I may have solved the debate over – what do you want for dinner

My wife and I spend a lot of time in the car lately. Whether it is the thirty minute drive to Roanoke Rapids or the two hour drive to Durham, it all adds up. This is time that should be filled with listening to music or if necessary watching traffic.

Several things can come up during these conversations. Sometimes it is an effort to find anything to talk about, other times the talking never ends. What I love the most (not) is the talking that starts, “remind me to????” More often than not my mate will mention several things that I should remind her to do or do myself. The only problem is that she invariably asks me to do it when I have nothing to write with. In her defense even if I had something to write with, I would probably forget to look at those notes once we got back home.

While traveling to Durham, like everyone I know, we also have the continuous “what do want for dinner conversation.” We start about twenty minutes from Durham and continue while we are settling into our room. This will go on until we actually order the food. Right up until that moment we generally end up looking through the phone books or drawers to see if we can find a local place.

The phone books are always a challenge. We try to match the phone number of the restaurant to where we are staying. Our thinking is that if they both start with the same three numbered prefix the place should be close. It doesn’t always work, but it is all we have to go on.

After we order dinner, like everyone else, we sit there waiting and watching the clock for the food to arrive. Every few minutes my wife will ask what time is it, or how much longer before they are supposed to arrive with the food. After last week we will probably never do that again. I have found the answer to all of our late arrival quick meal problems, Domino’s Pizza.

We did something we have never done before; we checked the internet and let it figure out what eatery was close to us. We generally only use the internet to find out what is on the menu, but this time we took the extra step and ordered from their web site.

It took me forever to work through the menu and a complicated ordering process, that they say is simple and to my grandkids probably is. We wanted to take advantage of one of their specials, which I thought I had finally mastered, so we finally had our order placed. Then the fun began. Once you place the order a bar comes up that goes across the page and allows you to follow the progress of your order.

Within minutes we found out that Sharon was making our pizza. Then the bar revealed that the pizza was in the oven. The bar reminded me of watching TV in 1950’s.  Back then there were only certain hours when television would be on the air. It seemed like it was only about twelve hours a day.  The bar reminded me of what was known as a test pattern. It was black and white and didn’t move.  Watching my wife follow the progress bar on the monitor reminded me of the hours we spent looking at the test pattern on the television.

Following the progress bar wondering when the process will be done and the pizza on the way is the same as looking at the test pattern wondering when the show will come on, it gives you something to do but gets you no place. Much like the worrying quote – as the saying goes, Worrying is like rocking in a chair, it gives you something to do but doesn’t get you any place.

She kept checking the progress bar and reporting it back to me while I was trying to finish the end of a good book. Watching the bar allowed her to keep her eyes on the prize, the pizza, sub, baked chips and a coke that would serve as dinner. She continued with the play by play at a snail’s pace constantly saying, “This is cool.”

Finally she said, “They have now given the pizza to Russell for delivery - this is cool.” She said it with as much excitement as a ten year old with a new toy. We both laughed.

When the pizza finally arrived, the first thing my wife said was, “Are you Russell?” She was so excited that it all worked. After he left and she opened the bag and her joy turned to sorrow – they didn’t send the chips and coke. I guess I didn’t work through their online order form right, because we didn’t get what I thought we ordered. But we did solve the problem of what to have for dinner.

Now I will have a debate going on in my head for the next three weeks. When we arrive in Durham at nine at night do I order pizza over the internet and keep my wife entertained for at least 30 minutes following the progress, or do I call it in and get my order right even though there is no guarantee that they will do it even over the phone; I have no confidence I will be able to order on line correctly.