Scoundrels

"Where's the beef?" actress Clara Peller famously barked in a series of Wendy's TV commercials back in the 1980s. The commercials were such a success that the line became part of the cultural lexicon for years after. Kids would repeat it to each other and laugh, sort of like kids today do with "6-7", except that "Where's the beef?" had an actual, clear source— one that adults could understand, too. Well, I've been repeating the phrase again this past week, though with a bittersweet chuckle this time. The Wendy's restaurants in Sunnyvale are now gone!

It was in the news a few weeks ago that Wendy's is closing approximately 300 underperforming restaurants across the US. This comes after closing about 150 restaurants in 2024. (Example news coverage: CBS News article, 17 Nov 2025)

The last remaining Wendy's in Sunnyvale seems to have been part of this wave. The restaurant shut down sometime in the past week or two, I think. It's a few miles away and in a part of town I rarely traverse.

For a long time we had a Wendy's restaurant closer to home, just 1 mile away, on a street I regularly drive. In fact it used to be just around the corner from a spot where I worked for a few years!

That shop closed up during Covid, presumably a casualty of reduced business. The property changed hands, and they bulldozed the restaurant and put a bright, new Taco Bell in its spot. I've eat there once since then, just to remind myself Yeah, Taco Bell is kind of gross. 🤣

So anyway, now when I'm in the mood for a Dave's Old-Fashioned, I've got to travel miles to get one. A quick check on Google Maps shows there are four Wendy's still standing in San Jose, a couple in Fremont, and one up in Redwood City.

I'm not going to go that far for a Dave's Old-Fashioned, though. The main reason is they're just not that good anymore.

Oh, I used to love me a ¼-pound single combo years ago. Back in college, for example, a new Wendy's opened on a busy corner near where I lived the last 3 semesters there. It was right on my walk to/from classes. I ate there easily a few times a week. And it was good. Other Wendy's since then just haven't been as good. Even when that other Wendy's in Sunnyvale was right around the corner from my office, I ate there maybe once a month at most. And the one that just closed? I ate there back in March and was disappointed. The food was expensive, employees blocked off the cash register with a self-ordering kiosk, then they made my food wrong, and they barely cared.

Sometimes there's a reason businesses fail. I mean, there's always a reason, but a lot of the time it's not the macro trends that business owners routinely cite— things like the economy, Covid-19, inflation, minimum wage being raised, the skyrocketing divorce rate, or my favorite stupid excuse, "Millennials Are Killing the XYZ Industry". Sometimes, probably much of the time, the call is coming from inside the house!

Oh, you might still be wondering about that Where's the Beef? meme I mentioned at the start. Here's the infamous Wendy's TV commercial from 1984:



Enjoy!

The past few months feel like they've been the winter of my discontent. For 8 weeks it was cold, dark, and rainy. Several times I've said to myself, "I'm just about ready for winter to be over." The problem is, winter doesn't even start for 2 more weeks! 😨

There's one thing I didn't particularly expect to happen after coming home from Thanksgiving travel 8 days ago: jet lag. I barely even got onto Eastern time while I was out there; there were only 2 days I got up before 9am. But starting last Monday after getting back home I was up at 5:30am. It then became a pattern as I woke up at 5:30am all last week.

Waking up at 5:30am isn't all bad. It actually helped a bit as I had early meetings, 7am, almost every day of the week. I did expect the jet lag to wear off by Wednesday, though it didn't. I had it all the way through Saturday.

The big downside of getting up early, of course, is tiring out early. All week I was feeling pooped by 8pm and was usually in bed by 9. 🥱

Sunday I finally slept in. I slept in 'til just after 7am. 🤣 Though that was at least partly because Saturday I stayed up "late"— past 11pm!

Today I woke up at 5:30am again. Though today I decided to stay in bed and see if I could fall back asleep. I did... and I swatted the snooze button on my 6:45am alarm a few times before getting up.

Maybe I'm back on a normal, local-timezone schedule now? I'll see what happens tonight and tomorrow.

Here are a few thoughts from our Thanksgiving trip on what worked well, what didn't work so well, and what we might do differently the next time around.

1. Red-eye flights barely work. I confidently booked a red-eye flight out to the East Coast to start the trip after a tolerably okay red-eye experience flying to Toronto in August. In doing this I realized an important difference: the Toronto flight was in first class, enabling me to sleep for most of the flight. This trip I flew in coach, and I was stuck awake most of the overnight flight, unable to fall asleep even though I was tired because I was so uncomfortable. As a result I needed a nap midday— and was able to get that sleep only by snoozing in my rental car in a parking lot! I will be cautious on future trips to book red-eyes only when I have a safe place to crash out for a few hours the day I arrive.

