Life's Daily Chuckles

     My travels and my grandchildren often provide the amusement I seek now that I'm retired.  Here's a couple recent anecdotes inspired by both.

      I took my grandson Luke, 6, to the gas station recently so he could pick out some candy.  I wrote about a similar trip last July in a blog.  Back then, I drove to a gas station by his home for candy only to have Luke tell me, "This isn't the right one."
   
      We drove to a couple more gas stations before he spotted a "Dollar General" store.  "There it is.  It's the Dollar General gas station," Luke said.  Never mind that Dollar General didn't sell gas.  But seeing Dollar General he couldn't resist going there knowing they had a wide variety of treats.  So we went there anyway and he got his candy.

     Fast forward to present time.  This time before we headed out from his house, I knew exactly which gas station had the candy the boys like.  I had missed this one back in July.  So I reminded him how we ended up at the "Dollar General gas station" last time and said this time we would go to the right place first.

     And we did, pulling up to a Shell station just a few blocks from his house.  As we got out, I asked Luke pointedly, "So is this the right gas station this time?"  He answered, "Yes, the one with the gas."

     Another chuckle. . .

     Just last week, Wendy and I were down in New Orleans.  That's not necessarily a city that was high on my must-see travel list until I realized that there were only two states in the United States that my wife and I haven't visited.  And Louisiana was one of them.

     New Orleans is famous for its Mardi Gras festivities, much of which revolves around the rowdy Bourbon Street area.  Lots of bars, lots of drinking.  On our last night in New Orleans we visited one of them, sitting at the bar while a trio played old rock 'n roll on a makeshift stage behind and above the bar, next to a sign that advertised, "Try our shark attack."  It was one of this pub's signature cocktails.

     A rather burly dude slid into a barstool next to mine and the waitress approached to take his order.  "I'll have a Budweiser and a shot of Jack."  Jack being short for Jack Daniels.  I'm no bartender and hardly ever visit saloons anymore but I'm familiar with that combination that's usually ordered by guys who take their drinking seriously.'

    The bartender gave him a Budweiser then pulled out a plastic cup and began mixing a drink.  She poured Grenadine into the cocktail and pulled out a rubber shark to mix it altogether.  She thrashed the shark into the drink so that it looked like a bloody mess, red liquid sloshing over the sides of the cup onto the bar.  Then she rang a large bell over the bar before handing the drink over to the burly fellow who by now looked quite puzzled.

     "What is this?" he asked.

     "A shark attack," the bartender responded.

      "I said I wanted a 'shot of Jack.'"

       What's that famous line from the movie Cool Hand Luke?  "What we have here is failure to communicate."

        Fortunately, this gentleman despite his rather gruff appearance, was easy going about the miscommunication, taking the drink and paying for it, though he quickly and brusquely plucked the rubber shark from his cocktail and tossed it aside.  By now my wife and I were nearly in tears trying to stifle our giggles.

        It never hurts to find a couple chuckles a day as you go through life.