One last post this evening. One more thing that's left me shaking my head.

A new fast food place opened in town this morning. For their grand opening they announced that the first 100 customers would get a coupon good for free combo meals for a year. My sister-in-law, who literally salivates at the words "free" and "sale", requested the use of my two kids. I knew what was going to happen--she has a long track record of using my kids to get free stuff and then taking it from them--but my wife shuts me down every time I bring that little detail up.

Anyway, off they went. Spent the night at the sister-in-law's place so that they could arrive at 5AM for the 7AM opening. Asked Snake Eater, Jr. about it this evening. Turns out I had no idea how weird such an event could get. They got there only to find out that people had camped in the parking lot the night before. There was a photo and article in the paper this evening. Tents, people playing cards at tables in the parking lot--all before dusk of the night before the grand opening. All for a year's worth of fast food...

Everyone has their priorities, but I think those people need to get a grip. You spent 16+ hours camping in a parking lot so you could get fast food combo meals for a year?

This is a sort of "sincere" chain. They give things like toothbrushes and motivational books with their children's meals. But it's still fast food. It's still fried and accompanied by a soda drink.

These people who had nothing better to do than camp in a parking lot for the priviledge of greasing their gullets with fast food have a finite number of futures. Either they'll grow sick of fast food combos well before the year is out or they'll grow fat and diabetic and sue their doctors for telling them they're fat and diabetic.

On the other hand, maybe they can use the coupons to feed themselves when they pull their next campout for tickets to "Before the Saga Begins: The Birth of Yoda".