October 10 – “Back East”

We took advantage of a pizza promotion yesterday.  For some strange reason I got an email from Papa John’s Pizza.  Pretty strange in and of itself.  I suppose it’s because I’m on their mailing list for when we order online.  This particular promotion was happening because the Houston Texans won their football game the night before.  Texans.  That’s the Cowboys of the south, right?  My question was, did they offer the promotion in New York, too?  The Texans beat the Jets, so it would be kind of rude.  Quite funny, too. 

That was the second pizza promotion I have received from them.  The first one also came by email sometime last month, and they have followed up on it at least three times since then.  Seems that they have decided to give away two million pizzas and I was on their list.  I have until October 14^th to get that one ordered.  I actually tried to order both of them at once since it has to be done online.  We planned to put them in the freezer for future consumption.  I punched in all my choices on the first one just fine, but it kicked me out of the system when I tried to add the second.  Only one special offer at a time.  Well, pardon me.  I reverted back to the half price one since it was only good yesterday.  Got everything punched in, and yet another message screen popped up.  The half price offer made the total price of the pizza $8.65.  They add $2.25 for a delivery fee to bring the total up to $10.90.  But apparently the fee doesn’t count toward a mysterious provision in their delivery system.  You have to order at least $10 worth of stuff before they will deliver.  No delivery available.  So I had to drive clear past 61^st street to pick it up.  Actually the store is located right on the east side of 61^st street, but the whole problem is having to go anywhere east of that street.  It’s like a huge barrier that divides the island, a massive river of traffic requiring an incredible expenditure of energy to get to the other side.  It’s been that way since I was a kid growing up here.  Feels even worse now.  But I was determined to make the sacrifice to feed my family.  So pick it up I did.  The good thing was I didn’t have to pay the delivery fee, so it only cost $8.65.  Not bad for a pizza.  I’ll order the other free one today or tomorrow I guess.  Don’t want to miss out on another trip “back East.”

Psalms 34:1 says, “I will extol the Lord at all times; his praise will always be on my lips.”

Father, thank you for breaking down the only barrier that matters.  Amen.