Rest Day Read Friday January 21, 2011

Rest Day Read (SR-71)
Pancakes, Well Done. by Mike Hays
We decided to have breakfast for dinner.  Frick and Frack had things to do so we needed to get it on the table quickly.  Frick made potato pancakes, Frack sausage and scrambled eggs, the Mom pancakes.  All was good in the world.  The table was set and the Mom put the last four dollops of batter on the griddle.  Being in a hurry, we sat down, said grace and ate.  Stories from the day were told, with jokes and laughter sprinkled in between.  Also around the table, brown dog and black dog begging for food.  It was the usual Hays family dinner.
About 25 minutes into dinner, Frack gets up to leave for his event.  He walks into the kitchen and says, "Umm, I think we forgot the pancakes on the griddle."  We turn to see smoke billowing from the griddle on the stove.  The Mom ran into the kitchen and pulled the griddle from the burner.  Those pancakes were burnt, burnt, burnt black.  The Mom, with a few choice words, took the griddle outside and dumped the pancakes onto the back porch.
She returned and sat down at the table wondering why none of us noticed the pancakes burning.  Dead silence pervades the table.  I looked to Frick, no comment.  I looked to Frack, no comment.  I looked to black dog on my right hip, I looked to brown dog on my left hip and say the only thing that pops into my head,
"Nice job of warning us of eminent danger, dogs!  Maybe you two need to watch a little more Lassie."
Laughter takes over.
Four things I learned from this incident:
1. Pancakes may be an effective and cheap insulating material to protect the space shuttle on re-entry.
2. I LOVE breakfast for dinner, especially when potato pancakes are involved.
3.  Dogs, especially ones not possessing Lassie-like rescue skills, will eat anything.  Even very crispy, blackened pancakes.
4. NOTHING beats laughing and talking around the dinner table with your wife and kids.  Well worth being engaged to the point where pancakes are forgotten and subsequently burn on the griddle.