As we move from the fun decorations of Halloween into the boring decorations of Autumn, it is a wonderful time to begin thinking of things we are thankful for.  One recent incident I am thankful for reaffirmed my belief in good, although slightly lowered my faith in the reliability of automated packaging.

But truthfully, that second part isn't very life changing for me.

I was doing my weekly stockpile of groceries that cause the cashier to look at the food on the conveyor belt, look at me, then back to the food to confirm what they thought they saw.  Some of those items were a restock of my supply of Jovy Fruit Rolls.  Since I had been overdosing on the top tier of  flavors: apricot, grape, and orange-cherry, I decided to call up a couple of flavors from their minor league.

One of these was the raspberry flavor, which is a perfectly good flavor, but seems slightly softer than some of the others.  And yes, I have reasons for preferring one flavor of fruit roll over another besides the flavor itself.  It's called having class.

While preparing them for their inevitable fate of being consumed, I noticed one of them felt... odd.  Its balance was off, and the packaging looked strange and bloated.  I realized what the possible reason for this could be, but I didn't want to get my hopes up.

It seemed that this package did not just contain the expected single roll, but had the distinct possibility of containing... two rolls!

I was bracing for a letdown, as with my luck, that second roll was probably just a wadded up cellophane wrapper.  Unable to hold off any longer, I tore it open like Charlie Bucket.  And there it was:

Twins!

What a glorious surprise!  My roll had just been upgraded from the DOOM shotgun to DOOM II's double-barreled shotgun.  Sure, it may load a little slower, but the increased damage made up for it. 

Sorry, that metaphor went off the rails pretty quickly.  But the point remains: two rolls!

So, out of all of 2011, that is what I am most thankful for.