Going Crackers

I like to be economical whenever practical.  For example, I refuse to buy a packet of crackers out of a vending machine at work.  Those things cost about 60 cents a pop, and it's only six crackers.  Why do that, when I can buy a box of 36 cracker packs from Sam's for $7.52?  That works out to 21 cents a pack, a savings of over $14 compared to the vending machine price.

Yes, I know, I could save even more if I bought a big box of crackers and put a few into zip-lock sandwich bags.  Or save even more by being healthy and not eating processed crackers in the first place.

But I like the convenience of cracker packs.  I can grab a handful at a time, stuff them into my computer bag for the drive into town, and stow them in a desk drawer for future consumption.

That was the situation this morning.  I collected up about nine crackers packs and plopped them down beside me on my home desk, then turned to the office laptop for a quick check on email before shutting down and joining parking lot that is called "commuting" in Atlanta.

That's when my son came downstairs.  He's taking classes at Georgia Tech, and we carpool together to use the diamond lane.  He spies my booty pile of crackers, cocks his eyebrow like Mister Spock and just looks at me inquisitively.

Time for defense!  I went into Cat Mode™, placed my hand gently over the booty and said, "Mine!"

"Hungry much?" he replied, and began to reach tentatively in the direction of my crackers; not seriously, but only because I was acting protective.

"Not really," I replied.  "I plan to pace myself and eat these over a span of five minutes."

That got a laugh, and I no longer had to defend my booty.  I packed away the laptop and crackers, grabbed my coffee, and off we went.

"Went" is a relative term.  First we had to run the gauntlet of three schools to get to the main highway, and from there to Interstate 75 southbound.  The schools weren't a problem; the real trouble began on the approach to the freeway entrance.  We spent maybe 15-20 minutes in line just to turn onto the entrance ramp, and it didn't get any better.  Six lanes of southbound traffic creeping along.

We finally came across the problem.  An 18-wheeler rig had jackknifed off the road, sweeping along at least two cars and a van into the ditch.  Never mind at this point only the rightmost lane was blocked -- EVERYONE in the other five lanes crawled by slowly so they could all get a good look.

If that doesn't drive you crackers, I don't know what will.