Making Our Day...And Someone Else's Day...Better Only Cost Just Under Seven Bucks

A couple of months ago, I went to McDonalds near our house to pick up a quick breakfast. I pulled up to the first window and the employee said that my meal was free--the car in front of me paid my bill, so...free breakfast.

Score!

That was cool--that was fun...it made my day.

This afternoon my wife and I were headed out of town for supplies. We had skipped lunch so we decided to stop by McD's and we'd eat on the road. We pulled up and chose a lane. Turns out the lane we chose went faster than the other one (I really shouldn't pay attention to things like this, but I do...). I noticed a white car in the other lane. It was actually two cars ahead, but due to timing, we ended up ordering and getting in line before the white car.

We pulled up, paid for our lunch, then because I (sort of...) felt bad for getting ahead of the white car, I asked the employee how much the order was for the car behind us.

"$6.96," he said.

"Let me get that," I said and I handed him back our card.

We paid for both, picked up our food, and hit the road. Turns out, we drove in front of the restaurant and we could see the white car pull up to the first window. We saw the woman in the car see our van and she waved at us. We waved back.

As we got on the interstate we talked about what we had done. It felt good to do something random for a complete stranger. Turns out, the cost of making our--and someone else's day--better was $6.96.

Give Thanks...Happy Coincidences

 Friday morning three different things happened to me. Had not one of those things happened exactly as it did, I would not have the following anecdote to relay. At each point, I made choices that, when combined, created the story. It began by me picking up trash and ended with someone buying me breakfast.

You see the above trash can. That's snow from the remnants of a storm. The wind was blowing south and the snow stuck to the can. What you don't see is the recycle can that had blown over. You also don't see various pieces of trash that blew out of the can and down the street. I left the house to go for a McDonald's breakfast run. I saw the trash and picked it up. It took some time, but I didn't want to have our trash in everyone else's yard.

When that was done, I climbed into the van and headed the mile south to our local McD's. It's a Drive-Thru only restaurant with two drive-thru lanes. Thus began the eternal question...which lane? I usually chose the outside lane because, if for whatever reason I want to leave, the outside lane gives me that option. On this morning, there were three cars in the inside lane, and two trucks in the outside lane--each truck had a long trailer behind it. I decided to follow the trucks. Sure, it might take longer...the shorter cars could sneak in before the longer trucks make the bend, but I thought...what the heck.

The first truck ordered and moved forward, then the second truck (with the longer trailer...) left. He wasn't in line at all.

Score!

I leap-frogged at least two cars. I ordered and snuck in behind the car ahead. Had I chose the inside lane, I'd be two cars behind, at least.

I pull up to Window #1 to pay and the attendant hands me the receipt. "You don't owe anything," he says. "The car ahead of you paid for yours."

Score, again!

You hear about cool things like that happening, and I should take more opportunities to do similar things for others. I thought it was such a nice gesture of the stranger ahead of me, I asked how much the bill was for the car behind me. He said, $2.14.

"I'll pay for him," I said.

As I drove away, I thought of all the things that had to happen exactly the way they did for me to have some nice person pay for my meal and for me to pay for someone else's. Had I not picked up trash, had I picked the other lane, had the truck before me left...it would have been some other person getting a free breakfast...

And I'd have a different blog post for today.

I'm grateful for little things like this--for happy coincidences that make life beautiful, or at least, more fun.