Disaster

It was a usual Friday.  We played fairly early for a cool winter morning.  The course was almost empty and we managed to play unhindered until late in the back nine.

Then it was time to clean the shoes at the compressed air station and we made our usual plans to meet at Costco for lunch.  Costco serves inexpensive food.  It's also called Cafe $1.64, which will get you a large hot dog and soda.  It's just over the freeway and for some of us, on the way home.

One of the popular add-ons with the limited menu, is a frozen yogurt.  It's only vanilla flavored these days.  A few years ago, you could get chocolate or swirl as variations.  But now it's only vanilla. 

Over the last year there have been problems with the frozen yogurt machine.  Sometimes it didn't work at all, sometimes the product came out achingly slowly, frustrating seller and buyer alike, and sometimes the yogurt came out a strange yellower color with a different taste.  Rich II and myself have had a number of discussions on this "yellow version."  Was it due to a different mix and did we like the flavor? 

I tended to decline the purchase if the color was off.  Rich II took it in stride and would not hesitate much to order one.

Now we move on to the present.  The machine has been replaced.  Product spews out of the machine, and it's been working for the last week without fail.

But.

Someone said that when you see "but" in a sentence, you can throw all of the previous words away, the truth follows the "but."

But, what this new machine is really good at is whipping air into the mix.  The air product ratio creates a yogurt that has the density of an inexpensive foam pillow.  Also the product is not very stiff.  Perhaps the cooling level  has not been properly adjusted or calibrated.  What one is now served is a cool, soft, airy mixture.  Oh, the flavor is there and it's much better tasting than the off yellow version we'd had on occasion.  But it is not solid enough for me to create a Pepsi float, which I like to form while I'm working on my hot dog.

So the "dis" is quite apt for this "aster."  My retired life, running so smoothly along, has taken this lurch towards a very deep ditch. 

Of course there is always 7-11 and a Slurpee to appease the need for cold and sweet -- every 7th one is free!