For some reason, bacon always seems to be at the center of my world. I like bacon, but I’m talking about ‘bacon stories‘ popping up right in front of me. This time, I was in a hotel near the Denver airport, and I standing at the end of the breakfast buffet, in front of a little ‘we make it while you wait’ omelette stand. I had just given the woman manning the station my order, when another woman approached us. The woman had long gray hair, and her clothing looked crumpled, almost as if she had slept in them. She had slippers on her feet and a stern expression on her face.

In a garbled, hard to understand voice, she asked, “Do you have more bacon?”

The woman behind the counter asked politely, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t understand what you said. What would you like?”

“Bacon! Do you have more?”

Again, the woman making my eggs couldn’t catch what she was saying. I interrupted, and explained, “She wants to know if you have more bacon. I guess the bacon container is empty on the buffet.”

The crumpled woman glared at me.

“If you wait a moment, I can fill it up, but I need to finish making this omelette first.”

The woman turned around without saying anything else, and walked back to her table. As she sat down, I noticed that she had a small plate on her table that had at least 4 or 5 slices of bacon on it. I turned to the woman who was now finished making my omelette, and said, “Perfect timing. I’ll walk over with you, I’d like some bacon, too.”

I waited near the buffet, as she walked into the kitchen with the empty bacon tray. When she returned, I stepped out of the way, so she could maneuver the tray into position. As I stepped back, the gray-haired woman stepped in front of me, insuring that she was ‘1st in line’ to get the bacon. I watched her pile at least 40-50 slices of bacon into a towering mound at the center of the dinner-sized plate that she was holding.

Perplexed, I waited for her to finish, and then I stepped forward and served myself. When I my finished breakfast, I got up to leave and when I walked by her table, I noticed that the bacon pile was considerably smaller–by about half! Her table was set for one place, and the seat across from her empty–she had eaten it all by herself!

Wow–I like bacon, but she must love it!