup, pizza, spaghetti, mac and cheese, loaded baked potato), Coke.
I'm willing to bet I drank twice my own body weight in fountain Pepsi this summer.
The local convenience store chains had a price war. QuikTrip (the greatest convenience store chain in the history of the world) was doing 69 cent 32 oz fountain sodas until Kum & Go came out with their 49 cent "Soda vs Pop" campaign. QuikTrip then went to 39 cents.
And I totally bought into it. I picked one up two or three days per week on the way to the office. It's my morning equivalent to you coffee drinkers.
I should probably quit. Or maybe exercise or something.
It was a summer of soda and driving. My poor car, which I took delivery on less than five months ago, has 22,000 miles on it already. It's been to 13 states, which do NOT include Minnesota or Colorado. Yet. To it's credit, the Rogue has been completely trouble-free, save for a slow tire leak, keeping me from having to take it into Satan's Nissan for anything.
I took a mindset that, in spite of how the year started, I was going to have the greatest summer ever. I didn't exactly manage that, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Any time I found myself questioning my eating habits or some such thing, an angry voice in the back of my head would shout "GREATEST SUMMER EVER!" And that was that.
I attended the Dublin Dr Pepper birthday party. My eight-day Utah sabbatical turned into a trip home to Oregon. I spread my wife's ashes partly in view of the Salt Lake area...and partly under a drive-in screen. I discovered the wonderful burgers at Freddy's. I saw Stephanie Smith live in front of a couple dozen people in a city park. I saw Deborah Fotheringham live at a truly odd benefit concert that I really should have done a blog post on (the three acts included a junior high school dance choir). I made it back to the Nebraska homestead and reunited with the cousins for my uncle's funeral.
But I'm ready for fall. Football is on TV again. Hockey is around the corner. I'm ready for cooler weather and snow storms.
I'm sure I won't completely settle in, but it's time to stay home more.
