They say that delayed gratification is a sign of maturity. Perhaps Jake is a step ahead. It didn’t seem to bother him that he had to wait. The arrival of his cake was not even close to timely. When the General placed the cake order at Baskin’s Robbins, they were clear that all orders required a 24-hour waiting period. Bottom line, the cake wasn’t going to be ready for pickup until the day after Jake’s birthday.
Jake’s nickname is Sledgehammer. There is a story that goes with the nickname, but you’ll have to ask Jake for the details. I am certainly not at liberty to share all I know. I suspect Jake will choose to hold the details pretty close to his vest. However, it seemed appropriate to have that name added to the birthday cake. I slapped my knee in laughter, just thinking about the storyline. Did I mention, you don’t always get what you ask for?
Instead of adding the name “Sledgehammer” on the cake, the name was written in icing on the bottom of the box next to the birthday cake. I was shocked that the name didn’t appear on the body of the cake. There was nothing actually written on the cake.
I’m a little slow to connect the dots. It didn’t occur to me until I got to Baskin Robbins that I didn’t bring an insulated bag with me to put the cake inside. Consequently, I asked the store if they had one available. I explained that it would probably take about forty-five minutes for me to get back home. The store employee said that was a stretch. She suggested that if the commute was over 25 minutes, the cake would probably be in the process of melting. That was a mess I didn’t want inside my truck! The store did not have an insulated bag.
“Not a problem”, I told myself. I went next door to Randall’s. Surely, they would have an insulated bag to purchase. Reportedly, according to the person inside Randall’s that I talked with, they used to sell them. They no longer do.
I checked in with central command by telephone to ask the General what she thought? Did I really need to find an insulated bag to keep the cake from melting? She assured me that the cake would be just fine. How does she know that stuff? As it turned out she was right. When I arrived back home there was no evidence that the cake was melting. In fact, I was so cold from having no heat turned on in the truck that I thought I’d never get warm again.
In addition, there was no evidence that much had changed since I left to get the cake. I was gone at least an hour and a half. The adults in the living area were still watching football on television. Actually, when I opted to go to bed last night around 10:30, the adults were still watching football. Obviously, it was a different game, but what a time waster! I don’t get it?
On the other hand, I would prefer to watch football over seeing Home Alone or Christmas Vacation one more time. I suspect at least one of those is in the cards for some time over the next two days. It would be a Christmas miracle if neither of my adult kids wanted to see either of them again.
Obviously, my youngest grandson made good use of the time while I was away. When I returned home, he had prepared his blog to compliment mine today. I won’t suggest that it was manipulation by guilt on my part, but in reading the first line, I thought maybe I had pushed the envelope a little far when I told me a host of folks had wished him a happy birthday and that they were waiting expectantly for his blog.
The kid is a ham when it comes to blogging. He always prides himself for getting more likes that Granddad. He also points out this his blog is always significantly shorter than mine. He doesn’t understand why I can’t learn from that experience? At the end of the day, my blogs are always too long.
After reading his blog, I’m giving him kudos for understanding what really is important. From my standpoint, the kid gets it. The following is what he wrote without any outside help or influence. I was both pleased and amazed:
The Birthday Blog
Okay, I’m sorry I haven’t written a blog in a long time but no need for an apology because I’m writing one now. So today I will be telling you my favorite gifts I got. Really, I loved all of them but the best one of all was the gift of family to spend time with.
Now we get onto the other presents okay, so the iPad I have or I should say had was about 13 years old and it kept turning off when I was about to win on the game I was playing. For my birthday, my parents bought me the 6thgeneration iPad which works pretty well. It is the newest iPad Apple has made so far. My aunt and uncle gave me a lot of money and a bass pro shops gift card, and my grandma and grandpa got me the nerf modulus regulator. If you don’t know what that is google it. The nerf gun is about the size of me and I’m 4 foot 8 so its pretty big. So far that’s all I have to say.
By: Jake Forrester
I was amazed at how quickly Jake assembled his Nerf Modulus Regulator. Fortunately, the bullets it shoots are Styrofoam. Consequently, he isn’t going to do a lot of damage. I can assure you, he is having a lot of fun. Of course, I think he’d be half a step ahead to spend more time writing.
All My Best!
Don