Mickie once asked me to buy a cake for my B.I.L's birthday. With all the varieties available, I didn’t know which to buy. After much deliberation, I bought a cake with the advertised print on it, “The Sensible Choice.” How can you go wrong with a product that directly tells you, it is the “sensible choice?” I didn’t make it out of the parking lot with that cake. My wonderful wife quickly told me to take it back, as it may be sensible if you want left overs, because no one will eat a sugar free cake! I failed to weigh all the factors involved in that situation and would have been left with a gross cake to throw away.
Why do I recount this life lesson, two years after its happening? I learned this same lesson on a whole new level yet again. Intelligence would have told me to apply what I learned in the past to my current experiences. So, I paid the price for not applying that important principle.
I traveled to California for my friends wedding and decided to take Ty, in order for Mickie to make a trip to Idaho a little easier with Maylee. I wanted to save as much money as possible so we found a great deal (on paper) with taking the train. It was half the price of a plane ticket. Alone, this might have been a great deal, but with a two year old, and for 15 hours travel time, not so much. The train was supposed to leave at 11 pm Thursday night. It did not leave until 2 am because there was debris on track and the train was forced to be 3 hours late.
So now, I had to wake Ty up at 1:30 am and board a train. The experience was all too exciting for a two year old to try and sleep through. Besides, how can he sleep when there is so much to see and do! Two hours into our trip, I realize that one of us may not make it out of this alive, if I don’t find a room that can contain him. So, we upgrade to a closet size room with a bed, and it works perfectly. Unfortunately, now we are paying the price of a plane ticket. We didn't even make it to Sacramento, before I was begging Mickie to buy us a plane ticket home.
To make things a little worse, 15 minutes before we arrive, some guy pulls the emergency brake and JUMPS OFF THE TRAIN!!! Come on, I have a two year old who is dying to get off this thing or drive me to insanity if we don’t get off as soon as possible. So now we are parked on the tracks while Amtrak is trying to figure out what is going on. I’m fairly certain this guy also had a two year old on the train, but his patience wore out before mine.
So, once we made it, everything was fine. Ty was as good as could be expected and the trip was great. Hopefully, I can remember, even though something seems to be logical, if all the factors aren’t weighed appropriately, it may not be the “sensible choice.”
4 comments:
lecurit. Ha! I just wrote my word verification for the comment. Definitely a Monday. If there was a 2-yr old left behind, I'd take that as complete evidence that you were correct. The story was well told.
The funny thing was, all of us girls questioned your sensible choice. Just think how memorable this trip turned out to be! It is kind of like shiggella, you will never forget it :)
Hilarious Matt. You didn't mention - how was the train ride home? :)
After years of giving in to my preference of driving everywhere because the cost of six plane tickets was just too much for me, Chrissie's rule of thumb now is: If it takes more than six hours to drive there, we are taking the airplane!
Post a Comment