A Simple Adventure

Here we are in the third week of the new year and I haven’t made a blog post since before Christmas. There seems to be so much going on…so many distractions. I’ve been struggling to find time to clear my head and organize my thoughts. It’s not like there isn’t something to write about because, of course, there always is. This is a blog about Grammi and Grampa’s adventures and as I’ve said before, “Everyday is an adventure”.

Case-in-point would be yesterday’s adventure to the Dunkin’ Donuts. In today’s world, a drive-thru is the preferred way to order fast food, but have you every tried to order donuts at a drive-thru? It’s not like you walk in and point, “I’ll take two of those and give me one of those curly things and that one with the chocolate icing looks delicious.” No…it’s not like that at all. What you have to do is guess what they have. Dunkin’ Donuts say they have more than seventy varieties of donuts, but how are you to know what’s available when you can’t see them? It would be helpful if they had a screen next to the drive-thru menu showing the donut case. I suppose that is too much to ask. My daughter tells me I can use an app to make the order but that seems even more difficult to me. 

I could have ordered a mixed box, but I was afraid I would get one of those nasty jelly things. I am not a fan of jelly donuts. The big gob inside a jelly donut is just too much. Jelly belongs on a sandwich made with peanut butter on white bread. A thin layer of jelly is all that is needed to sweeten the peanut butter. If you really want that much jelly, you might as well open a jar and eat it with a spoon. YUCK! 

I tried to keep it simple and order a dozen glazed donuts, but a faint garbled voice replied, “I’m sorry sir but we are out of glazed donuts.” What! Did I hear that right? How is that possible? I felt like asking the guy to go check again. Certainly they can’t be out of glazed donuts. It was raining so I only had the window down a couple of inches. This, of course, made our communication problematic, but I did my best to order a variety of donuts that I know we all like. I twisted my neck and shouted out the small opening at the top of the window. It was laughable. I could hardly hear anything from the speaker.

After noticing a line of cars forming behind me, I threw my hands in the air and hoped for the best. When I got home and opened the box I was dismayed. It didn’t resemble what I ordered. Did they give me the wrong box? I bet you the guy behind me got my Boston cream. Why are those donuts covered with white powdered sugar? I didn’t ask for that. Can you guess why a man with a beard would never order powdered donuts? Oh well, fortunately it wasn’t all bad. They didn’t sneak a jelly donut in the box and the hot chocolates I ordered hit the spot on this cold rainy morning. Somehow all the donuts disappeared.

Speaking of distractions, our granddaughters came to stay with us for a few days. Our son-in-law, pastor Danny, accepted a position at another church. Grammi and I offered to keep the girls while they made the move. Not all distractions are unwanted and this one is welcome anytime. We love having them with us even though they go nonstop from morning until night. It is so exhausting trying to keep up. Maybe it wouldn’t be so chaotic if we didn’t feed them donuts. 

Yep, as it turns out, the granddaughters like donuts too. At six years old, Ivy is somewhat of a donut aficionado. Who else do you know that had a donut themed birthday party when they turned five? It was a fun party with lots of her friends. Everyone donned Krispy Cream party hats. The cake with donut candles was made from chocolate donuts and the piñata was shaped like a donut too.

During their stay with us, Ivy and I got up early one morning and went to Dunkin’ Donuts. We’ve done this before. We wanted to surprise everyone with donuts when they got out of bed. Ordering the donuts on this morning was much easier. Ivy knows exactly which donuts are best. “The one with pink icing and rainbow sprinkles please.”

After feeding them donuts, we took them to a nearby park to burn off some energy. They played for more than an hour. They ran and climbed and screamed. I sat on a bench and watched with amazement. Grammi did all the hard work.

We also took them fishing. Santa Claus gave two year old Eliza a fishing pole for Christmas and she was eager to try it out. Boy was she excited to catch her first fish. She reeled it in all by herself. Grampa was proud. I’m quite sure, between the two girls, they caught more than a dozen fish. All were released back to the lake unharmed. 

Yep, everyday is an adventure. Grammi and I cherish the small adventures as much as the big ones. Truth be told…the small simple adventures are what fills most of our days and that’s okay. We hope that you too can find joy in each of your days.

Until next time…happy days and safe travels.