I know Memorial Day is set aside for us to honor the troops. I totally respect that even though I value the day more because it gives me a nice four-day week. I just have one question: What does denying people breakfast have to do with the troops?

My wife worked today so I promised my daughter I would take her out to our favorite local breakfast plate. We haven’t had a chance to do this on a Saturday because of her soccer schedule so I was looking forward to it.

I knew something was wrong the second I saw the empty parking lot. No way. They couldn’t be closed. Honoring the troops is nice, but no breakfast?

No worries, I thought. We live in a small town so I would go to one of the other local joints. No dice two times in a row. At this point, I was pissed. I headed across town – fighting traffic from the Memorial Day parade which had just ended – to get to Perkins.

I have nothing against Perkins, but the local places are cheaper and don’t have long lines like a chain. We had to wait 15 or so minutes to get seated, then paid close to twice what our bill would have been at our favorite spot.

I know this sounds pretty petty. I really don’t care that much; it just surprised the hell out of me. And now I’m even more mad because I have remembered a couple of other local joints which might have been open.

I’ll just use that to plan for next year.