2. Traveling Light is Right. We travel with only carry-on suitcases whenever it's feasible, as it saves us time not checking/claiming luggage at the airport and zeroes out the risk of lost/delayed bags. Plus, it's easier checking into/out of hotels when we can carry all our bags in one trip without the aid of a luggage trolley. Part of what makes flying carry-on-only feasible on a trip like this is planning to wash laundry halfway through. On this trip that plan was easy; we did laundry at my inlaws' house. Other trips we do laundry at a hotel, which generally doesn't suck at mid-range hotels where they have coin-op machines that are usually in good condition and rarely busy. This trip we also packed lighter than usual figuring we might need extra space in our bags to bring new things home. It's a good thing we did that because Hawk bought a bunch of rocks. 🤣

3. Unclear if we'll do this again. 😦 We had several missed connections on this trip. No, not the airline kind of missed connections; missed connections with people. Half my sister's family was out of town, three of my nieces ghosted us/nope'd out of meeting, and one of my cousins canceled at the last minute. In addition, Thanksgiving dinner felt repetitive this year. It's the same people, doing the same thing, over the same food, as the past few years. And most of us are older and less dynamic than years ago. It's lost its spark of novelty. Don't get me wrong; I did enjoy the visits we managed to have. But it seems like trying to rush a bunch of stuff together into this holiday week produces as many disappointments as enjoyments. Maybe next year Hawk and I should vacation on our own over Thanksgiving and pick another time, perhaps one in the good-weather parts of the year (i.e, not snowing as we leave) to see people.

Thanksgiving triplog #20
Sunnyvale, CA · Sun, 29 Nov 2025. 7:30pm.

We're back home from our Thanksgiving travels. Though it's rolling up on 7:30 now we actually got home at 5:10pm. We stowed our bags and headed straight back out for dinner at La Fiesta, a favorite local Mexican restaurant.



The flight from BWI to SFO was mostly boring. It was on Southwest, so wouldn't you know it...



It was late. We departed 20 minutes late and arrived 20 minutes late. Aside from our general frustration (and resigned amusement) with Southwest's behind-as-usual operations it didn't matter much to us. We booked a nonstop flight specifically because it meant not having to worry about delays causing missed connections on this busiest air travel day year. And traveling earlier in the day— we left Hawk's parents' place at 8am to drive to the airport— meant, even with delays, we were home in time for dinner.

Thanksgiving triplog #18
Camp Hill, PA · Sat, 29 Nov 2025. 9pm.

Today was Second Thanksgiving with my inlaws. It's kind of like being with Hobbits. ...I mean, in the sense of them having Second Breakfast, not in the sense of being around short people with hairy feet.

Second Thanksgiving happens because MIL and her longtime family friend, Lynne, both loving cooking. Each wants to cook a delicious Thanksgiving meal. So they agreed they'd take turns. One hosts Thanksgiving, the other hosts Second Thanksgiving a day or two later. 😅

Second Thanksgiving was at my inlaws' house. It was also a smaller party than Thursday. Beyond the 5 of us in the house (MIL, FIL, BIL, Hawk, and me) the only guests were Lynne and Dean.

What's on the menu for Second Thanksgiving? Well, since it's not really a traditional thing there's no expectation of it being about turkey. Which is okay with us, as I don't particularly enjoy turkey (though I'm okay with it) and Hawk really hates it. So MIL made a roast of beef that was deliciously tender. 😋

Right now it's a bit after 9pm, and I'm fading, hard. The company left a few minutes ago. It was none too soon for me as I was struggling to stay awake. Though now that I'm laying down for a bit I'm waking back up. I  might go back downstairs soon to hang with family as they unwind for the night.

Thanksgiving triplog #17
Mechanicsburg, PA · Fri, 28 Nov 2025. 2pm.

After my plans to see my cousins fell through today I was at wits' end for what to do with myself. Staying around the house with my pokey inlaws is stultifying. So I knew I wanted to go out. But... to do what? Today is Black Friday, so going shopping would be on brand... except there's nothing I want to buy. And trolling around stores on this supposedly busiest day of the year seems like it would be more frustrating. (I'm skeptical about whether it's the busiest day of the year anymore, but that doesn't change the equation that shopping today is likely to be more frustrating than enjoyable.)

Hawk seemed to be looking for an excuse to get out the house, too, because when I suggested I might go out to eat for lunch, she agreed to join me. She agreed to join me for pizza, even. We found a well rated pizzeria a few miles away and headed there first.

Getting pizza in central Pennsylvania was a bit of culture shock. The shocker wasn't the pizza itself. It was east coast style pizza, which is exactly what I expected... though maybe a bit bland compared to what I expected. (Pizza with my mom and sister a few days ago in Virginia was way richer.) The shocker was the price. A lunch combo with two slices and a drink was $8 for cheese slices, $9 for pepperoni. And the slices were huge. That kind of meal back home would be literally twice the price.

After stuffing ourself on more pizza than we believed we could eat we considered again going shopping somewhere. Hawk did have a bead shop in mind, so we drove over to that in Mechanicsburg's quaint downtown area. The old fashioned stores there were empty, and street parking was easy. We considered shopping somewhere again after that but decided just to go home instead. We'd had enough of a break from the house.

Thanksgiving triplog #15
Camp Hill, PA · Thu, 27 Nov 2025. 10pm.

Thanksgiving, the event around which we organized this trip, a trip in which I'm already on my 15th journal entry, has come and passed. And frankly, it was anticlimactic. It was just a meal. Sure, if was a big meal, with family and friends, but this year it seemed subdued.

From my inlaws' house in central Pennsylvania we drove over to their family friends' house well east of town. It's the same tradition they've celebrated for decades— and which we've joined them on many times in the last several years. Most of the same people as always were there. But the energy of the evening I remember from past years was not. Maybe it's an aspect of us all getting older.