Children's leather shoes

5.4.2016

Over the last Holiday Season, my in-laws were in town.  Come to think of it, they were here the one before that.  And the one before that.  I think they've been in town since the little robot came home from the factory the first time.  And that's what makes it make sense.

Anyway, during their last visit, several of us took a walk to the coffee shop / bakery a few blocks away.  They have good coffee drinks and good-to-really-good baked goods.  I got a cafe Americano and a bachelor loaf of their very sour sourdough bread.  My mother in-law, after much deliberation,  got an iced vanilla latte.  I am a meat-and-taters robot.  A cup-of-coffee robot.  A nothing fancy robot.  I don't fuck around with soy lattes, half-caf cappuccinos, decaf or anything with flavor crystals added to it.  I don't order iced vanilla lattes.

On our walk home, my mother in-law's yellowish brown drink caught my eye.  It was a weird color and the ice clinked weirdly in the transparent plastic cup.  It apparently held my eye long enough to catch her eye and she held it out for a better view.

I asked her how it was.  She said it was good and did I want to try it.  I shrugged and tried it after shaking it around to make it really cold.  It was good.  It tasted like a vanilla Carnation Instant Breakfast.

"Thanks.  It's good.  It tastes like a Carnation Instant Breakfast," I said.

"No it doesn't."  She said.

"Ice cold milk and vanilla powder?  It tastes just like Carnation Instant Breakfast," I repeated.

Again she said, "No it doesn't."

Because I couldn't fathom a way it didn't taste like Carnation Instant Breakfast, I asked her, "Have you ever had a Carnation Instant Breakfast?"

"No," she said.

I was about to say something, then decided not to.

Since then, I have ordered and enjoyed exactly two iced vanilla lattes.  And they both tasted like Carnation Instant Breakfast.

Tonight - The Homestead


bye-ee!
whrr ... clik!