Nowadays I don't get to choose my own breakfast foods.

Once upon a time, I would ask Ethel to get me Grape Nuts at the grocery store, and Ethel would get me Grape Nuts at the grocery store.

Now I ask Ethel to get me Grape Nuts at the grocery store, and that provides an opening for one of Ethel's current sagas on "woe is me - I'm working too much overtime, I can't remember to buy Grape Nuts". So I get Cocoa Dyno-Mites instead.

                                                    

Not that there's anything wrong with Cocoa Dyno-Mites, of course. But it's hard to imagine Euell Gibbons eating them.

(If you're old enough to get the Euell Gibbons reference, then take your teeth out and give yourself three cheers).

I used to eat Grape Nuts every day - Silas, who was a baby when this started, called them "Daddy Cheers", as in "Daddy's Cheerios" - Silas only knew one type of cereal, so everything was some variation of Cheerios.As Silas grew older, he eventually learned to say "Grape Nuts" and even took to eating them for a while.

But some years ago, I stopped eating Grape Nuts - I have no idea why. Along with everything else that's happened in the last six or seven years, I'll just assume that I made One More Bad Decision. And, with classical magical thinking, I simply decided that, if I start eating Grape Nuts again, perhaps all of those other bad decisions might go away, as well.

But I can't test this theory, because we can't have Grape Nuts, because Ethel is too busy to buy them. She's been very busy lately, as Western Governor's University is approaching their fiscal year end - several mornings I've gotten out of bed at 4:30 to find her already through most of a pot of coffee sitting at her desk. So, when she does go to the grocery store, she doesn't have time to buy Grape Nuts, because that would involve doing something while not on autopilot, and she's been pretty much on autopilot for household stuff since this overtime silliness began.

(yes, I could go buy Grape Nuts myself, but that would involve initiative, and I' m fresh out of initiative right now. I've been ramping up my mileage since the doctor started letting me run again, and this week I go back over 40 miles/week for the first time since the wreck - and that doesn't leave me a lot of gumption for Grape-Nuts grocery runs. So, instead, I eat my Cocoa Dyno-Mites, and keep my mouth shut).

The fiscal year end comes tomorrow, and by tomorrow afternoon, we'll be on a plane to San Antonio for the International Convention, so it'll be another week (at least) before I get any Grape Nuts. The saving grace is that I doubt the hotel in San Antonio will be serving much in the way of Cocoa Dyno-Mites.