THINGS THAT MAKE ME GO "HUH?"

Hello, Blogging Buddies!! My apologies for the lack of posts recently. I will try to do better.

Now then... I took a little road trip recently. While flying can get you there faster (if you don't mind the whole TSA security thing that provides you with NO security whatsoever) and a train ride can probably beat out the time it would take you to drive it (if you have someone on either end to drop you off and retrieve you since train stations are NOT the rental car meccas that airports seem to be), there are things you will definitely miss if you are not cruising the highway with your rubber hitting the road and the freedom to pull into that most interesting spot you have passed a gazillion times before. Yep. That's where we start today.

There are a lot of things that make me go "Huh?" A babbling baby will do it every time. The party at the other end of the drive-through window speaker is guaranteed to make me do it. There is no question that just about ANY politician, regardless of length of speech, will make me do it (with Ron Paul as the potential exception to that one). Clicking on an icon on my laptop that should take me to a particular program but lands me in the bowels of computer-speak files I have never seen will definitely do it. Someone who accuses me of having the wrong perspective when I have always felt that perspective was a truly individual thing with no real "right" or "wrong" to it will make me do it. Getting the first water bill here definitely made me do it!! I could go on and on... and I'm certain each of you has as extensive a list yourself!

So... when I pulled off the highway into a little spot I had passed many, many times over the years between Louisiana and Texas, I cannot tell you how surprised I was to see the following:

I hope you can read the top sign. If not, it says "Pecan Vending Machine for 24-Hour Shopping!"
Okay. I have never been pregnant so I cannot properly speak to the cravings of a woman... or maybe many... who awaken at 2:30 a.m. screaming for a pecan product? Any of you who might be able to shed light on that, please feel free to comment! Maybe I am missing something. But... after saying "Huh?" out loud when I viewed this machine, I had to try to determine the need for this mechanical marvel. Surely it simply provided pecan confections, like candy bars, to the pecan-hungry public? I was wrong about that.

Folks... there are bags and bags of pecan goodness in this vending machine. Everything from the basic roasted, salted pecans up to a multitude of chocolate-covered pecans... from white to dark chocolate and from sugar-buzz worthy to sugar-free!! Oh yes. We got'cher pecans right here! There is even a bag o' ole style beef jerky thrown in for good measure (perhaps for the poor husband who has been sent out at 2:35 a.m. for the pecan craving resolution!). I could not believe my eyes. Then... my eyes drifted to the lower left of the machine as I prepared to leave. HUH? What? I cannot BELIEVE it!!

Do you see it? My dear Blogging Pals, there is a full-blown, cellophane-wrapped, double-get-back-throw-down 9" PECAN PIE in the vending machine!!! Yes, there is. This was absolutely (and remains!) mind-boggling. Even if I concede the possibility of a need for an "after-hours" bag o' nuts (which I am still debating internally), how can I EVER resolve the need for an entire PECAN PIE?!?!?!? Sigh. This was simply too much to handle. My brain went into overdrive attempting to work through the marketing logic that prompted this entire machine and its contents.

So... I leave you with this as one of the things I think we can agree will make us all go "Huh?"

Until next post...